Mission Beach

I’m sick to death of people saying we’ve made 11 albums that sound exactly the same, infact, we’ve made 12 albums that sound exactly the same”

-Angus Young (AC/DC)

I picked up the rental car in Cairns, loaded it up with camping supplies and proceeded south along the coast to Mission Beach.   My plan was simple,  I was to spend the next two months travelling down the coast. I would alternate staying in caravan parks and hostels. Since Cairns was a hostel stay; Mission Beach would be a camping stay. It was pouring rain here when I arrived.  I sat in the car and waited for the rain to subside so I could pitch my tent.  It was getting dark so all I had time to do was pitch the tent and jump inside.  There I was in a small two man tent listening to the various sounds of animals in the Australian rainforest.  I was so petrified that I never slept a wink.  I had my trusty Swiss army knife by my side at all times. 

Around 5 or 6 am that first morning I heard the loudest birds I’ve ever in my life.  They are the Kookaburras and they would be my 6 am wakeup call for majority of my trip.

I was alone on the beach for almost 2 days.  I felt like Tom Hanks in Castaway. (Although I had a ton of food).  I spent my days wandering the beach drinking beer and eating coconuts.  They had these coconut cracking stations all up and down the beach. What the pictures do not show is just how hard it was to break the coconuts open. I’ve never used so many swear words in my life. The coconut is now a F@#@in coconut and it will always be.  The island shown in the distance is Dunk Island. I decide a trip was in order to Dunk Island. That’s another page.

Interesting to note is my near-death experience. I was unloading newspapers into to recycling pile when I looked down just in time to see a snake make a half strike at my ankle. The caravan owner who had been standing nearby yelled “that’s a brownie, Watch Out!” I knew through my reading that he was talking about an Eastern Brown. The third most poisonous snake in the world. My trip and life were almost ended at the beginning. The only other near fatal experience I had for the rest of the trip was a surfboard bump on the head and some bad Thai food.