Mission Beach. ~

Monday, 14 March 2016

Mission Beach.

05:13

Lance Dean

Mission Beach-

The view from Mission Beach showers.

After flying back to Cairns from Melbourne, and staying the night at Clifton Beach. I was on my way up to Koah I stopped to look for bananas in the wild banana patch & nearly chopped my little toe off, my little piggy nearly went to market- 3 stitches, it's OK I think the bone stopped it. I knew I should of put my boots on, but hadn't dug them out yet, after leaving my worn out shoes in Victoria. I took the stitches out myself 10 days later,with my sterilised leatherman knife, no worries.

3 stitches, quite sore.

Stayed at Dans, for a couple days while it healed a bit, bathing in creek while keeping my foot dry, went to see Simon as well. Since Dan lost the deal on his block I might stay at Simon's for a bit not sure yet. Both fellas need help doing work on there bush batches, good news for me cause that means free rent in exchange for a bit of help.

Pole House up in the hills

Sterilisation of my leather man to remove stitches.

Bush pole Construct house up in the hills

Simon took me to a place even further into the mountains, about an hours drive inland and up into the hills, to a small community where he used to live. Everything there was hand built by the occupants utilising many different styles, skills and materials. A lot of the houses were based on a caravan, others were gum log bush pole structure, tied together with fencing wire with tin walls and roof, but all were extremely well made comfortable houses. One guy in particular was a welder, his place was a large tin shed over a caravan with a steel pole frame, large tin windows that opened nearly the whole wall to let the breeze in, even in the rain. About half the residents were land owners, the rest just made claim to a piece that no one owned, and no-one cares, I think it's government land, national park or mining reserve but for now it's there's. Very different way of thinking.

Simon's Camp

Our first camp at Mission beach.

Once my toe was a bit better, I Sorted out the truck & picked up stuff I left behind, and Christmas presents that came in mail, mostly from me, but also fishing rod, big soup pot & dried beans from sister Selena.

Going to drop James off, he got job painting with old mate Geoff from Mackay, at Mission Beach.

James & I drove to Mission Beach great fishing spot, great for the canoe too, wish I had brought it with me now, oh well, Dans son loves playing with it in the creek.

We were Camping out in one of the new houses being built that James & Geoff were working on, great spot, power point in meter box, water tap at front of house, and a whole house to be in, which is just the basics because it's still being built but it's luxury compared to a tent and a tarp in the bush, and all only 5mins from the beach.

Bingal Bay, just north of Mission Beach.

This is the view of a lucky person who lives on this riverbank in a tent.

We go swimming at the beach everyday, in the stinger proof enclosure to keep jellyfish out, then have a cold beach shower. I'm not working, so I go sightseeing and fishing while the others work. Haven't caught much fish, only enough for my own dinner a couple nights. It is a great way to see this area, especially with free accommodation. On one day while exploring I found a little track going to a nice sandy river mouth, right at the end by the water some one had claimed their spot, pitched there tent, and looks like they bin there a while, no body was home so I didn't stay long, but what an amazing place to live, bet the fishing good with a prawn farm nearby.

Sun set at our second camp

Everyone had a day off so we tried to take Geoff's tinny out fishing, but when we got to the boat ramp the outboard wouldn't go after a lot of trying we gave up and headed back to camp. Stopped in at the beach and there was a Fella on his way to Mackay, and running very low on funds, he happened to have an outboard, James made friends with him and arranged a deal, a six pack of beer in exchange for the use of his outboard for the day, DEAL!

We only caught a couple pan sized fish till Geoff was reeling in a very small stripe perch and a Barracuda followed it in and bit half of it off, when he noticed, stopped reeling and it came back for the rest, so we had dinner for all of us, all from a six pack of beer.

We were sitting at the beach one day and a Belgium backpacker walked past, Max, with his big backpack on and tent in hand looking for a place to camp, we introduced ourselves, and gave him a beer, and said you can camp with us in the new housing estate. He was very grateful after hitching to Mission Beach with no plan, and repaid the flavor with awesome harmonica songs at least once a day.

Need to insert a link to his You Tube videos.

On Australia day we brought some drinks and went down the beach, found a wicked party they had a generator running a full size DJ setup, they started out playing JJJ radio stations hottest 100 count down, swimming, beach cricket, BBQ. Then when the count down finished and sun went down we lit up a nice fire and the DJ started playing some sick electronic music, then down the beach they had fire works. Was a very good Australia day.

Fire works, Australia day.

Beach fire at Australia day party.

Got a call from work mate Rob, went and helped him install 2x Air cons in Innisfail town, in his newly purchased old Land Cruiser, 79 model, what a beast. Not pay much but It cover my experiences for a week or so.

Meet a lot of different people, locals and travellers. The painting job was coming to an end after about a month or more and I was just about to try for a job on banana farms when the boss rung, flying to Thursday Island on Monday, the furthest point of Australia. Gee I better be quick , pack my tool bag and sort my stuff to go even further north than I ever been, again.