Day 31 - The last Oz Ex bus

We were sad to leave Reef Lodge and Townsville behind but the trip must go on! We got on our last Oz Ex bus that would take us right through to Cairns and were pleased to see that our last driver was the same guy who’d been our first driver (Bud.) He recognised us and was clearly emotional over this strange coincidence (Well there was a 1 in 9 chance of the driver being him!)

We drove through Cardwell where we saw the effects, 1 year on, of Cyclone Yasi and we also (well Danny did) saw the Big Crab as we passed through here.

We then went to Tully where we saw, and climbed, the Big Gumboot (The Golden Gumboot has been awarded to Tully, as usual, for most rainfall throughout the year averaging at about 4 metres.) The Big Gumboot is about 7.9 metres tall in remembrance of the year where they had 7.9 metres of rainfall in the year... Today was very sunny!

After this we dropped a passenger off at Mission Beach; where we also saw the Big Cassowary (3^rd largest flightless bird and an endangered bird at that.)

Next it was on to Murdering Point Winery (a place that specialises in wines and ports etc made from tropical fruits etc.) Here we all tried 10 of the products made here including: lychee wine, mango wine, pineapple port, mint cream liqueur, and jaboticaba red wine. We ended up purchasing 2 bottles of their passion fruit sweet wine for $20 as it was tasty and, perhaps more importantly, on a 2 for 1 offer!

Our next stop was at Babinda (Tully’s main rival for most rainfall in the year and current holder of the golden gum boat… but only as they haven’t given it back to Tully in the past 3 years or so!) We stopped her to do a 20 minute walk to the Babinda Boulders; this was nice and much less strenuous than the Castle Hill walk!

After these stops we continued up to Cairns where we checked in to the Caravella 149 hostel and got all giddy over the size of our rooms (dining area, bathroom and bedroom) and what was included for the $60 per night price tag – a bargain.

After settling in we headed up the road to the Woolshed bar where we met up with our Oz driver Bud for a few drinks and a very, very nice meal for $7.50 each. We had a good conversation with Bud about all sorts before calling it quits and going back to our luxury hostel.