townsville - day 9 - ROAD TRIP!

DAY 9 - 30 Aug


This morning we woke up and had quite a time making porridge with the campstove. We used too much water so it was very gooey. haha But still yummy. After brekky we packed up the car and then chatted a bit with an older couple who was walking by. They gave us a Bible. Gideons. It was funny - afterwards, Peter said he knew they were Gideons because of the guy's beard, but I just thought they were being chatty. A bible... ha.


So onward we drove... back down the teeny windy hills and onto Cardwell. What a small town! I think the population must be just a few hundred people. There was a bright yellow pie van that we passed on the way in, but stopping and pulling a u-turn immediately so as not to miss out on the fresh, hot yumminess. There I was having my first Cardwell pie from the yellow van. We both had the beef with mushy peas. YUM-O! And a little tomato sauce (ketchup) to put on it for extra yumminess. Oh and a stubby (size of the bottle) Bundaberg Ginger Beer. Tasty!


I wanted to check out the beach, so I tore off my shoes and we walked down. There was a huge tree growing just by the edge of the grass all the way out to the water. Green ants crawling... already-eaten iridescent-inside oysters stuck to a log on the ground... funny cocoon-like spider webs in the tree crevices... and us. We walked a bit, the sand was actually very small stones, crunching nicely below our feet. Then we found a coconut, yahoo! (Okay, so there were a lot of them, since the coconut palms were everywhere, but I was still excited.) I wanted to open it... but where? Then Peter, the N. Queensland native brought the coconut over to a spiky mangrove root that was popping out of the sand. He husked that thing like he'd been doing it for years... oh yeah, he has! Then we grabbed our newly husked nut and head back to the car. We would drink the juice later. While in Cardwell we also arranged the plans for our ferry ride to Hinchinbrook island the following week, for the hiking trip.


Following the Bruce Highway, we pulled off at the Murdering Point Winery - and the story behind the name? As found on the winery website:


'The name Murdering Point originates from a shipwreck that occurred on inshore King Reef only a few hundred metres from the coast of Kurrimine Beach in 1878, “The Golden Era” – the gold rush days of Northern Australia. King Reef was the undoing of a number of sailing ships that foolishly tried to use a difficult passage through the reef to the beach.


'The ship, the “Riser”, sailing North and having previously stopped at Cardwell, ran aground on the King Reef and was being broken up by heavy seas. The shipwrecked victims gathered scant provisions and came ashore in the ship’s dingy, landing on a sandy point at the northern end of Kurrimine Beach. There they made a temporary camp for the night but that evening they were attacked, murdered and dragged by the local aboriginals into the nearby sand dunes to be partially eaten. Some weeks later, after reports of a shipwreck on King Reef, the local constabulary from Cardwell arrived to investigate and found the remains of the bodies of the shipwrecked sailors and the signs of an aboriginal camp. This investigating party, who tracked down the group involved, is attributed with naming the coastal protrusion, Murdering Point.'


While at the winery we endured an extremely arduous wine tasting of all the delicious wines - all derived from tropical fruits: WHITES - Panama Gold (mango), Pinnacle (passion fruit), Romance (lychee), Misty Gem (lemon aspen). REDS - Red Emperor (Davidson plum), Supherb (jaboticaba, ginger, ginseng). PORTS - The Point (mulberry, citrus, plum) and Black Devil (black sapote). All very delicious and unique... so we were convinced to buy a 'few' bottles to bring to Peter's family and for ourselves as well.


On we drove...to Innisfail, the town where Peter grew up to age 12. I saw his old house on Lower Hicky St, where he had his first bike accident on Carmel hill and his primary (elementary) school. A small, sleepy town full of young men with loud suped up cars who drive too fast through the city streets.


Lastly, we found Cairns, which is similar to Townsville, only a bit bigger and more modern. We found a reasonable room at a little hotel owned by a sweet couple from Madrid, Spain. The woman mentioned salsa dancing that night at the casino, so can you guess what I wanted to do??? We headed to the Esplanade (the road along the coast) and had a yummy Indian dinner at Spicy Bite. Then onto the casino...the band played two sets and we danced a few songs. There was a talent show too! Only one of the four couples was any good, or so I thought, but they all made it onto the next week's competition. It was entertaining :) I could have danced all night...