Our morning drive this morning consisted of some caravan weighing enquiries. Even though Ray has retired and could ”handball” the callers to the WIM staff, he answered the enquirer’s questions (which took about 45 minutes each) before passing on the relevant phone number to organise their weigh with WIM Technologies. It kept the drive interesting and I’m learning a lot.
After a couple of these calls, we weren’t far from our coffee stop destination. Ingham. Home of “Ingham Chicken Love ‘Em” and the “Pub With No Beer” as sung about by Slim Dusty.
In 1943 a local farmer, Dan, went to the Day Dawn Hotel only to find that American soldiers had drunk the pub dry of beer. Forced to have a glass of wine instead, he sat and wrote the poem “A Pub With No Beer” which Slim Dusty then turned into a song some years later.
After we had coffee, (Ray also bought some sliced ham as a treat for him and Henry to eat with morning tea) we wandered the Main Street. We met some other caravanners who were also travelling with a dog. The Captain demanded an introduction and while we stood talking the two dogs got acquainted, sniffing bottoms and wagging tails. It turned out we were all heading to Mission Beach, then Cairns, but on a different timeline.
We arrived in Cardwell in time for lunch. Since we haven’t been traveling huge kilometers. I haven’t been making our picnic lunches, knowing we can get something to eat from the small towns along the way. Everywhere we have been the general consensus is that tourism numbers are down on the usual numbers for this time of year. We are a couple of months ahead of the grey nomad exodus from the South to the North and business owners are holding out hope that ever still comes. The floods, fuel prices, cost of living and overseas travel are the reasons they are giving for it being quieter. So, if we can support them by buying a bit here and there instead of making a peanut butter sandwich in the caravan, that works for us.
Ray waited patiently to be served in the cafe while Henry and I took a seat outside. He was taking ages and I took a peek inside. He was the only one waiting and there were two people behind the counter talking to each other. Ray is not a short man so not hard to miss. He was waiting, waiting but not being served. Eventually he returned his cold drink to the drink fridge and walked out. “Let’s try somewhere else that wants customers.” He said.
A couple of doors down was the town bakery. Ray got a couple of cheese and bacon rolls. I’d asked for a vegetarian pastie. He only walked out with the rolls, no pastie. “They said they had one last week, not this week.” Ray reported.
What was I saying about peanut butter sandwiches?
Upon returning to the van I noticed that Ray had parked where there was a rather large pool of water in front of us. Having been together for so long (24 years this year) I believe that I have a certain insight into the way Ray’s brain ticks. He parked right here so that he could drive through the puddle on the way out.
Once seated Ray stated, “I think I’ll have to put the car into 4WD to go through that river.’ In anticipation, I had already checked behind us, “You can reverse, love.” I said.
The look on his face was priceless. Like I had taken his favourite toy away from him. But…I’ve had an experience with Ray getting bogged before, and I have absolutely no desire to repeat it. Especially when vegetarian pasties only come to town every second week!
We neared Mission Beach, on the Cassowary Coast, named this for being the home of the Cassowary Birds. These creatures are big birds and resemble an emu except that they have vivid blue and red colours on their head. They are known to be very viscous and tourists are told not to approach them. It is actually pretty rare to see one and many people visit the area and only see the big fiberglass one at the local petrol station.
As we drove into Mission Beach and followed the GPS to our caravan park, I pointed to a black blob in the distance on the side of the road. Getting closer we saw that it was a Cassowary! We got some pics which meant we didn’t need to stop at the servo for a “fake photo”. Lucky us!
Travel Australia Caravan Tips 