Mission Beach.

The following day in Mission Beach, I thought the forecast was supposed to rain again, otherwise I would have gone to Dunk Island for the day, but it was blue skies before I even realised it. Since I knew I was leaving at 17.20 that night, I decided to take the shuttle into town to check out the town of Mission Beach as I was staying in the village of Wongoling along Mission Beach. I had wanted to do the rainforest walk, but the shuttle left 15 mins earlier than I expected and I ran out to catch it without sneakers and without water, unprepared. So I stayed in the town, checked out the stores and cafes and decided about ten minutes later (there really wasn't much going on in the town of Mission Beach at all)  that I would wander down the beach to get back, which they said would take 30-40 mins.  It was nice to have the beach to myself, and even better that the sun was hot and the blue sky was almost cloudless.

I had decided that once I got back to the beach entry towards the hostel, I would lie in the sun for the rest of the afternoon before having to get on the bus.

I felt as though, especially after the rainy day, my tan was fading. I wanted to soak up the sun again.

It's high season for the deadly stinging jelly fish in the ocean and it's really dangerous to go swimming. I passed the protected area where you could actually swim within a net and not get stung - kinda of bizarre. It loses the fun of swimming in the ocean when you are only allowed to be in an enclosed area. 

Apparently the little baby jelly fish can still get through the holes in the net.  

As I was walking along the beach I saw a large white lump being washed over by the waves. I couldn't believe it when it was a dead giant sea turtle - I thought it must've been some beachy art sculpture or something, but no, it was real. 

 so old. so sad. so alone.

Put my melted Rainbow's in for perspective. 

I couldn't stop staring at it, and felt bad when I left it there, all alone. 

 I walked on and couldn't believe it when I saw another dead giant sea turtle washed up on shore - so sad really. They must've been really old and I thought to myself they must have died of heartbreak, one after the other just down the beach from each other. 

 I continued on down the beach until I got to a creek that I recognised immediately when I remembered that when the reception gave me a map the day before, she said don't cross it at high tide and be careful of the alligators/crocodiles - don't try to go around it.

It wasn't high tide, but it wasn't exactly walkable. I waited for a bit, unsure what to do. I sat on the beach for a bit; it was empty enough to pretend I had a bathing suit on and plus I wanted the sun bathing time anyways, so might as well, I thought. I was less worried about someone seeing me in my bra than some sort of reptile coming out from the vegetation behind me. I was constantly looking behind me to see what could be possibly lurking and snapping off my head suddenly as I lay there. I thought about my dingo lessons and had no comfort in thinking that crossing my arms across my chest would protect me from getting eaten. More anxious about the animals than the sunburn, I wandered back to the edge of the creek to see how much of the tide had gone out and the water still looked way too deep with quite a strong current so I just decided to walk back towards town. I wasn't going to wait till 14.45 for the bus, but found a "short cut" through the houses. However, I walked and walked. It must've been near 30 degrees and by the time I finally reached the hostel, walking on the tarmac burning heat from the ground up, I was completely burnt. I did want to get colour from lying on the beach, but not exactly from walking for 3 hours and only having a juice that morning. A cold shower and a treat to a colder cider was exactly what I needed for my trip towards the north. And I later found that I had the biggest blister on the ball of my foot, bigger than my big toe, that would cause me to hobble around like a gimp for the next two or three days.

lurk.lurk.lurk.

Mission Beach was a pleasant stop off for me along the way to figure out my plans and have some completely quiet alone time. It is surrounded by and filled with a lot of natural beauty that would be fun to further explore, along with some deadly and dead wild life, but that's about it - unless you want to say you sky-dived Mission Beach. And if that's the case, make sure you have flexible plans to stay a couple days, just in case the weather is bad and you can't jump out of a plane that day - because that did happen. 

there were lots of these on the beach....