Another week at Mission Beach...

Despite the windy, showery weather, this week we have managed to be busy most days.

During the week we erected 2 walls of our annex to give us shelter from the wind. From the bed inside the van we can still see the beach and enjoy view.

Yesterday we watched the All Blacks play Sth Africa at the Mission Beach Resort. The resort provides a courtesy bus – good value. And the evening buffet – supberb food – the best variety we have seen for a long time and value for the seniors at $20.00 each. The staff are extremely courteous and friendly-well worth a visit if you are in this area.

We went to the tropical fruit tasting at the ‘I’ centre. For 1 hour at $5 each, we tasted over 10 tropical fruits, with the volunteers offering a description of how the fruit grow and how to use them in cooking etc. We tasted the icecream bean, sapote, dragon fruit. Jackfruit, abiu, carambola, soursop, custard apple, pomelo, cumquat and red bananas.



icecream bean pod

 

ice cream bean flesh that we ate-inside is a huge 'stone/bean



Tuesday saw me and another camper – Lyn from Palmerston North, (NZ), attend an acrylic painting class. These classes are funded by ‘Bringing Rural Communities Together’ and a gold coin donation is the only payment. The paints and brushes are provided. We supplied our own canvases. After 1 session we have painted our background. As a contrast I spent 6 weeks in Perth doing an art course and never saw a canvas! And the cost was $120.00! and we had to buy our own materials.

Due to the wet, windy weather, we needed to charge our batteries so we took a drive into Innisfail. This country town is 45 minutes from Mission Beach – a large river runs through it. The supermarkets are cheaper here than the Woolies at Mission Beach.

Feeling like a ‘flutter’ we went to Tully to play bingo. Tully is the wettest town in Australia – according to local info. We didn’t win any large amount.

Friday – well, this was a pearler! We swam most of the day, enjoyed the hammock and blobbed. Friday certainly made up for the wet windy week.

On the beach, each day, especially at low tide are 1000's of sand blobs that create patterns. These are made by sand crabs - very tiny ones about the size of a 20 cent coin.

Saturday – saw us visit a home open. An apartment, right on the beach that had suffered external damage, (Cyclone Yasi), – according to the agent marketing the property.  Body corporate fees of just over $7000.00 per year – you would think the gardens and the boundaries would be weed free – but no the property was very untidy. The council rates are just over $3000.00 and a sinking fund? of $300?. The apartment had sold in 2010 for $595.000, – the owner is desperate sell. Unfortunately the kitchen cupboards are warped, the hallway cupboard is bowed and definitely has been wet at some stage. The entrance/lobby has water stains running down it, the stairwell bannister has rust stains-yet the agent told us the apartment did not receive any internal damage from the cyclone. Properties around Cairns are very reasonably priced – you can buy a 4x2 for under $350,000, but then I guess you live with the cyclonic weather and very high insurance.

Today Murray tried out his kite, that he received for Xmas. Then he gave it to our neighbouring German campers who have 3 children – Ben 4, Lauren 2, and Alice 3 mths. The family are camping in a 2 room dome tent for a year around Australia-looking for a town to settle in.