WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST     FLYING FISH POINT

Today was grey and cloudy to begin, with light showers.

I should have done the washing today, but thought it wouldn’t get dry. Anyway, John had decreed we should have a drive/sightsee day, and I enjoy that much more than washing.

We drove into Innisfail. During our sojourns of the past few weeks, the federal election date had been confirmed as September 7. It seemed wise to try to vote early, rather than leave it till the day and hope that wherever we were could handle interstate voters. I’d previously checked out early voting on the internet and found there was a centre in town. So we drove there – and found it was the wrong place. The AEC stuffs it up, yet again. We were redirected to the Court House. Right in the centre of town, limited parking. A really logical place to have a pre-poll centre for people who are from out of town – not!

Anyway, did our civic duty. The poll officials were pleasant and efficient. The Senate ballot paper was so huge, these days, with so many ridiculous individuals and small groups putting up candidates. This lunatic fringe really perverts the way the system should work. In my view, either the deposit required from candidates should be raised to a significant amount – say $25,000 – or the percentage of first preferences received in order for the deposit refund should be raised from the current 4% to something like 10%. That might deter the distraction element.

We were then aiming for Mourilyan Harbour, but my navigational abilities came to grief where there was a newish flyover highway section, and we reached Wongan before I realized we were on the Japoonvale road, heading inland. Had to back track, and eventually got to Mourilyan Harbour – a sheltered bay and large estuary, where the Moresby River reaches the sea.

The inlet was much larger than I’d been expecting, and very picturesque. It looked as though there would be good fishing in its waters.

There was a ship in, loading sugar, but it was a much lower-key operation than I had expected. It did appear that there once was a narrow gauge railway going out there, but this was overgrown, so we guessed the sugar now came to the Harbour by road. The entrance to the harbor looked quite narrow. There didn’t seem to be much room for error for a ship coming in and having to turn around to dock at the  sugar loading facility.

There was a large damaged catamaran yacht up on dry ground. It appeared to have been pushed side-on onto rocks – there were significant holes in the side. It did not look to have happened recently, so we speculated  it was maybe a cyclone casualty. There had been a couple of large cyclones cross the coast in these parts in recent years, most recently Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

It seemed surprising that the damaged boat had just been left there. I would have thought that there would be some onus on the owners, or their insurance company, to remove it whilst it was still in once piece? But our ignorance of matters nautical is total, so maybe it is accepted practice to just leave wrecks?

Next destination was the nearby Etty Bay, a place that travel friends had recommended to us, years ago, as being a great place to camp. The road in was hilly and it was a very pretty drive. But there was a sign by the road, on the way down to the settlement, saying No Dogs. So we turned around before even getting to the bottom of the hill and the beach. This was not a place that would receive our patronage, or recommendation, ever.

Back to Innisfail. John wanted a Subway lunch, so I went in to buy those for us. The serving girl was not at all tuned to me. She only had eyes – and, unfortunately, ears – for a friend who was chatting to her, and the good-looking young man behind me in the queue. She totally ignored the second part of my order, which was my sub. Absolutely rubbish service. So I went and bought myself a roll from the bakery over the road. Even that wasn’t nice. I was feeling hard done by, but John enjoyed his sub.

We bought some fruit and vegies at one of the stalls along the Esplanade.

Drove out to Coquette Point, on the southern side of the Johnstone River mouth. It was a pretty drive out there, but not the great views I’d hoped for, at the end of the road.

On the way back, through Innisfail, we got in some ball chasing for Couey, in a nice big park. Her exercise had been pretty limited over the past few days.

Tea was ham steaks, with pineapple and zucchini.

John pointed out that that he had no more clean undies. I really must wash tomorrow!