Townsville to Cairns

5 June - Rollingstone to Tully Gorge State Forest

We camped next to a couple of interesting young guys last night who were more than a little down on their luck. Travelling in a seriously ill Excel and down to their last $2 and packet of instant noodles, they started the afternoon rigging up a flying fox , partly to entertain the large crowd of nomads gathered at the fantastic (free) Bushy Parker Park in Rollingstone, just north of Townsville and partly to “earn“ a few much-needed dollars. The failure of this venture was probably indicative of the trail of stumbles and falls that brought these two likely lads to our door. Our neighbours on the other side slipped them food and beer as the evening wore on, but it was we who enjoyed their tales of woe into the evening.

We never exchanged names. One of ‘the boys’ was Canadian/Australian via an Aussie step-father. The other considered himself Irish/Australian or Australian/Irish because he had an Irish fiancée?? They were a couple of real characters who had travelled the world and done all sorts of things, including their last disastrous gig as “chef” and “sous-chef” at … wait for it…the Crown Hotel in Home Hill where they had been sacked after only a couple of days by the ‘mad woman’ owner.

Now, going back a week or so, while camping at Groper Creek , we had dropped into the old Crown Hotel to purchase some supplies. The family that has owned the hotel for decades, the Bonkes, had kids at school when Paul taught there. While acquiring said ‘supplies’ Paul had recontacted the current owner whom he had taught over 30 years ago.. Yep, the one and same ‘mad woman’ owner, well remembered by us, because her name is … Juanita.

Were these knights of the road, ne’er-do-well primary school dropouts or petty criminals on the lam? No. Just a couple of happy-go-lucky, rogue, but highly-qualified Social Workers. Not surprisingly, they were a little rocked by Paul’s views on their sainted profession based on his experiences of their kind in his time in Corrections and Child Safety.

The people you meet! And how closely is the world connected?

Alone again tonight in the tropical hinterland of Tully, we have the beautiful Tully Gorge Forest Park totally to ourselves. Our music is only disturbing the bush turkeys and the millions of banana trees that line the roads to this nicely isolated neck of the woods.