Wonga beach is 20km north of Mossman, Had to put Mossman in as it couldn't find Wonga Beach on the map.
When we arrived at Pinnacle Village we could pick our spot to park, so we chose somewhere nice and secluded. Anyway today is Tuesday and everyone who came after us chose to camp near us so it is not secluded anymore.
The drive here was very scenic especially when you turn off Mulligans Highway and travel east to the coast. Some of the views along that road were spectacular. we were up so high it was like looking down from a plane.
There are quite a few peacocks who live at the caravan park and the largest male chose to give us a dance and display his beautiful tail on our first night. The next night a small tree snake came to have look. The pea hens were very interested, but didn't try to touch it. Eventually it crawled into the gardens. I didn't know that peacocks roosted in trees at night. I suppose it makes sense as they can sleep without fear of predators. Last night three of them were on a branch and another one hopped up and the whole branch broke off and they came tumbling down. They just missed landing on our neighbours who were eating outside. The birds weren't hurt and off they went to look for another tree.
Yesterday we went to Port Douglas for a look around. Lots of shopping and very touristy and up market in places. We also went to the Marina where we saw some magnificent private boats. Some people certainly have lots of money.
Thursday morning we went to Mossman Gorge. It is very lovely. Green, lots of water, lots of trees and tropical undergrowth. We took the 1.4km walk and that seemed long as it is becoming quite humid up here.
Today (Friday) we drove from Wonga Beach to the intended destination of a caravan park at Innisfail, but I got distracted and missed telling Ross to turn off in order to stay on the Bruce Highway so we sailed on past with lots of traffic behind us. We had to keep on going, because we were towing the van and there was no suitable spot to turn around. It turned out we were on the old Bruce Highway so we completely missed Innisfail and the planned caravan park. We drove on and on hoping for a caravan park on the highway. Finally Ross saw a sign to Cowley Beach - caravan park on the beach, so we turned in to that road. It is small caravan park with the most unusual toilet block we have seen so far. If anyone has watched Mash and seen the showers and toilets in that show, then you get some idea of what these are like. When you are in the shower everyone can see your head unless you are really short and at the bottom the doors are pretty short so you can see above the knees if the person is near the door. Lucky we have a shower in the van because we won't be using those. It is however in a lovely spot right on the beach so you can hear the waves rolling in.

On Saturday we drove to Mission Beach, for a look, which is just 37km down the road. Mission Beach is where Cyclone Yasi made landfall on 2nd Feb 2011. The wind gusts were estimated to have reached 290 km/h (180 mph), leaving behind significant damage. A storm surge estimated to have reached 7 m destroyed several structures along the coast and pushed up to 300 m inland.In the hours after the storm's passage, Most of the beach lost its sand and every structure was damaged to some degree. It is amazing and a credit to the people of Mission Beach that you could hardly tell that the whole coastal area of 14 kilometers had been completely devastated. You can still see where all the trees had been stripped bare of all foliage and how it is now starting to grow back. There are lots of beautiful houses, but there are a few houses as well as a mini golf business that have been left and are now overgrown with vegetation

We bought a hot chook, some rolls and a couple of tomatoes, found a table with seats and had some lunch on the foreshore. It was a very nice way to spend an afternoon.

Tomorrow we leave here and go back to Rollingstone and then to Charters Towers, After that I am not sure where will head, but as we are staying at places we have already been on this trip, for the next week or so, it may be some time before we write another entry for this blog.