Day 258. Paronella Park to Mission Beach

From the mountains to the sea

Today we bid farewell to beautiful Paronella Park. We have loved it here; even with the intermittent downpours, but we have still thoroughly enjoyed ourselves none-the-less. Straight after breakfast while Shane was packing up the van, Scarlett asked could she go back to feed the fish and eels the last of her fish food. I jumped at the excuse to go back and take a few more photo's; as the sun was finally out, and the waterfall now had a beautiful rainbow in it's mist.

Scarlett and I walked around the grounds one last time. We stopped to feed 'Angus' the 15yr old eel, and had to hide in the entrance of the tunnel of love to escape another huge downpour. We then finished up at the main waterfall where the majority of the eels and fish live. Scarlett fed them the last of her fish food, and I took a million more photos. And before we knew it, we had been gone for over an hour, and Shane had packed up the whole van and was looking for us.

We didn't move far today; Mission Beach was our destination which was only about an hour down the road. We stooped at 'Bingil Bay' but decided we couldn't fit the van in anywhere, and with no power to run the air conditioner we decided to give 'roughing it' a miss and head off into the Big 4. This park and surrounding area was devastated by cyclone 'Yasi' and evidence of the destruction here is everywhere. All the tall trees coming into town have been broken off, or striped of their foliage. There are houses everywhere with tarps across their roofs, or covered in scaffolding and under repair. It is also amazing to see photos of the area, and realise the mammoth job they have done getting things back to relative normality since.

The park here is lovely; we are right across from the resort swimming pool, which has a great slide. There are Balinese bungalow's for me to sit and read in out of the rain, where I can keep an eye on Scarlett and the kids playing in the pool. The rain has been heavy when it has come down, but the showers are getting less and less frequent.

We are also right across from the beach which has a stinger net; but with the threat of crocs still, I'm not keen to venture in. Anyway with the great pool here in the park, why would you bother even taking the risk. We did have a nice afternoon walking along the beach, and doing drawings in the sand. With the sun slowly setting through the palm trees, we realised we have found a little patch of paradise.

Scarlett with Dunk Island in the background