Saturday 16^th June Cardwell

It didn’t take too long to reach our next port of call.

Two years ago Cyclone Yasi made a very large mess of a little seaside town called Cardwell, and we decided that we should boost the local economy by staying here for a couple of days.

On our way to here we passed through another little place called Halifax where they have the monthly markets. Once again we supported the local economy. One of the stall holders there comes from Cardwell and she recommended a park to stay at. We bought some yummy date roll and emu lotion. Try any thing once! She was telling us about the damage to the town. About 60% of people left.  It is the same park that was recommended by another lady a few weeks ago – so here we are. It is across the road from the water (Crocodile signs are once again prominent).

We hopped on our bikes and did the tour of the town and as we were pretty slow we didn’t get back for about 2 hours. We were able to ride all along the waterfront. We were able to see where the mangroves had been pulled out of the water. They have these amazing root systems. On our ride we went to the info place. It is beautifully set up with lots of info about the area with interactive displays. We also walked out on the pier which has been rebuilt several times because of cyclones. The wind was too strong to ride.

We are directly across from Hinchinbrook Island. There are at least another dozen islands that we can see. Hinchinbrook is all national park and the numbers of people visiting is very controlled. You can go over on a ferry but only stay about 30 minutes unless you are staying and doing a guided walk.

After lunch and a rest we then walked along the beach, north and south, for about 45 minutes, with one eye looking for crocs. Again the locals say that the signs are there for a reason. Our walk took us to a Coral Sea War memorial. Neither of us realised that this was the Coral Sea. Displaying our ignorance again! A local man was telling us that the croc numbers have increased because it is illegal to shoot them. So instead of staying in rivers they are now seen more in the sea. Boat ramps are popular with crocs.

We went to the happy hour for a while but you couldn’t take your own drinks and had to buy from the caravan park’s bar - $3 for wine and schooners of Tooheys draught or XXXX (I think I don’t mind the XXXX ).

We couldn’t get a decent TV reception here so we cooked tea on the camp BBQ and then went to watch the ABV news (is there any other?) then settled back for a mystery also on the ABC.There is a very nice lounge area near the camp kitchen. Someone then came along about half an hour later and asked if the Wallabies game was on the TV? We did find it but we switched back to the ABC till the end of that then watched the wallaby game – quite a finish!

The poor people we were watching the Rugby with had taken their daughter out of school 2 weeks early and were headed to the Cape with three lots of friends, till their Landcruiser’s motor blew up at Cardwell. They hope to get going again some time this week when their new reconditioned motor arrives from Melbourne and is fitted by the locals - $11,000 later

Sunday 17^th June – Cardwell

Up reasonably early and off to church at 8.30. It was only a liturgy of the word as the priests numbers here doesn’t allow a mass every week. We were also invited to morning tea afterwards and it ended up with 10 locals and us sitting in the foyer of the church have tea and cake and sambos. There are about 6 churches in the one parish now. These people do a great job keeping the faith alive in these places. I remarked to one lady that it will become like in early Australia where priest came round very irregularly. She said this is what happened to her grandparents who had 3 children before they were able to be married by a priest. There was a lovely man there who must have been much older then he looked because he talked about building the Mt Isa railway back in the 50,s. He was very entertaining with many stories. Cyclone Yasi went through the town and the police station on the main street had water and sand 9 feet high sloshing through the building. The church basically suffered the same fate.

The local Lions club had organised a fun day at the local oval to coincide with the opening of the Cardwell version of a Men’s Shed. We wandered up after church but we were a bit early so went home for a cuppa.

We then drove in Fanda up into the hills behind the town to the Cardwell Lookout. Well that’s where we were supposed to be going. After we drove 5km to a lookout 3.4km from the road, we turned around and backtracked and took another side road up a hill and we found A lookout but we don’t know if it was THE lookout. A very dusty and hilly road, but it was in pretty good condition as it was a logging road. In the quiet of photo taking time at the top of the hill, you could hear the logging trucks over the hills.

We then drove back to the oval for a sausage sambo for lunch. Here we chatted with another character who studies wars and told us everything we have been taught is wrong! Most things were wrong in his view! I imagine he is a character around town. Bought the papers and relaxed. I (Fay) decided to go for  another ride this afternoon. Pretty little town though many places for sale presumably because of the cyclone. That’s about us for today. Hope all are well and happy as are we!