May 19th & 20th, 2012- Hull Heads Campsite

Saturday morning we bid our adieu to Cairns and the Ransleys as we headed south. The Ransleys will catch up in a day or two after Brett, Jacque, and Adam headed home. We left around 10AM and had a bit of trouble getting out of Cairns so we pulled into Tully before lunch. We stopped in at the Visitor Centre as we didn't know whether the campsite at Hull Head could accommodate large vans. We decided to give it a try because the lady at the Visitor Centre said there was a caravan site there as well.

We made short drive to Hull Head and discovered the campsite at the Coast Guard office had lots of space and a beautiful location. We joined 3 or 4 other vans and set up between the Hull River Estuary and the Ocean. Beautiful location!

We did a nice walk along the beach soaking in the sun and the views. This was near the epicentre of Cyclone Yasi last year and signs of the damage were everywhere. Lots of construction and missing properties. Amazing how much has been rebuilt in a year though and how resilient the people are. Apparently a 6 Metre wall of water swept across the peninsula during the storm. I can't even fathom this as even a couple of metres would have flooded the place by my estimation. We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon enjoying the sun and reading books.

We had rain during the night and the wind has picked up. The wind is coming directly from the East and we are fairly exposed. Put up the awning in the middle of the night and finally got some sleep. The morning was overcast with brief periods of sunshine. We decided to do a tour of the region. First stop was Tully Heads which was just down the road from where we were staying. Another small community that suffered greatly during Cyclone Yasi.

Next stop was Tully and the Giant Gumboot. Tully is officially the wettest town in Australia with about 4.5 Metres of rainfall each year. The Gumboot indicates the the 1950 record of 7.9 Meters. That's a lot of water. Almost an inch a day by my calculations.

We tried to find Alligator Nest but had no luck because of road closures. We continued on a did a nice drive to Bingal Bay and Mission Beach. Beautiful lush green hills and rugged coast line. The beaches and coastline are not that attractive at the moment because the water is dirty and there is a lot of debris. I don't know if this is the normal situation or because of the strong winds and/or Yasi damage. Mission Beach is a very touristy place with a great view of Dunk Island. We stopped in at the local markets and had a quick lunch at a cafe before continuing on with our tour. We completed the loop through Mission Beach South and back to the highway.

On our return journey we tried Alligator Nest from a different approach and did eventually find it. A nice quiet picnic spot where 3 creeks meet to form a larger one. Swimming hole looked nice but not warm enough today. We returned home to Hull Head in the early afternoon. We enjoyed another nice walk on the beach before dinner. We think we might stay one more night as is a very beautiful location and reasonably priced at $13/night.