Our first road trip with Rex and Florence pulling up along the way in Townsville, Hughenden and Cloncurry. Highlights included seeing Shovel’s family and playing frisbee in the park, eating pies for breakfast in Hughenden and watching the third Test Australia vs Pakistan in Sydney at a Richmond pub. It was slow going when only travelling at 80kph, but loads of fun and feels great knowing everything we need is right there with us. Shovel never stops amazing me with his deadly hidden talents and did an amazing job reversing Florence and changing her tyre on the highway just outside of Cloncurry. We were gratefully thankful to Will (a bloke with a ‘hill billy’ sticker on his Ford Ute) that helped us out by lending us his wheel brace. That age old adage played true as you should never judge a book by it’s cover. Will was driving from Brisbane back to his home town Darwin for work, he would travel the 3000+kms through the night and was doing this to support his wife and 2year old daughter who were both back in Brisbane. His daughter has cancer and would have to remain in Brisbane for another year receiving treatment. It completely broke our hearts that this guy would stop to help us when he himself had so much going on. I tried to offer him 50 bucks to go and buy dinner, but he refused, saying he was just happy to help. I wish government money could instead be spent providing Will and people in this circumstance with flight vouchers or greater support, rather than being used to fund the Political events calendar or the unemployed with alcohol and drug money.
Bicton Hill 4 kilometre Walking Track & Clump Point Jetty looking back towards Bingil Bay. We completed the circuit twice, making for a good workout and some lovely sight seeing over Mission Beach and the surrounding Islands.
 Just outside of El Arish is a lovely exposed recycled red brick shed on a farm 💚💚💚 with hidden surprises including a fruit stall, raw vegan snacks and delicious coffee ☕️☕️☕️ The verandah has a great view of chickens in a cute little coop 🐓🐓🐓 and there's a very playful dog 🐕🐕🐕 ⚽⚽⚽
  Off to the right of the Tully - Mission Beach Road, is a walking track that take you over to the El Arish - Mission Beach Road. The track passes through the Tam O'Shanter and Licuala forests, which finishes up at Lacey Creek. The track, approximately 18 kilometres round trip, is surrounded by lovely creeks, and overtly lush flora and native fauna. On our walk we ran into a very large cassowary who was on a journey looking for some fruit, seeing one of these prehistoric birds eye to eye was amazing, thankfully it made it’s way back into the forest off the track and let us go on our way. We also played a good practical joke on ourselves, we thought we had discovered some cassowary eggs, after doing some further investigation days later however, realised they were fake ones on display for the kid’s walking track 😂
 Dunk Island was originally known as Coonanglebah by the local Bandjin and Djiru people. Before English settlement, over 10,000 years ago, the elders would make canoes out of bark and paddle their way over to the Island to get food and materials. During World War II, the RAAF built a radar on the highest peak of the Island and an airstrip on the west side, the radar is decommissioned with the airstrip still in service. Currently on Dunk island there is a jetty, walking tracks and a resort still heavily damaged from Cyclones Larry (2006) and Yasi (2011). Today is Shovel’s birthday so we thought we would take a boat ride out to Dunk Island and walk the 11 kilometre track. The Island is nothing short of spectacular with pristine beaches, inviting coral blue waters and views that look over the endless stretch of coastline and adjacent islands. You can barely make out any housing on the mainland, which gives you a great sense of being away from civilisation ✌💛☀️🎉🎂🚤🌴
 
The sugar industry dates as far back as the 1860s and 1870s with a strong labour base from South Sea Islanders. In 1884 this labour was prohibited, which made prices take a plunge. The sugar industry came back strong after the first world war with a total of 71 returned soldiers taking on the farms, the cane back then was sent to South Johnstone river, which began operations in 1916. After many years of surveys, soil testing and politics, the government approved the commissioning of Tully Sugar mill in 1922. The first crushing began on the 5th November 1925 bringing in 32,075 tonnes of cane and crushed 3,946 tonnes of raw sugar. Today the mill can crush up to 2.9 million tonnes a year with 360,186 tonnes of raw sugar. Tully Sugar employs between 200 to 300 workers depending if it is crushing or maintenance season. The mill has independently powered itself and 5,000 other homes since 1997, it uses remaining fibre from the cane called “bagasse” to generate electricity through steam. Shovel’s Dad and Sister were up for a visit, so we went over for a tour of the mill, the factory was an eye opener, with marvellous works of people and machinery making the world buzz through its mass produced exports of sugar. 
Gumby’s Parents visit Cairns, Undara Lava Tubes and Mission Beach. Really enjoyable weekend and a wonderful adventure further inland.
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