Here we sit in Sarina - an unplanned but delightful stop. The town is a sugar town - the mill and it's steam billowing out from tall hardworking chimneys dominates the skyline from all directions. The name Sarina ( according to Dr Google of course) means princess, one who laughs. As a major supplier of ethanol to CSR through its distillary - the name seems apt as I am sure that the ethanol has brought much laughter as well as tears . Sitting on Yuwibara country and with a population of just over 5,000 souls (2016), the town was originally known as Plane Creek but was renamed after the Sarina Inlet by surveyer William Wilson sometime prior to 1882.
A number of sporting heros cut their teeth here: Wendell Sailor, Daly Cherry-Evans and Dale Shearer to name but three - well, that is most of them but it is a small town :)
Buffy - the very large cane toad - dominates the park in the main street. Stolen once and now attached to a concrete base, Buffy started out life as a paper mache and chicken wire float in the Apex Sugar Parade in 1984 and has since been 'fibreglassed' and given to the town to celebrate it's cane history. Given that this is the tropics - probably a very wise move to fibreglass it!
Picked up 50% of Sarina's geocache collection (that being - 2).
This a town to comeback to - plenty of RV parking, a sugar experience (mini-mill tour!!) and a highly regarded museum open only on a Wednesday due to a lack of volunteers - no, we didn't.
The road here - the Bruce - was busy with caravans heading north. We stopped at Rollingstone Caravan Park perfectly located ocean side looking out towards Palm Islands. Here we met some interesting people - they asked us to join them in a drink and then proceeded to share their ideas on the value of Trump, hydroxychloroquie and Pauline Hanson. Declaring that White Lives Matter, appearing to be unable to comprehend the BLM movement or meaning they then shared their feelings of negativity because they were from Victoria - I suggest that their state of origin was not the reason. When one of them vomited, catching P's leg and nobody got up to assist their cult member, we departed, grateful that they were travelling north and we, south.
As Ned said - "Such is life" :)
The coastline here is stunning and mesmorising. The dawn sky was breathtaking - I walked towards the beach feelingas if I was entering a vault, the ceiling of which was an sublime work of art painted by a thousand Michael Angelos.
We came through the beautiful Cardwell and looked across to the Whitsundays from beautiful Bowen (home of the Big Mango).
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