When life gives you lemons, make mango sorbet

Hi there! Welcome to rainy/flooding season in northern QLD! Where it just never seems to stop raining!

Tropical low U29 (just a step below a named cyclone) was a very warm, very wet welcome to our time in Northern Queensland. Where we last left you, we were spending time with the coolest Australian resident animals and, sadly, not Robert Irwin. Since then, we made quite a bit of progress on our road trip and spent a little bit of time in the Sunshine Coast and Noosa.

Then we left the dry, warm, sunny days and sprinted across the northern coast of the continent. That's when the rain started.

The first night was only a drizzle, but it was accompanied by high humidity, high temperatures, and high bug concentrations, so we had to deploy our most evasive tactic: running Olga's AC in short bursts to keep us from heat exhaustion overnight.

The rain did temporarily stop, and we got to see some very cool wildlife at the St Lawrence Wetlands. James got friendly with some cool birds and some kangaroos, but got sized up by some others.

Then we continued towards what was then a cyclone, and into the rain.

In these grey, cloudy, gloomy, rainy days, we've discovered that Katie really hates the rain. Like loathes it. Nothing puts her in a worse mood. Well, not the rain itself, but when living out of a car, and having limited space, meaning no space to get out of the rain and even less space to dry our wet things, Katie is in a really bad mood. So this week has been a particularly difficult one for her as it's rained every day. Most of the day. And everything is wet.

But there's hope! A rainbow through all the rain! The rainy season is coming to an end! Yay! However, with it being towards the end of the rainy season, this means that it's been raining for months, and everything is so wet that it's saturated. So there's nowhere for any new rain to go but flood everything...

Flooding has significantly impacted the list of activities that we've wanted to do, so we now have a shiny new list of activities that we want to go back to when they are open, and the roads aren't fully underwater.

The flooding has also provided some entertainment, for example, watching these guys fish off the side of the highway. Also, we've been attempting to use a $4 tarp, 2 short pieces of rope and a very long piece of paracord to keep at least some of our windows dry enough to have ventilation overnight. That's kinda fun.

And there are other beacons of light in the rain, too, like giant mangoes on the side of the road. Yes, mangoES, not just a one-time thing, but there have been 2 separate massive roadside mangoes within a few kms of each other. At these mangoes, there are even sometimes some very nice Australians with TONS of recommendations for activities that we can do. As long as they aren't closed.

Past the mangoes, equipped with enough brochures to make another tarp, we arrived in Townsville, yet another beacon of light in the rain because by some miracle it doesn't rain here (at least not that often), they get 300 days of sunshine/year! Townsville had a super cool Esplanade (we're still trying to figure out how this word is pronounced; if anyone with some insight could let us know, that would be greatly appreciated). But this walk by the water has gorgeous views of the next land mass over, Magnetic Island. So gorgeous in fact that we just had to take a ferry over and see the gorgeousness for ourselves.

For a reason that we can no longer recall, we decided to take the 5 AM ferry, meaning a 4 AM wake-up call. That did mean we got to see the sunrise almost by ourselves on a beautiful rock-lined beach. "Almost" by ourselves, except for 2 German girls, one of whom required some medical attention from our first aid kit, but don't worry, Steri Strips weren't needed here. And the sky was very pretty. Then we got to spend some time with some rock wallabies, perhaps the cutest of the kangaroo/pademelon/wallaby family that we've spent time with so far! The rest of the day on Magnetic Island was for relaxing, soaking up the sun, unfortunately not swimming in the ocean, because it was too rough, but we did find a hotel pool for a dip, and testing out Magnetic Island Brewing.

Then it was back to the mainland. The next day, we got to see Townsville from above, then we continued on our journey to Ingham! Ingham is a very small town with not much going on except for really cool wetlands, but this is what we came for, and we were super excited to see over 220 bird species! Except, they were flooded, and a croc got over the fence, so the wetlands were closed. Another thing added to the list to return to in a drier season!

Ingham did have a very good cafe, named JK's Deli, which felt like a personal calling, so we tested out their sandwiches and meat pie and were very impressed. Our campsite for the night was also closed due to flooding (are you seeing a theme?), so we spent the night at a private little spot on the road to the campground with just us and the mosquitoes. We even tried to bait in some creatures to join us by dropping a pan full of sausages on the ground, but no takers, and it made our dinner a bit smaller too.

The flooded and closed trend continued as our planned activity of the Cardwell Forest Drive, including destinations such as a lookout, Attie Creek Falls, Dead Horse Creek, and Spa Pools, was also closed. Getting tired of seeing "closed" signs everywhere we go, we tried to do some sneaky off-roading and use the road under the powerlines to get between the lookout and the falls. But we didn't quite trust Olga (or our abilities) enough to make it down a small section of road that had been washed out, leaving behind a 2-foot cliff and a lot of boulders. We put in a valiant effort; if only James had a shovel, he would've rearranged the road enough for us to at least make it once through this section.

Disappointed but still keen for a swim, we found a nice swimming spot in the 5-mile creek for a dip before our next adventure: tracking down the endangered, elusive, very hard-to-find cassowary.

For those of you not in Australia, a cassowary is basically a black emu with a blue head and a massive toenail-looking horn on the top of its head. Not the cutest birds, or the friendliest, but still a feat to find.

We went on two birding walks, through swarms of mosquitoes, to track down these shifty birds AND booked a campsite at THE spot to see cassowaries, only to see TWO adults AND a juvenile just on the side of the road. (This was a very lucky sighting). And even more lucky, in the morning, at our fancy campsite, James got chased by one around the car.

With no slashes to report, we packed up and continued to the Atherton Tablelands. This is a beautiful region, a little bit cooler and at a higher elevation, just outside of Cairns. We went on some really nice walks, saw a very cool curtain fig tree, and swam quite a bit. Swimming in freshwater swimming holes (which are thankfully crocodile-free) has been our staple activity when all else to do is flooded. We've found some really nice spots like Babinda Boulders, Dinner Falls, and Lake Eacham (which is in fact NOT crocodile-free). James was a bit apprehensive of swimming in croc-infested waters, but rest assured, there is only one in the whole lake, and he's a freshie, so they are typically more timid and will only bite when provoked.

The last stop before Cairns was Kuranda, where we checked out the markets (specifically the OG market, iykyk), got attacked by unfairly treated birds at BirdWorld, and walked down to Baron Falls.

Fun fact: In the non-rainy season, the water at these falls is reduced to a trickle! What a crazy thought!! A season without rain?? Katie's dream!!

But for now, we are in place in the rainy season. We've spent the last couple of days getting situated in Cairns, we've started applying for jobs, looking for apartments and getting settled! The road trip is officially over! You heard it here first! Summary post coming soon!