Ingham

Off to Wallaman Falls this morning, an hours west of Ingham and via a scenic route that showed the first signs of the devastation from cyclone Yasi.  Tree after tree was leaning, snapped off or pushed over with very few unaffected in some way.  The drive was quite pretty and all the more interesting because of the buildings that were clearly affected and still unrepaired.  We're not quite sure why a lot of buildings still have tarps on the roof and we can only guess that many didn't have insurance. Sad.  So the climb up to the falls was hair raising and particularly steep.  We passed a nasty black snake about to cross the road in front of us and my heart stopped.  The view at the top was magical and well worth the long climb. Wallaman Falls is the largest waterfall in Australia with a sheer drop of 305m.  It was big.  And blowy and cold and we stayed for all of 10 minutes.  Plus I was convinced the kids would go over the edge so I was more than happy to get back into the car.  Back to Ingham for lunch.  We were expecting restaurants, cafes, clubs, anything that slightly resembled the fine eateries in Griffith, but they must all eat at home.  Apart from Lou's amazing deli and JK's that we had done the day before, there's not much to choose from and we should know, as we painstakingly went into every shop to check them all out.  By the time we made a decision and went back to the only place that did pizzas, they shut their "roller door" down in front of us just as we pulled up at all of 1.40 pm on a Friday afternoon. So we headed out of town to Lucinda to the "best" fish and chip shop in Queensland apparently.  Whatever, we've heard it all before.  We drove past plenty of cane fields, cane trains and again much destruction from the cyclone.  And this is 100km south of the eye of the storm, so we're hanging to see Mission Beach and Tully. Lucinda has the worlds longest jetty, at just under 6km out to sea and is used to load sugar cane on to ships. Very impressive, but again its not working due to Yasi.  And to our delight, the fish and chips were pretty dam good which was amazing given it was the only shop in town, other than the pub, which is also fantastic apparently on weekends. Back via Taylors Beach (blink and you'd miss it) via the Sugar Mill which is also the largest in the southern hemisphere.  Home via another trip to Lou's Deli and this time I did some damage. Mushroom and truffle paste, calabrese spaghetti, mascarpone filled figs, cannolis waiting to be filled with ricotta, and on it goes.  Ah my waistline.  The dinner dilemma turned out to be a success not before a stop at the local RSL which many at the caravan park had talked up considerably.  It was full of grannies (albeit Italian ones), a guy belting out Neil Diamond, the obligatory chook raffle and the clincher, bain maries heating up the meat that was massacred.  Ah not what we were after.  So over to the Tropixx Hotel, that "Lou" from Lou's Deli had recommended.  And it was tops.  Modern cuisine, nice decor and loads of seafood.  Rick had a seafood platter and I had veal masala.  We were the last to leave, the kids were excellent and the place was a hit.  Go Ingham, you've redeemed yourself at the eleventh hour.