Tully Gorge

Sun 28 June… As we couldn’t make our minds up which beach to lounge about on, we opt to go and see Tully Gorge 40 odd Ks inland, That’s after having a natter with John and Vanessa at roughly £1 per minute. Oh Dear!!
As we have said the main agriculture is sugar cane, but as we travel inland the cane gives way to banana plantations, a chimps paradise. Now we have vast areas of bananas which are sold for as little as $1 for a “hand” a bunch. We’ve never had bananas straight from the plant before they are excellent. The road through the gorge is a bit narrow but sealed and the gorge itself is at the bottom of some very high hills which are covered in tropical rain forest. If we can find somewhere where the internet works we will send some pictures. The road ends at a power station which is where they put the rafts into the water, to do white water rafting. It’s said to be the best place in Australia and New Zealand for ww rafting but having seen some of the rivers in New Zealand we are not too sure. Following the river back we stop off at a couple of lookouts to watch the inflatable rafts as they come down the river. Although the river isn’t in flood it looks to be quite an adrenalin rush for those in the rafts. We are stood on a platform a good way above the rapids, so the effect is not the same. Peter would love to have a go though!! Back through the bananas and into Tully, which has a big sugar processing plant in the town. Like Mount Isa it has a couple of enormous chimneys belching out smoke except here it smells of horlicks sometimes or caramelised sugar. It’s a mystery to us how they can turn sugar cane from a brown mulch into a small bag of pure white sugar. Saddo Navvo says they do conducted tours of the mill, but we give it a miss.