Thursday, November 22 Bilyana Rest Area to Wallaran Falls campground

Foul jungle alarm clock

     The rest area where we spent the night had interesting flowering trees with blossoms unlike any I've ever seen. That, and the cocky little rooster strutting around all morning, patrolling the area like a part-time security guard, may not have been uniquely Australian, but it made the morning noteworthy.

Jungle fowl, aka chicken

Raising Cane

     Australia is the 9th largest sugar grower in the world, producing 1/20th of Brazil's total, although it is the third biggest exporter.  Starting north of Cairns and south to northern New South Wales almost all the flat land between the coastal range and the ocean is planted in sugar cane. It's early in the planting season; some fields are still being plowed. Other plots have rows of the fresh grass-like tufts of varying heights, from just above ground level to three or four feet high.

Rows of sugar cane, about four  feet tall

Cane country

      A network of narrow gauge rail lines crisscross the land, allowing the growers to move the cane to processing plants in special mesh-sided box cars.

     From there the processed sugar is carried by train to the small port town of Lucinda. The Sugar Growers Association built a huge storage facility there, as well as the world's longest jetty, 6 km, allowing ocean going ships to be loaded with the sweet stuff. We stopped there to take a look. The jetty is off limits to the public, but we did have a fun walk out on the sandy point, watching birds and scurrying troops of tiny crabs.

Storage warehouses and shore end of jetty

Six kilometers of conveyor belt move sugar out to waiting ships.
Australia exports 80% of the sugar it produces.

Funny little crabs moving en masse during low tide

"Are you going to eat me?"

"Nah, but that fellah out there will if you don't hide."

Going ...

... going ...

... going ...

... gone (almost).

    We drove up to the Wallaran Falls campground for the night, tired of lying in our tent and sweating in the humid night air down by the coast. It was much cooler up on the mountain, and after taking refreshing cold water only showers, we enjoyed leftover spaghetti before climbing into our tent.