19 - the Sept 15th - Mission beach

 Day 19 - the  Sept 15th - Mission beach


We had a rare very early wake up and decided to see if some cassowary sighting could happen. Mama breastfed looking over the beach as the sun rose, and we all enjoyed a hot drink while watching the foot traffic. 







A dad pushing his toddler along the wet sand on a trike, people walking dogs, a guy turning up in his Ute for a swim.

 As the swimmer showered after his very quick dip, mama asked if he was worried about the wildlife (crocodile and stinger warning signs were up everywhere), “nah, frankly, there’s nowhere for a croc to stash a body”. He suggested the creek mouth a bit further up was different, but no worries swimming here. After more probing, we learned he was a farmer, he’d just been to the gym between farm duties, and this was his cool down ritual - gotta love QLD for this. He was quizzed about the cassowaries, and suggested they were pretty much never around when you wanted to see them, but he’d seen one a couple of days previous. He’d had zero luck finding any when he had people visiting. This was not reassuring.


The BBQ was central to the morning meal, after which a swim in the pool was required (our first full immersion in QLD this trip).

 Nastya was overjoyed, as she’s a lover of all water related things. She was super chuffed to be swimming in hot weather in a proper pool. 



After building sand castles and playing guitar on the beach (and making sure the castles were destroyed thoroughly each time), papa and Sasha hunted the caravan park for cassowaries - still no luck, not sure Sasha believed they existed at this point. All the while, people were going about their business, having fun and laughing and holidaying as if the severe shortage of tall colourful murderous birds did not SCREAM from every visible corner of mission beach. 


Useful knowledge we had gleaned from the locals was that Spicy Thai hut was the bees knees, and if we wanted to eat food from there, it was best to go down at five and order in person. 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057666330278&sk=reviews




The restaurant existed in the patio of a neat large brick home. We were greeted by the chef's husband, who had already put out the fully booked sign, but not the “no more take away” one. He looked perhaps like he’d be more comfortable on the other side of the bar, in Bali, with 20 of his mates, but he played up the older relaxed Aussie to his advantage and we could see it was a hit with regulars coming through. We ordered betel leaf shooters, basil crispy pork belly and pad Thai with coconut rice. 

We enquired about wildlife and our host proudly showed us a phone video of a juvenile cassowary strutting through the dining room from two days previous. Then sent us to the backyard where we found wallabies inspecting some recent earth works. 








A quick walk down the street revealed precisely zero cassowaries also. We spotted some curlews “hiding” in the middle of a freshly mown field, and Sasha got to observe their strange walk… but alas, nothing tall, powerful, vicious and bird-like came forth. 




Dinner was delicious, like seriously, seriously good. It was a rare time of  no left overs. The only thing that could have made it better was a cassowary… 







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