Day 55 - Wonga Beach

Today it was time to leave Cairns, very sad, as none of us were ready to go.  The kids just loved it at the Coconut Caravan park and it was nice to have bitumised roads, lawn and manicured gardens for a short time!!!  No sand in the van.  But, we couldn't afford to stay here too long.

However, before we left Cairns, we had to get another vent put into the side of the van for the fridge.  After all the dramas we had with the fridge in Broome, we thought it was all sorted, however, when we were in the heat in Kakadu, the fridge struggled. When we got to Cairns we had the element looked at, we thought it had gone again, however, we learnt  that the problem was with the vent, because we have a larger than average fridge, the vent that was put into the van was for a smaller fridge, so it was in the wrong place for the heat to escape, so we had another vent installed in the right place!!!!  I tell you what, whoever buys this van after us is going to have everything in excellent working order.

So, we killed some time down at the Esplanade again while we waited for the van.  The kids love swimming down there, it is such a lovely spot. We then headed for the Wonga Beach Caravan Park, along the windy, scary roads.  We only had 90km to go, but it felt like a lot longer than that.  We pulled into Palm Cove to have lunch and show the kids where Glen and I stayed when we came over in 2007.  The weather has deteriorated, it was just blowing a gale and we all put jumpers on and hid in the van from the wind to eat our lunch.  I couldn't believe people were still happy to swim!!!

We arrived at Wonga Beach, a quaint little park right on the beach, just north of Port Douglas, full of long term residents.  It reminds us a bit of Eighty Mile Beach.  It is much smaller, but everyone has their own little signs on their caravans, they are all so friendly and there are regular fish and chips and casserole nights and they invite everyone to come along.  We got the prime location.  Our caravan is right next to the walk way to the beach and from the back of our caravan to the water's edge it would be about 40m when the tide it in.  The only thing separating us from the water is the palm trees.  The rainforest certainly meets the sea here.  The caravan park is just overgrown with ferns, palms and trees, and when we arrived the neighbour gave us an old doona to put on the bonnet of the car to protect it from the nuts that fall out of the trees!!!  We booked in for two nights, but before we hit the sack, we know that we will stay longer as everyone just loves it here.



The kids head straight for the beach.  It is blowing a gale and only about 24C, however, they love exploring and start collecting skimming rocks and old coconuts.  They spend the whole afternoon trying to crack open the cococuts, drawing in the sand and Cody loves flipping the washed up jelly fish with a stick!!!!  Tori thinks this is better than the Coconut Caravan park.  We certainly lovely being back to basics with the friendly people, just nature to entertain us and you truly can't beat listening waves all night.  Glen and I are also enjoying the half priced powered site!!!!