Date of Adventure Approximately 27 October to 4 November 2024
It’s time to write something about the time I spent in Mareeba and some random observations. Not the least because it might seem like I wasn’t doing anything for a while.
I’m going to open the blog up to comments so you can write below, if you like. But if I start getting snotty remarks from unknown readers I’ll close it down. Internet trolling is a sore point of mine.
Upon getting into Mareeba one of the first things I did was to wash the red dust off of the Troopy. It was everywhere. I have this opinion that dust and sand, etc will just get in all joints and start to wear things down. And there was enough dust that I couldn’t touch anything without getting it on my hands, pants, feet… The Troopy is pretty well sealed so there wasn’t much inside, just whatever I’d tracked in. Also, while at the campground, Mareeba Bush Stays, I climbed up on the roof and did a really good cleaning of the solar panel and the rest of the roof. It all sounds easy but it took some time and it felt good to get it fairly clean. You can still see red dust in a few places. I doubt if it’ll ever get completely removed since I’ll start adding more before too long. Oh yeah, I got my hair cut, really short. And that was a relief. I’ve got to do it more often.
And one of the important things! Change the oil and get the Troopy lubed. It’s going to be a ways until the next sizeable town where I’m going to stop. Probably Alice Springs.
I took a few side trips while taking it easy. Going back to some point as I was driving down from the tip of Cape York. I was hot and kind of tired and it occurred to me that this is not a “gentleman’s trip” as I like to think about it. If you watch YouTube videos of people touring Australia there are a couple of things that kind of stand out. Most of them look pretty clean and cheery. Well, that’s what you have to do to be an “influencer”. For me, the reality is a lot different. First of all I don’t have a home that I’ll return to in two weeks or a month to unpack, clean everything, and put stuff away. It’s all being done on the fly and I have to think that it’s going to be like this for another 10 months. (BTW, I got my visa approved so I’m good until about 24 August 2025. I could use about a month more.) So I’m going to frequently be sweaty with red dirt on my pants and a slightly smelly Tshirt. That is an important realization. You can say, “Well, of course.” But it’s coming to the internal realization and acceptance that was valuable to me. That also carries over into things like cooking. I had this idea that I’d kind of continue with my old cooking habits. Actually, one pot meals and simple things are pretty important when living like this. Gotta save water among other things. That doesn’t mean eating junk but it does preclude fancier stuff. That “gut realization” is one of the reasons why I feel like this trip will be good for me. Get out of my preconceived ideas and into something a little more basic.
Alright. Back to the side trips. An interesting one was to the town of Kuranda, east of Mareeba in the rain forest. It’s a really touristy town with lots of shops geared to tourists, mostly coming from Cairns. In spite of the tourist aspects, I actually liked the town. Unfortunately the day I got there everything shut down at about 3:00 and I was a little late. If I weren’t going to be travelling for another 10 months and already have too much crap in the Troopy, I would have bought some of the tirnkets, like boomerangs. These are made by Aboriginal artisans in the area. As an aside, the last few weeks I’ve been in Aboriginal country and probably the majority of the people that I’ve been seeing are of some Aboriginal descent.
Barron Falls is in the area nearby and definitely worth the visit. It’s a pretty spectacular falls and gave me a chance for a short hike in the rainforest. I’m not doing enough hiking!! The pictures don’t do it justice.
The other cool side trip was to Yungabarra. There is a spot along the river where platypus are known to live and can often be seen. About as soon as I got to the place that’s suggested there was one swimming around in the pool. He or she was there for a bit then disappeared and reappeared about 10 minutes later. They are pretty rare and hard to see so I was happy to have made it. I know the photo doesn’t show much and in person you can’t see a lot. They just swim right at the surface then dive.
The Curtain Fig Tree is only a few kilometers down the road. When I was in the rainforest before I got the explanation of these vines. They are related to figs. Birds deposit the seeds somewhere high in a tree in the rainforest and they germinate and then start to drop the vines to the ground. Then more seeds and more vines. Eventually the vines strangle the original tree. In this case the original tree fell over when it died and was caught in another tree so the vines continued to grow into this curtain. Makes for an interesting plant, eh? This curtain is very unusual. Usually the vines just kill the tree and it stays upright. Because of the interesting nature of this one it’s very important in the local Aboriginal lore. I’m leaving this general area but this really is a spectacular rainforest.
For a little weirdness: As I entered Mareeba at the very beginning I saw a sign for Mango Wines. So towards the end of my stay I decided I’d better go check it out. I got there late in the afternoon but they were willing to allow me to taste several of the wines. The mango wine was OK. Not great. I thought that the sweeter wine would taste a lot like mangos but it was relatively plain. They make a few cordials but I’m not much on sweet wines so I tried a couple but can’t really judge them. It’s an interesting idea but not a wine I’d go out of my way to get.
Perhaps the most valuable thing about my Mareeba time was the realization that I don’t have to hurry things. It’s a hard lesson to learn and one that I still haven’t completely conquered. I have a terrible tendency to keep moving. It’s something that I’ve known about for a long time and have worked at controlling with very little success. But the time since I left Cooktown a couple of weeks ago until now has sort of sunk in. I was hoping to be more deliberate and present. I think that it’s something that is really hard…at least for me. It’s kind of hard to describe this. When I was working there were always things to keep me busy. After retiring not so much. But somehow my psyche kept saying, “Stay busy!” The result, for me, included a lot of time wasters and especially a lot of useless online time. Following things that are truly unimportant. I think that two weeks of being somewhat in the middle of nowhere and limited internet access have all helped make a big step forward. I’ve still got my Starlink and I still turn it on as needed. That’s kind of a negative! But it is important for safety and staying in touch with friends. I’ve just got to work on my willpower to: number one, not get the Starlink out at the drop of a hat and number two, stop wasting so much time online…use it judiciously. Fortunately the US elections will be over and done in a week. That’ll quell some of the online shit. But if Trump loses and we have more events like Jan 6 then I’ll be down that rabbit hole. I sure hope not! I mean I hope I don’t go down the rabbit hole. I do hope the sumbitch loses.
Late edit: Well shit, he won. I really don’t understand it. We survived the first administration and we’ll survive this one even though it’ll surely be a lot more chaotic and ugly. I’m just going to minimize my attention to news and keep low for the next 4 years. Mostly I feel sorry for younger generations and the damage that will be done. But hell, lots of young people voted for him. Why??