Had a relaxing day today, went for a couple of walks on the beach and a walk to the lagoon. It is very quiet here even though the park is busy. The beaches here are the kind where the tide goes a long way out and when it comes in it is shallow and the sand is not white but brown and hard so we have ridden our bikes along it. The beach is lined with palm trees which is very tropical. Behind the park is a lovely walk through a forest that ends up at a mango farm and then lagoon which is all part of the park. The lagoon has crocodiles in it apparently so glad Coco didn’t go into it. There are about 500 mango trees and some avocado trees. They used to get pickers but now leave to the park guests to pick as many as they can but still means 1000s of mangoes fall to the ground and get wasted – how criminal is that. Unfortunately mango season is not until the end of the year so we miss out although it is avocado season now so will have to see if we can grab some. Midge Point is a very small town with a population of about 500 and back in March it copped the brunt of Cyclone Ului. There is still evidence of the devastation now with debris on the foreshore. Some houses still have tarpaulin roofs and fences down while they debate with insurance companies. The winds were recorded at 253km/hr and it raged for 8 hours! The town was without power for over a week and Ergon bought in generators to assist. The park managers had evacuated the caravanners two days earlier. The manager showed me some photos of the devastation and it is truly incredible – you can’t recognise the place. It took them 11 weeks and $250K to clean it up and only a quarter of the park trees still stand. It is set amongst a rainforest. It is amazing what the owners have done to restore it to its former glory. It is also amazing to think the ocean came in so far that it flooded the park when it is a good 200m out from shore and is so calm!
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