Day 204 This morning it was raining, hard, for the first time since we left Chinchilla. It was pouring for most of the morning as we drove up to Tully. On a day like this there is not much to do so the laundromat and the library were on the list. During our laundry procedures the weather cleared up a bit and we finished our journey to Mission Beach. We were a little disappointed - probably for the first time - after all the hype we heard, the place was just dull. After the info center we were gonna get a coffee for our walk on the beach. We got to the cafe to find it closed at 3:30 in the afternoon! We walked down toward the beach to find most restaurants and stores also closed. The beach we found to be one of the weakest beaches we have been on. Our best experience in Mission Beach (since we left soon after this) was with a family of Curlews!
We spotted them on our walk back to Herc. We were cutting through a park and noticed that the Curlews had chicks with them. They noticed us too. We took the camera out and took a few steps forward - snap - went the camera. The parents got up and laid back down a few meters away. We took a few more steps - snap - now the baby Curlews laid down and the parents ran a few more meters behind a log and peeked out. We took more steps, - snap - the chicks motionless but the parents ran back out from behind the log and kind of half circled us. Few more steps - snap - chicks still motionless (now clear to us they were playing dead), the parents were now pretty agitated as they would sit and get up, sit and get up (hindsight, clearly trying to distract us). We were now just a meter or so from the chicks who were still playing dead and the parents seeing that all else failed and it was last resort time, opened their tails and wings and with a lot of noise started running at us. We took a few quick steps back, the momma stopped but the pappa was still coming so we retreated some more. As soon as we were far enough the momma got to the chicks they popped up out of their "dead" state and the four of them took off into the woods.
The best scenery was between Mission Beach and Bingil Bay. On this stretch of coastal road we hit another World Heritage sight as the rainforest met the Great Barrier Reef. Amazing to see the ocean with almost no beach turn into a rainforest on the other side of the road. Cyclone Larry ripped through here in 2006 but the area is making a nice recovery. There was a hiking trail so we pulled in. Okay, so everyone knows OZ is famous for deadly and venomous species. Spiders, snakes, jelly fish, sting rays, crocodiles are common knowledge. Since we been here we have discovered poisonous sea snails, that Platypus have a venomous spurs and the newest one, STINGING TREES!! We were surprised. At the start of the walk is the warning sign. "The leaves, stems and fruits of these trees are filled with little silica hairs that inject neurotoxins. Stings are painful and symptoms can persist for several months. Dead trees when disturbed release a cloud of stinging hairs." The trees have heart shaped leaves (of all the shapes, how cunning even for a tree) and red to white raspberry like fruit. we were in no mood for these trees so we walked to the closest lookout snapped a few pics and headed back to the van. We then made it to our camping spot for the night in Japoonvale.