Hazel does Australia: Mission Beach - not much there but still an adventure!

I'm not sure what I expected in Misson Beach but I expected SOMETHING! There seems to be nothing to do here except skydive and white water rafting. Ask a travel agent on the east coast the best place to skydive and they'll say Mission Beach and I have to say at one point I was tempted. Somehow I resisted the temptation and I think fate played a part as both days I've been here the skydives have been cancelled due to bad weather. The bad weather heightened the boredom. Pounding the roof, the rain has poured both nights I've been here and with a 50% chance of rain tonight there may be a repeat performance from the sky. Every day had been cloudy but surprisingly warm.

Yesterday I was raring to make the most of seeing the area which is split into 4 villages - South Mission, Wongaling Beach, Mission Beach and Bingil Bay spread over a distance of around 10 miles. On Wednesday evening the bus dropped us at Wongaling Beach and the sight of a huge Woolworths supermarket, coupled with the drive through Mission Beach where restaurants and bars lit the street gave me the impression that there would be lots to see and do. The shuttle took longer to get to the hostel than expected (Jackaroos is based in Bingil Bay) and as we pulled up I realised we were in the middle of nowhere.

So Thursday morning I was keen to return to see what was on offer in the main Mission Beach. Aware that the weather forecast was poor, I spent the morning reading and caught the 12pm shuttle bus from the hostel, thinking I'd get lunch while I was out. On the bus I was brightly asked 'Where do you want to go? Woollies or town?' 'Town please!' I responded, creating a picture in my head of a reasonable metropolis. Oh, how wrong I was. I'd seen everything there was to see within 10 minutes and the majority of outlets were cafés or restaurants. Lucky I was there for lunch but once I'd finished there was nothing else to do! Add to that the fact that the return bus wasn't for another 3 hours and I was 4.6 miles from the hostel along a narrow, twisty, at times cliff top road, I didn't fancy walking along!

So I decided to walk to Woolworths in Wongaling Beach where I could also buy much needed supplies for dinner and the following days (as I said before, the hostel was in the middle of nowhere!). My faithful iphone said it was a distance of 2.3 miles so I imagined a pleasant 40 minute walk. At this point, common sense failed me when I decided to trust the route on my iphone over the local map I'd collected from the hostel.

Signs like this struck me as a sensible route to take!

My confusion over this strange set of villages was deepened when I found these fabulous apartments surrounded by... Nothing!

Enjoying the sound of the splashing waves I continued along the winding pathuntil it took be back onto a road. Checking the the trusted iphone map, the road I was supposed to be following (and didn't exist on the local map) was nowhere to be seen, only a path onto the beach. I wasn't feeling keen to turn back on myself so I followed the track onto the sand. Now I'm no expert on the ocean but judging by the lines on the beach I guessed (and hoped) that the tide was going out. The beach wasn't very wide so I hoped my instincts were correct and I had visions of me scrambling through the undergrowth, trapped by the incoming sea!

I was merrily walking along the beach, refering to my phone from time to time to see how much further I had to go. After around 20 minutes of walking along the beach I came to a creek. This was wasn't on my iPhone's map!!! In a 'we're going on a bear hunt' moment I thought 'I'm going to have to go through it!' so with trainers off and trousers rolled up I began to wade through. I had no idea how deep it was but tried to take the shallowest route. Feet sinking in the sand, my right trouser leg got drenched! Fortunately, the water was no further than just above my knee and so I continued along the beach, rather hurriedly to I beat the tide I still was unsure of.

Finally I made it to a flying Australian flag which signalled a path onto one of the roads of Wongaling Beach where I could dry my feet and remove the sand with my scrunched up socks. It was still another 20 minutes or so before I reached the supermarket where I had to embarrassingly complete my shopping with one trouser leg a darker shade of grey than the other!

Knowing that I'd pretty much experienced the area, I found a cheap set of loom bands while I was waiting for the return bus so I've amused myself with those today (Friday).

I started with a straightforward one...

...before moving onto more complicated ones!

Yesterday I'd set Jamie the challenge of having something to show me when I FaceTimed today and I was in for a treat. After a morning of cutting, sticking and painting I was wowed by this rather spectacular creation - Priscilla Queen of the Desert shoe and all! - as well as a Sammy the Seahorse dance. Isn't technology great that I could enjoy all of this from the other side of the world!