Tuesday, 6th March 2018
Oh no!! It rained all night so our chairs outside were completely soaked and hence we had our breakfast at the camp kitchen – together with the 3 Germany guys, the French girl with her parents and the Norwegian girl! The boys had hung up their hammocks above the table in one part of the kitchen as that was the only dry spot and the French family had to spend the night in their car as their tent was leaking! So we didn’t do too badly that morning!!
Anyway, we were the first ones to leave and made our way to Mamu Tropical Skywalk in the rain forest. Well within half an hour we `arrived at the Skywalk – also owned by the same owners of Paranella Park, Mark and Judy Evans. However we sort of lost our way and asked directions at the post office in Johnstone – The lady was ever so helpful, giving us maps of the area.
Once we arrived at the park, we were given umbrellas to visit the park and we were told that some of the walkways had been damaged with the heavy rainfall of the past days. Well we started our walk and listened to our audio. Once we reached the elevated walkway, it started pouring with rain – well what do you expect in a rain forest???? But at one moment, it was so bad that we had to take shelter as we couldn’t see anything! All I had to do is dance to the tune “singing in the rain”……. By the time we came to the observation tower, there was nothing for us to observe! The visibility was nothing! So we didn’t make the effort to climb the 100 steps to the top to look across the gorge and mountains, as we couldn’t see them.
By the time we made our way back to the main centre, we were completely drenched, and only then we were given rain poncho’s……….. But we didn’t even bother to open them up as it was not worth it for the few meters to the van as we were already so wet!
Our next stop was at the Sugar Museum in Mourilyan – about half an hour’s drive and by this time it was somewhat dry. This was very interesting especially as it had quite a few stories of the first workers who came to work on the sugar cane plantations and the way they lived. The other day, we had seen how one of these sugar cane workers followed his dream and built his castle, but many barely made a living especially those who were transported from the South Sea Islands – they went back to their island homes just as poor but with a “Returns” trunk full of memorabilia which they had bought with their little wages.
The ladies at the museum reception gave us a good introduction of the museum and when they asked us where we came from – Malta and Holland – they were very happy to meet a Maltese as both of them are children of Maltese (and Gozitan) immigrants and both understand Maltese! I’ve taken to saying that I come from Malta and this way I keep meeting my fellow countrymen and women or people who are related to Maltese – in any case they all speak positively of the Maltese!!
Once we had visited the museum, we were finally on our way to Cairns! And we had another downpour, which made it ever so difficult to drive – I was quite agitated and hoped we arrived at the campsite safely! Well Gerry is a really good driver and even though sometimes I would panic and say he should be more careful, he had everything under control.
The campsite was practically empty and we could choose where we wanted to stay. Once we pitched our site, we decided to make a plan – if this was really still the wet season, we were not going to stay much longer in Cairns. Gerry wanted still to go diving at the Barrier Reef, so tomorrow we will be going into town and see what the possibilities are. I am ready to start planning our trip back home!
