Babinda

Banana Plantation in the forest

Camped at Babinda for a couple of days and we LOVED it so much.   Tiny little town devasted by the closure of their sugar mill which was being demolished.   130 jobs lost and many businesses closed down and empty shops.  But the town is surviving with an extra bit of help from all those that stay at the free camp.   Hot showers,fresh water, toilets.  Flowing river.  Each night a local rocked up and sold cheap fresh fruit & veges out of the back of a truck  and one of the locals bought for free her excess herbs, fruit & vege to share each morning.   Her hubby had a green thumb and they couldnt eat all they produced.   Not only did she provide these goodies but also thanked everyone for coming to her town.   The 6km drive thru town to the Boulders was amazing.  Windy road thru lush green rainforest.    The boulders are huge crops of granite rock, there are a couple of down stream pools where you could swim and there were plenty of people in the water, but further up, it was raging water over massive boulders.   They had torrential rain the day before which was great for us.  Stunning to the eye, not so great in the photo.    This rain forest/boulder strewn/waterways are without doubt the best we have seen so far in Qld.     We saw more brightly colored butterflies, especially the blues, and multi colored birds that we had no idea what they were.  Very muggy weather, cool in the forest walk but airless.   Hoped to see some snakes but didnt spot one.