NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 24 - ETTY BAY & SURROUNDS…

 Steve was hoping to do a spot of fishing today.  We didn’t have a lot planned as we wanted today to be as relaxing as possible…

We did need to get a few groceries though, so decided that we would head in to Innisfail early in the morning to do that, and to also check out Flying Fish Point, a place we had visited for lunch 7 years ago when we were there….

 On our way into Innisfail, we noticed a sign for Mourilyan Harbour, so decided to make the left-hand turn to check this out…

The port of Mourilyan is situated at the mouth of the Moresby River and is approximately 1,600km north of Brisbane and 20km to the south of the city of Innisfail.

The port was established primarily for the export of raw sugar and molasses from the surrounding sugar mills and is serviced by a bulk sugar terminal which loads ships via a traveling rail-mounted gantry at 1,900 tonnes per hour. Occasionally live cattle and woodchips are exported from Mourilyan also.

After checking out the harbour and taking a few photos we then headed into Innisfail.  We thought we would check out the town and head out to Flying Fish Point before we did our grocery shop.  

Flying Fish Point is a quiet beach side community located where the Coral sea meets the Johnstone River.  It is aptly named, and is one of Far North Queensland's richest estuary fishing locations. Little known, and closely guarded by keen fishing locals.

We obviously saw more of the point this time then when we last visited because today we found the beach, where last time it was just a rock wall which the ocean crashed into. 

There are two boat ramps at Flying Fish Point not far apart and we checked both of these out.

We then went off in search of the area that we last visited to see if we could find it…

We eventually found it and it had changed considerably since we were last there.  Mostly it was overgrown by coastal beach morning glory, a common pantropical creeping vine.  The last time we had been here there was none here, but that might have had something to do with the fact that this area had been battered by a cyclonic in the previous year.  

Steve found a little concrete path out amongst the rocks and decided that he would like to cast a line here to see if there were any fish about.  I was quite happy to sit in the car and read whilst he did this… He was only gone about 20 minutes.  No luck… not even a bite.

I sat in the car and read whilst Steve fished...

From here we saw a sign  to Ella Bay so thought we should check this out also…   The drive in was 4kms on a winding single lane dirt road through dense rainforest,  with the road occasionally close to the beach.   At other times there was a sheer drop to the beach below, but all of it was beautiful.  It was quite secluded and we were the only ones on the beach when we were there.  It was a real little treasure and we were glad we found it. 

On our way back out, we came across two cassowaries crossing the road, however, too quick for the camera… Another highlight for us.

 By now it was after 11am and we still had a grocery shop to do, so decided to head back into town.  As we were driving along Flying Fish Road, we saw another cassowary on the side of the road making a dash for the bushes.

Pretty exciting as we have been on the Cassowary Coast now for two weeks and we have seen cassowaries in the wild now for the last couple of days…

 We dropped into Woolworths in Innisfail and picked up our groceries and then headed back to Etty Bay.  We had heard about their famous fish and chips from other  friends and travellers and thought we would try them for lunch today..

Fish and chips on the beach sounded ideal to us.

 We arrived back at Etty Bay at 1.15pm, and as their lunch kiosk closed at 2pm, Steve dropped me off so that I could order them whilst he took the groceries back to the van.

We had to wait 12 minutes for them, so I headed back to the van to help Steve pack away our groceries and then we headed back to pick up our lunch.  In the end I ordered only 1 piece of fish and chips and thought we could share them.  I am so pleased  I did, as the fish was large and there were a huge amount of chips…   So many that even Steve couldn’t eat them all, and we ended up having to throw half of them away.  The crumbed fish was beautiful, very moist and quite a large piece.  A third of it filled me…

After lunch we came back to the van for a rest for an hour and then Steve packed up his fishing gear and headed out onto the rocks for a fish.  I decided to stay back at the van whilst he fished this end of the beach as I would have had to scamper over a lot of rocks to get to where he wanted to fish. 

 His plan was to fish this end of the beach and then come back for me and then we could head up to the other end of the beach together.  I had bought a magazine whilst we were shopping this morning so I was happy to sit out under the awning and read it and do some of the puzzles whilst Steve was away.

 

He was out fishing for a good couple of hours and came back quite despondent as he didn’t even get a nibble.  By now, it had started to rain, just lightly, but enough to deter him from wanting to head up to the other end of the beach so we are just enjoying some rest time in the van this afternoon…

 We are a little disappointed that we have not seen the cassowary in the van park today, but so thankful we got some many sightings of it yesterday.

Well we are on the move again tomorrow.  Homeward bound…. Heading to Townsville where we hope to stay for the next 4 nights…