South Mission Beach–9 to 13 September 2011

Still going South we visited the Sugar Museum at Mourilyan.

Sugar is extracted by crushing Sugar Cane, a form of grass. Sugar is made in the leaves and concentrated in the stem (or cane) part of the grass; it grows to about 2 meters high.

It is quite hard to cut and very heavy to load and most of the museum concentrated on the development of mechanical cutters and loaders.

It is the major crop from Mossman south to Grafton. They are harvesting and refining at the moment and the air smells like toffee cooking.

We then drove south to Mission Beach, one of the nicest beaches in Australia. We camped at South Mission Beach. We have enjoyed relaxing and reading and long walks on the Beach.

Mission Beach took a direct hit from Cyclone Yasi. The beach is still lovely and the houses seem to have mostly survived.
We stayed at the Beachcomber Coconut Park.

The cafe here makes very nice coffee. If one walks along the beach towards Wongaling for about 40 minutes there is a great cafe, Nana Thai, just the sort you hope to find, home grown herbs and veggies and very refined cooking right on the Beach. If one doesn't feel like walking it is a five minute drive.