23/07/18 Very reluctantly, we decided not to stay on at Sybbies for the Eureka Creek campdraft. Much as we’d have loved to, Sybbie kept bringing out Cadbury’s Hazel Nut Chocolates to have with the Baileys, and Clem and Di kept baking all those cakes and biscuits, and the bathroom scales were no longer Di’s friend. Me, I had no problem at all with chocolates, Baileys, or bakery things…bring them on, I say. I just loved all the Green, and browsed through the local real estate listings. It’d be so easy for us to live up there. And it was so hard to leave, but we had to at some stage. You know what they say about visitors and fish. And besides, Di had ran out of drawers to clean in Sybbie’s kitchen. So we bit the bullet and are now heading south, making our way slowly towards home.
Before leaving East Palmerston, we spent a lovely day in Cairns catching up over lunch with Anne and Ian, neighbours from back home who were wintering in the warm weather of FNQ, and Deborah, another ex-neighbour now living up there.
Our next camp was at Murray Falls in the Girramay National Park near Tully where we’d pre-booked for two days. The falls were amazing. A little way downstream, we had a swim in flowing pools and gentle rapids among granite boulders – breathtakingly cold but wonderful. We lay back soaking up the sun on granite slabs, watching brilliant blue Ulysses butterflies fluttering overhead among the trees. It was a lovely peaceful spot we’d have loved to have stayed longer at but the weekend had arrived. The campground filled with camper trailers, tents and marquees, the quietude shattered by echoing toddler tantrums. So we pulled stumps, headed to Ingham and nearby Forrest Beach where we’d camped in June on the way up north.
We were welcomed to Ingham by Peter and Debbie. Peter had spotted the Kruiser while we were off doing some food shopping and wanted to know more about it and caravanning in general so we ended up back at his place for a cuppa and chat for a pleasant couple of hours. (Hey, Kimberley Kampers, any commission from a future Kimberley sale to Ingham we are claiming as ours. OK?)
It was nice to have beach sand between the toes again as we took a walk along Forrest Beach. Nice but frustrating as swimming is not recommended because of crocs from the nearby creeks. Was still nice though.
Di wears one of those Fitbit things that gauges her activity by counting the number of footsteps. Despite having a fairly inactive day, she was surprised that she’d recorded 7,500 steps. Now, the thing is worn on her wrist, right, not her ankle. So how does it count footsteps? I reckon it counts hand movements. I reckoned she’d probably done like 2,000 footsteps and 5,500 hand waves, mostly while giving me jobs to do. You know what I mean, right? It’s not just a verbal thing with women; there’s all that hand movement that’s directly connected to jaw movement. So, I suggested that she sit, take note of the Fitbit count, then give me some jobs to do, delivered with all the usual hand and finger gestures, and see if the count goes up. Simple test, right? She failed to see the humour in it. I was being totally serious, though. Anyway, I reckon the count went up a lot during the resulting conversation but wasn’t allowed a look to check.
In Home Hill, we caught up again with my cuz, Lorraine and her partner Tony, for dinner. We felt a bit like celebrities as Lorraine had arranged for the local Bridge Restaurant to open that night just for us Southern visitors. It was great they did too, because the food was terrific.
It was agreed by all at Sybbies that Di has CDO. It’s like OCD but all the letters are in alphabetical order…as they should be! – included at the risk of clocking up an even higher count on the Fitbit.
Kruising Around Australia 