Lucinda to Mission Beach

Ahh Lucinda…this little town is sandwiched between the lovely coast off of Hitchinbrook Island N.P and hundreds of miles of vibrant green sugar cane fields. Lucinda and many of the towns in the surrounding area rely greatly on farming for survival. Sugar Cane fields border the Bruce Hwy and often stand a full meter above the vehicles. Visually out of place from the lush mountain tops and seas of green cane, are the refineries which are a necessary evil. Lucinda stands apart as the main shipping port for the tones of cane which is processed and shipped from its shores. At 5.6 km in length, Lucinda’s shipping jetty is quite the sight. The jetty is essential to the town’s ability to export its main crop and has been somewhat of a coastal “eyesore” since 1979. Wanderer’s Caravan Park just 500 meters off the beach is where we set up camp. Although the main draw here is fishing, we still found our peaceful place in the sand without a soul around, where we soaked up some sun for a couple days.

Leaving Lucinda we stopped in the quiet town of Halifax for a look at their Sunday market. A cool small-town vibe but not much that perked our interest in terms of buying. Another great afternoon followed by a great drive up to Mission Beach. To our delight, as we drove in to Mission Beach, our path was intercepted by an adult with 2 young Cassowary. The Mission Beach area has the highest Cassowary population in all of Australia. This sighting was much less rare than our first but, for us, equally as exciting. We pulled into Dunk Island View Van Park and new immediately that this was more what we had been looking for. We were within walking distance of Woolworths (big local grocer), a couple bars, the spectacular Wongaling Beach and everything we could need. We decided we would likely stay the whole week since they had a 7th night free promotion. We were tucked in on a pretty, shaded spot and took an introductory stroll around the area. Upon arrival at the grocery store, we wished we hadn’t taken the scenic route as we found that Woolworths was closing since it was 5pm on Sat (the usual in many Aussie towns). Not only was the store closing this early but it would be closed on Sunday. We had thought that this area would be accommodating tourists and therefore be open later but it turned out to be more “small town”, which was perfectly ok by us. We would survive for a couple days. We really enjoyed our time in Mission Beach. We were able to get into a real routine here which was nice for a change. I got up early every morning, tried to catch as many sunrises as possible. We would have something to eat, go for a walk or hit the beach. We started a mini workout and enjoyed staying put. On our last night we treated ourselves to another serving of hearty fish and we were thrilled to be able to order a little Canadiana in a POUTINE as our sidedish!