Mission Beach

Little Crystal Creek

Hinchinbrook Island

It was warming up to be another gorgeous day. We took our time packing up and left Townsville around 10am and headed north with no real firm plans about where we were going to end up. About 60km north of Townsville we turned off the Bruce Highway and took the Mt Spec road towards Paluma. All the literature said the road was unsuitable for caravans but Rick reasoned that there was no sign saying you can't so we drove up the steep, windy and narrow road to Little Crystal Creek picnic area which was 7km. We explored the creek and admired the stone bridge which along with the Paluma road was built in the 1930s as part of an employment scheme during the depression. I convinced Rick that we needed to unhitch the van for the next section so we left it in the car park and continued along the rest of the way up to Paluma where we thought we might be able to buy some lunch. We stopped at McClellands lookout but there wasn't much too see as the area was shrouded in smoke from the fires in Townsville yesterday. Paluma was a sleepy little village and there didn't seem to be another soul around - looks like we will be going back to the van for vegemite sandwiches. We did the short rainforest walk. There appeared to be a bit of damage in this area from cyclone Yasi (3rd Feb 2011) and recent flooding. We drove back down the mountain to the van and had a picnic lunch before continuing on to Cardwell. We stopped at the info centre and walked along the jetty for views over Hiinchinbrook Island. This was looking like croc-infested waters now. There was a lot of
evidence of the cyclone here with piles of rubble still visible and trees stripped and damaged. We continued on to Mission Beach and booked in at the Big 4 in Mission Beach South. The rainforest surrounding the caravan park was extensively damaged - Yasi made landfall in Mission Beach. The caravan park was closed for two months following the cyclone. After setting up it was time to get dinner organised - where did the day go? Caitlin's legs are covered in mosquito bites already and this is only the start of the tropics!