Saturday 10th July

We left Mt Garnet early had breakfast in Ravenshoe and headed for Innisfail immediately running into fog again so we abandoned the scenic route and took the main highway.It was an uncomfortable journey and we were glad when the fog finally cleared as we approached Innisfail.Just south of the town is Etty Bay where we were assured to see cassowaries, did we? Of course not and I promise this is the last you will hear of the elusive bird.Etty has a lovely beach and we enjoyed a walk along it but the mossies are pretty fierce there.Foolishly as it turned out we decided to have lunch in Tully which of course closes on Saturday afternoon mind you I don't think we would have been happy with the cafes if they had been open. Tully is famous for winning the Golden Gumboot for being the wettest town in Australia and they are so proud of the accolade they have put up a 7.9m tall gumboot which has a staircase inside you can climb to the top. (see photos) The height is the amount of rain they had in 1950 when they won the title.We knew there would be nowhere else to eat until Cardwell and it would be mid afternoon before we got there so we ate at a service station not our best dining experience.When we got to Ingham our overnight stop at 4pm it was closed, that's the town not the motel.We are opposite the wetlands but yes they were closed and Ingham does not open at all on Sundays even Coles and Woolworths are shut.We have booked our accommodation in Bowen tomorrow night and on the drive there we hope to divert inland to Paluma a rainforest village which we missed on the way up.This is the plan but if the weather tomorrow is anything like today i.e. foggy or raining we shall give it a miss again