Day 55 – Wednesday 10 August 2016 – Cairns - Townsville

Very heavy rain yet again overnight and it was a case of improvise to try to keep Kitty from getting saturated.  Two pairs of Shane's socks did the trick - with the toes cut out they made very attractive leggings which at least kept most of the hair on her legs dry, coupled with two hair ties to keep the tummy coat off the ground and we managed to give her a quick walk without getting saturated.  I can tell you - 39 years of coping with long haired dogs - you come up with some pretty inventive ways of cutting down the amount of maintenance on a week to week basis.  Although she is in desperate need of a bath and a trim at this point.  One thing that did amuse was the man from the van across the road from us out on his walking stick at 7.30am sweeping the wet road with a broom.  And no - I didn't ask why.

We left the park just after 9.00am and had to go through yet more rain and heavily clouded skies before the weather started to clear a little.

Just outside of Cairns while waiting to get through some roadworks we noticed a side road with a large river so we took the exit and ventured down to take some photos.  We were highly amused in a rest stop clearly marked "No camping" to find a camper, a huge converted bus, two caravans and an RV all camping..... parked in the rest stop.  Some with washing on the line, the bus up on blocks to level it, and the german tourists washing their dishes before piling into the camper and heading on their way.  I think they must have all stopped for an early morning cuppa.  Shane and I wandered around and took a few photos before getting back on the road again.

Sugar cane harvesting has begun and we were lucky enough to happen across a section that was being mechanically harvested.

On the way to Cairns we had spotted an amazing tropical garden but there wasn't anywhere to pull over to take photos.  I couldn't remember exactly where it was, but we managed to find it on the trip back and take advantage of a truck stop a little further on to park and get photos.

We also spotted this unfinished house.  It was huge but clearly hadn't had any work done on it for a long while.  I often wonder what the story is behind things like this.  It looked very sad indeed.

Along the road there are numerous local fruit growers who have markets and we decided to stop at one of them and buy some fruit.  We tried a few samples of some that neither of us had had before including Red Dragon Fruit.  We bought a huge bag of fruit for less than $14 and really enjoyed it.

At Tully we had seen the sugar museum and were lucky enough to get a park to visit.  This answered a few questions we had about sugar production, in particular burning of sugar cane.  Was it still done and why?  Burning the cane before harvesting was done to rid the sugar cane of vermin such as rats and snakes and to prevent the people harvesting from catching Leptospirosis from rat urine.  That was enough ewwwww for the day.  Thank heaven for mechanical harvesting I say.  

Now a lot has been said over the years about German backpackers and we've decided that maybe the Germans have had more than their fair share of attacks by crocodiles given that the majority of Crocodile warning signs start with Achtung!  The good news for Germans is that every second body of water you cross by bridge carries the warning so there are plenty of opportunities.

Cardwell kindly made a prime parking spot available for lunch so we stopped with a lovely ocean view and enjoyed some local pies.  Not a bad view to enjoy at all.

On our arrival back into Townsville, we had merged back into the right lane of an overtaking lane when a bus came screaming up on the left and pushed through to get past us.  Ahhh yes - more patient Queensland drivers.

Back to same site in the caravan park so Scheppi could enjoy his tropical garden once again.  Townsville by comparison was quite steamy and warm and not a raindrop in sight for which we were very grateful.