Innisfail to Cardwell 97 km Day 2

A restless night in the caravan park at Innisfail, lots of noise from traffic - the Bruce Hwy was 50 metres away but also lots of wildlife on the river banks. I was awake at 5:00 am and started packing in the tent at 5:30 am. Outside everything was wet from very heavy dew so I packed up the tent and tarp wet which I hate doing. I rolled out of the gate at 6:30 and headed to Maccas for coffee and wifi so I could post the Day 1 blog entry.

On the way into town yesterday I had saw a sign claiming the Innisfail was "the capital of Art Deco buildings in Australia ". I thought I should investigate this by doing a quick spin around the CBD. There were indeed Art Deco buildings! On the limited sample I saw I can't confirm or deny the claim.

I took a photo of what I thought at first was an unusual war memorial but turned out it was a tribute to Italian Sugarcane cutters.

An hour later I was heading down the highway impressed with my speed over 20 kph. I knew this because I replaced the battery in my speedo last night. (Always handy to have a spare 2032 nicad Lisa!). With no wind it was very humid and I was sweating buckets. Lots of salty fluid running into places we won't discuss here but I will need to apply soothing lotion tonight.

Stopped in a bus shelter near Silk Wood for a couple of Scotch Fingers and then 10 minutes down the road I stopped at the El Arish Rest Stop. Tony and I camped here in 2013 on our way to Cairns. I bought a freshly made sandwich from the proprietor who was a different guy to 2013. He told me he had been at that site for 35 years except for 4 years when he sold to another guy which was when we passed through

The view of Tully Sugar Mill from top of Golden Gumboot

After that it wasn't long before I arrived in Tully having covered 54 km. Naturally I had to get a picture of the Golden Gumboot! I bought another sandwich and headed for a shade shelter in the park. I was there about 45 minutes before deciding to keep going. I still had 43 km to cover but it was only 12:00 noon so plenty of time.

The wisdom of travellers - graffiti in the shade shelter

Another hour and I arrived at the Bilyana Rest stop. It was very tempting to decide to stay here for the night. A free camp with toilets and shelters with tables. Perfect but it was still too early. I unpacked the tent and tarp and put them out to dry and sat the shade for an hour. There were already grey nomads who had set up camp and I expected many more would arrive later. Cardwell was only 21 km further on so at 2:30 pm I decided to push on. I am conscious of trying to keep churning the kilometres as I can't afford to get behind schedule if I am to arrive home by September 26th.

At Cardwell I rocked into the 1st caravan park I came too. Seems it is an upmarket affair with a bar and restaurant - bad luck I won't have to eat Uncle Ben's tonight. Fish and chips or pizza from 6:30 pm takeaway for $15.