We have had three very nice days at a Big4 Caravan Park at South Mission Beach.  We chose our own site as once again we have found the parks are not so busy with tourists starting to head back south.  We can see how popular this spot would be for a few months each year.  It seems so many of the retirees book from one year to the next, and why wouldn't you?  The view from the bedroom window across to Dunk Island is as good as we have had at Point Samson in WA.  We really like that park too.  We had hoped to do the 'Tully Sugar Mill Tour' on Thursday on our way to Mission Beach.  When we got to Tully there were no tours, due to factory maintenance.  The harvest this year is expected to be nearly as big as their best year in 2005, when 2,415,050 tonnes of cane was crushed.  So we went back and did the tour on Friday. We are glad we did the tour, because now we have a real insight into the industry.  I thought we were finished with 'Sugar', when we stood for ages watching the harvesting at Port Douglas.   But this area of Queensland is definitely 'Sugar Country' and we will continue to visit and further our knowledge.  When we were travelling 'Canecutter Way' on Wednesday, I said to Peter "I thought we had seen enough sugar harvesting"!  His reply was "You never get enough of harvesting, do you"?  And I guess he is right!   Also when you have been born to a livelihood of 'Agriculture', whatever is being produced in another area of the country, will always be of interest.Tully is also the home of the 'BIG Golden Gumboot'.  Tully is the town in Australia that gets the highest rainfall most years.  The height of the Gumboot represents Tully's highest recorded annual rainfall of 7.93 metres in 1950.  A fact from my 'Big Aussie Icon' book about this BIG one is:  Rumour has it a friendly competition between Australia's three wettest towns, Tully, Babinda and Innisfail, led to a rubber boot being awarded each year to the town with the highest rainfall.  You can climb to the top of the Gumboot and it provides a nice view over the Sugar Mill.   The 'Tully Sugar Mill' is one of only two mills that does tours these days.  One does wonder how much longer the tours will be available.  The guide said as long as 'They' and 'We' do everything right they will continue.  But 'They' are always watching!  It was noisy and everything is very hot!The 'Tully Sugar Mill' is now owned by the Chinese.  It employs 300 people from June through to December and 200 for the other months of the year.  The sugar cane that is grown in this area is not irrigated, so a planting can only be cut for 4 years.  When it is irrigated it is possible to cut for six years before it is necessary to replant.  Each year the sugar content in the cane, does decrease, but the replanting is costly.  When cane was cut by hand, they would cut approximately 10 tonne per day.  Nowadays with the harvesters that are used, they cut 10 tonne in 3 minutes.  The railway carriages hold about 10 tonne and I need to change what I thought was the tonnage in an earlier blog.  1 tonne of sugar is produced from approximately 8 tonne of cane. The mud that is extracted from the cane ends up in a hopper.  It is available to be carted back to the farmer.  The cost to the farmer is the freight only.  The shredded dried cane is called 'Bagasse' and it is used to fuel the boiler plant, which provides steam to power the entire factory by electricity generating turbines.  The shredded cane goes through a series of five crushing mills to extract as much sugar juice as possible.  We saw the 'Clarifier' where the juice is heated and lime is added to settle the unwanted material.  Then the clarified juice is concentrated to a thick syrup by boiling off water in the 'Evaporators'.  Then it goes to the 'Pan Stage' where the syrup is converted to crystal sugar.  The sugar crystals are separated from the syrup in the 'Centrifugals' and then it goes to the 'Sugar Driers'.  The dried and cool sugar is now ready for shipment and all 'Tully Sugar' is exported from 'Mourilyan Wharf'.  On the way home we couldn't believe our luck once again.  This area is called the 'Cassowary Coast'.   The number of roadside signs to make you aware that you are travelling in a 'Protected Cassowary Area, is incredible.  I decided to take photos of the different signs again and that must be the trick!  There he or she was on the side of the road!  This time we could pull over and get out of the car.  I got quite close with the camera before the beautiful 'BIG' bird went into the bush!  Each day we have gone for a walk along the beach.  The sand is so firm and stretches for 14 kilometres along this part of the coast.  Young Mums have been walking with prams and today there was even a little boy riding his bike.  Peter has picked up a few shells, but there has not been many of them.We were going to go to 'Dunk Island' for a day trip, but it only operates 3 days a week and it didn't work in on the days we were here.  We have been told that the Resort has not been repaired since 'Cyclone Yasi' hit this area in 2011.  So there is not a lot happening at Dunk Island and this has obviously had an impact on tourism at Mission Beach.   We decided to do a tour out to the reef on Saturday.  Twelve was the maximum number on the tour and it was on one of those rubber dinghy type boats.  They can scoot along!  We bumped out the 23 nautical miles and tied up to a buoy in a little lagoon, with reef all around.  The other 9 on the tour were much younger than us and right into the snorkeling!  Peter booked this tour and I didn't realise that there was so much emphasis on the snorkeling!  I don't like snorkeling very much at all!   So I kept thinking "I'm going to have to get over this fear and give this a go, I guess"!The owner of the business was Kerryn and her staff helper was Gary.  Gay asked "If I was confident in the water" and he got the answer!  He said "He would help, that was their job".  He stayed with me and literally 'held my hand'!  I actually did enjoy it and the coral was amazing.  Just like the picture books!  We were disappointed though, that Kerryn only had one underwater camera for hire.  We were told to take our own photo memory card, which we thought was a good idea.   No good though if there's not enough gear!  Kerryn may email me some photos, but even if she does it won't be the same as taking them yourself.  Pete was all geared up to be 'ducking and diving' today!  He made me laugh last night when he said "He had better get to sleep, so he was well rested for the ducking and diving"!

Kerryn used to be a farmer in Horsham and she sold her 3,000 acres eight years ago.  She is not making any money with this business, in fact she is losing money she told us.  We questioned if she has enough drive and knowledge of todays technology, to succeed.  She doesn't know what a thumb drive is!  She was on for a good old chat with a couple of farmers.  She lost her partner in a car accident quite a long time ago and has not found anyone she can laugh with since.  Peter and I decided "Unfortunately she hasn't laughed in a long time".  If it helped to talk with us today and make future decisions, then our trip was very worthwhile.   Much more worthwhile than another trip out to the Great Barrier Reef, Pete not getting any 'ducking and diving' practice and no underwater coral photos!  14 photos