QLD - Mission Beach

We’ve finally arrived at Mission Beach – and the first thing Marc wants to do is kayak across to an island and back - some 4 km out to sea!! Once again, Evelyn has to talk some sense into Marc and convince him to do the paddle around the bay instead, much more doable since we have never canoed before…

So we got all suited up for our 1 hour paddle and Marc looked ridiculously funny wearing lycra long pants over his shorts (needed against the stingers if we fall out). We paddled out and came across our first turtle - he appeared very friendly and didn't dive or hide, but just floated around for us to take a few pics. Spurred on by our success, we paddled on to Elephant rocks where all the turtles supposedly hang out. We were a bit concerned about banking on the rocks themselves as the tide was quite strong, and we didn't manage to see anything until we moved away from the rocks. Needless to say this one was playing games, and when we got close he dove, and when he resurfaced he was quite far away again ;(

On our way back, Evelyn spotted some stingrays in the shallows, and when also back at our beach we found our friendly turtle again, in almost the same place as before. We then realised that it wasn't moving and much to our dismay, wasn't friendly, but in actual fact dead!! So our only photos of a turtle are those of a dead turtle ;(

Once back on dry land we discovered that we were out at sea for 2 hours!! No wonder why Ev was feeling a little nauseous!

Whilst eating our hotdogs for lunch, we were entertained by some macho boys trying to climb a coconut tree for nuts. It took them about 10 minutes to finally get something. What made it even more hilarious was when Marc got up he found a freshly fallen coconut in the arch of a tree nearby, without so much as breaking a sweat :D As Marc had found one, Evelyn felt like she too needed to get her hands on one... and found one the same way as Marc.

We then found out that there was a coconut opener (much like a can opener) a little further down the beach. So off we went... When we finally found it, we could barely reach it due to the mound of discarded coconut shells. Once we scrambled to the top we managed to work it and crack the shell open. Unfortunately we did such a cracking job that the milk leaked out ;( we took a bit more care with the other one, and peeled it perfectly ;) we enjoyed the coconut of the leaky one, and decided to save the other one for later (though we forgot about it, and when we remembered it had gone off ;( )

After all that hard work we decided to go for a swim in the enclosed netted area - lycra suits no where to be seen thankfully :) But after a few sightings of blue bottles that had got through the net, we decided to call it a day...

When we arrived at the campsite we asked directions to the nearest bottle store - Marc in desperate need for some beer. The owner of the campsite asked us nicely to get him some beers too and gave us directions to the DRIVE THROUGH bottle store - yep!! It's drive through. The shop has a driveway, you get out, find your beer, then hop back in your car. Its not a drive through in the traditional sense, but still pretty convenient (we've since seen drive through dry-cleaning and drive through photo-developing!!).

We had to pick up a case of Tooheys New stubbies, which baffled us slightly, but we cracked it!! Case = 24, stubbies = bottles ;) We had a little joke with the campsite dude by short changing him, and though he didnt quite get it, he invited us to a BBQ that evening. In the end, most of the campsite turned up and it was a strange old night. This guy was a retired cop, and a couple from England were also cops, so we ended chatting about murderers and the cops were exchanging horror stories about Fred West & Lyndy Chamberline to name a few!! Sweet dreams for all that night ;)