Mission Beach

Thursday 8^th September

This has been a much needed lazy day. We rose late (if you can call 8 a.m. late) and didn’t breakfast until 9. We looked out all our washing, but the laundry machines were full, and we had to wait until later.

We are staying at South Mission Beach, which is 6 Km. from Mission Beach itself, and not so convenient if you want to visit the shops, but our bus driver took us in to Mission Beach for some shopping and wandering about, and we looked in at the visitor centre to learn about Cassowaries, which we are unlikely to see, though this is one area where they are known to live. The locals put fruit in feeding stations well away from town for them, so they don’t come into contact with people or traffic.

One of the women working at the place where we are staying was telling us about the cyclone damage. She says it doesn’t look bad, because a lot of it is inside the houses. Sometimes, the outside was left undamaged but the inside torn out. In some cases the roof was lifted off and dropped back on again, or sometimes the whole house was lifted up and then dropped back onto its piles, sometimes breaking them. She says some people are still living in tents in their gardens.

The trees are starting to regenerate, but if you look closely, you can see they are putting out leaves directly from the trunk or branches. Many trees were not uprooted, but stripped of all their leaves and branches, and are growing leaves from wherever there is some part still living.

The people here think it will take many years before things are back to normal. The beach is still beautiful, but there are far fewer palm trees than there were.

We came back and lunched, did our laundry, then had a really lazy afternoon. The pool was very cool, and it is hot here, so we enjoyed reading in the shade on our veranda or in our air-conditioned room and cooling off in the pool.

Tonight, our tour driver and guide is cooking for us again, as there is a barbecue here that guests can use.