Monday, May 20, 2013

May 19, Murray Falls, The Hughes, Saunders Beach

The rest area turned out to be a transit center for Tully. That meant that several Greyhound buses stopped there during the night. And about 2 am, maybe the pub closed or a party broke up, but there were a lot of people walking by the rv and since we had our windows open, we could hear them everything they said. We'll check further next time.

We drove to Murray Falls, and a boardwalk went to a lookout near the base. A longer walk took us up to the top of the falls. This is wet tropical rainforest, very humid, and usually very dense. But Cyclone Yassi came through this region 2 years ago and took down a lot of big trees and cleared some of the growth.

After the falls we went for a cuppa at Sara and Noah Hughes place. They were out in the field cutting silage for their cattle. They were expecting rain and wanted to get the silage cut before it got too wet. So we went out into the field to watch them. Later Noah will mix it with water and molasses for the cattle.

We had bought a large pastry in Innisfield, so we brought that in and Sara had coffee and we sat around the table and talked for almost 2 hours. Sara is of Sicilian decent and Noel, English. Her father came over in the 1950s and joined a large Sicilian community here. The Hughes have grown sugar cane; small crops, like watermelon and pumpkin and are now raising cattle. It sounds like a hard life. To supplement their farming they own and drive two school buses. Really nice people. One phrase they used that struck us as odd was "she fell pregnant". We had heard it somewhere else just the other day.

From there we went south through a lot of road construction - repairing damage from Yassi. At Ingham, we stopped at the Coral Sea Battle Memorial. US ships Lexington and Chicago fought there in WWII.

Tonight we're at a rest area at Saunders Beach. It's filled with campers, but I think it will be quieter than last night - and cooler.

Pictures - Jeanne at Murray Falls, Murray Falls from the top, Samson on the rocky trail, Sara and Noel cutting silage, Coral Sea Battle Memorial









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