On a Mission to find a particular beach.

We continued northward out of Airlie Beach and up the Bruce Highway bound for the very hip and cruisie community of Mission Beach on the Cassowary Coast. It was a long run to Mission Beach, so we broke up the trip with an overnighter in a little place called Lucinda, after a brief but pleasant stop for lunch along “The Strand” in Townsville. Lucinda is in the very heart of sugar country. For many hundreds of km North and South of the quaint coastal township we saw not only field after field of sugar cane but also purpose built rail infrastructure, and numerous sugar refineries that make up a whole industry.

Lucky for us it is harvest time, providing for many distractions along the road as the cane is cut, loaded and transported in half sized trains to smoky refineries. The cane is no longer burnt (for environmental reasons I assume) but it would have been a site to see. Lucinda doubles up as a major shipping terminal for the sugar industry, complete with warehouses holding massive piles of refined sugar, and a lengthy 5 km pier providing access to nearby shipping lanes.

Overwhelmingly the trip has provided good experiences, but it wouldn’t be an adventure if issues (large & small) didn’t pop up from time to time.  I am also conscious that I largely offer up good experiences in my writing, but I can assure you that it’s not all beer and skittles! Lucinda, provided more of an annoyance than a disaster but it’s worth a mention if you picture us in some clean and orderly caravan park, lazily spread out on a beautiful patch of grass beside our little camper with an ice cold beer in hand after a long day on the road.

Cane fields near Lucinda, Queensland

Like caravan parks before, the park in Lucinda was chock-a-block with grey nomads who had parked themselves there for the winter months. Accordingly all the choice spots were well gone leaving only the dustiest, noisiest little nooks left. After checking in and with map in hand, we found our tiny little patch squeezed between two massive caravans. Instead of grass on the site, which was everywhere else, we had a bed of crushed granite. Directly in front of the site were the ablutions, which is handy if you need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night (common with kids) but not so handy when every other resident does the same. To the rear of the site and directly under the children’s bed was a storm water sump complete with stagnate water and a strong odour. Another 5 metres beyond this was the fish-cleaning shed. Not only did we get the stench of fish guts but we also got the chatter of fisherman returning in the night with their catch. And how much would you pay for the privilege of parking your camper in such a delightful spot? A very rich $50 per night would you believe! Luckily we were only passing through for the night but it was disgraceful that this little piece of gravel was even up for let. After a rough night thankfully we were off to greener pastures. The moral of this story is always check what you are being offered before handing over the cash.

South Mission Beach made all the bad experiences of the night before quickly disappear. It was quite simply everything that we had been looking for on our tour of beaches along the Queensland Coast. For us it had the lot. The beach itself was perfect and something that you would easily find on the cover of a holiday brochure. The coconut tree lined beaches open onto calm waters and spectacular views of Dunk Island directly off the coast and the rugged Hinchinbrook Island to the south. Being a small town the beaches were never too busy and perfect for early morning walks or just spending the afternoon playing on the sand with the kids. Best of all the weather was absolutely perfect being sunny and warm with the gentlest of breezes coming off the ocean. We settled into for three days of beach perfection in a little caravan park directly opposite the water.

Picture perfect South Mission Beach, Queensland

The town itself is small and spread out with a small shopping hub, complete with lovely bars and cafes. The community was very friendly and appeared to be quite “herbal” with a number of alternative healing places dotted around the place. The thing that I liked the most about Mission Beach was that it seems unchanged and untouched by heavy development, which is what we found with other places. We managed to catch the popular Sunday markets where arts & crafts and fresh fruit and veggies from around the region are sold. I had a crack at some fresh local coconut that was nice but the boys were not quite as keen. We finished off the day and our time in Mission Beach with a very lazy Sunday session listening to live music at one of the pubs over a couple of beers (and lemonades).

Workings from the aptly named Bubble Crab, Mission Beach, Queensland

We have found that the humble camp kitchen that most van parks or paid campsites offer have been invaluable, South Mission Beach being a great example. The camp kitchen not only provides an opportunity to cook outside the confines of our camper, but more importantly because they serve as a social hub for travelers to congregate on and share stories. Communal cooking and dinning seems to be a good way to get a conversation going (even if at the cost of a burnt snag or two) and share information.

There really is only a couple of ways to travel around Australia and that means that travelers are either heading in the same direction as you or have just come from where you want to go. At this stage of the trip we were still yet to purchase a guidebook purely because the “word on the road” has been so good and we have been finding tips that from travelers that has never been published. Obviously we have had to weigh up what information we take on board but if our source is from another family it has always been pretty reliable.

We have been lucky enough to meet some really nice travelling families along the way and because we have been heading in the same direction often a friendship has developed as we bump into each other at various destinations along the road. One such family has been a Dutch couple (Sandor & Leontine) and their two children (Job & Shauna). They have been travelling from Brisbane to Cairns in a compact Toyota Hiace Camper, which makes our camper absolutely spacious. Its been a real delight to chat to them along the way and hear of there experiences in Australia. It’s also been really good for the kids to meet and play with other kids from another country. We originally met them in Airlie Beach and spent a couple of days in Mission Beach and we have also arranged to meet up again in our next stop, Cairns.