Could You Live Here?

Tropical North Queensland

As we wrap up our 4 weeks in Wongaling Beach, the middle ‘town’ on the Mission Beach part of the north Queensland coast, we are pondering: Could We Live Here?

Well … the answer is “yes”, but not full time!

First, some context. For the Aussies who haven’t been up here, you get here by flying into Cairns or Townsville and driving to the Mission Beach area (roughly in the middle between the two). Or, you can drive: from Melbourne it’s 2 705km/1680.8 miles.

When you get here, you can look forward to 14 km of beach to walk along … but, be warned, there are stingers in the ocean so swimming in the designated area is probably safest.

Not only do you need to be aware that this part of the ocean has the deadliest stingers in the world, there is also the chance of crocodiles.

Walking along the beach though? Just superb!

The temperatures are on average, 27 degrees C/80.6 degrees F. Almost every day, for the time we’ve been here. Except for the ‘cold snap’ (where people were complaining about the cold weather, wearing coats and beanies (warm hats)), when the top temp each day was about 23 degrees C/73 degrees F.

Everywhere you look you see lush foliage and freshly mown lawns. They’re the two things I notice, all the time!

It’s a really small place. If you want the bigger retail options you need to go to Innisfail or Cairns. But, the community here is Very Friendly! We have a couple of favourite cafes that David frequented, in the beginning, and now we both visit ~ our “office” space!

And, when you just need a Coffee-To-Go, pop in and visit Kranky Kransky’s.

Take your Coffee-To-Go on a walk to the beach or sit at one of the many picnic tables and simply breathe in the gorgeousness of the ocean air.

The view from our picnic table, where we sat to enjoy our Coffee-To-Go, from Kranky Kransky’s.

David has a great relationship with the staff at Shanti’s. On my second visit to the cafe, they had already remembered my coffee order. Pretty awesome service!

Our airbnb is a fabulously appointed townhouse, in a set of 6, literally 90 seconds walk to the beach. In fact, if you want to visit this area for a vacation, most of the properties around us are available for rent.

Downstairs in our townhouse.

The practical things: it’s a couple of hours drive to Cairns where we got the Jeep serviced. It’s a couple of minutes to one of three tire places where we got new tires. There’s a small handful of take away food options, none of which has really thrilled us but are good enough for a change of pace from cooking. The supermarket (Woolworths) is NOT open on Sundays, nor public holidays ~ the first week here we got caught out twice; the second week we were prepared for the two day closure. We (gratefully) have air conditioning upstairs and down, as well as ceiling fans. The humidity is harsh! (Well, for me anyway!)

And, there are a lot of tourist drives and destinations to explore. (Check out our Tully Gorge drive HERE.) If you’ve never seen sugar cane, you’ll fix that when you visit here. If you’re unsure of where bananas come from, you learn about that here, too. Lots and lots and LOTS of sugar cane and banana palms.

Banana Palm Plantation

This is a really lovely place to unwind. The people are Very Friendly; almost everyone waves or says hello when you are walking on the beach. Once you get your daily routine sorted, it’s easy to pop down to the beach for sunrise, with your coffee, do some tourist drives while the sun is high, then wander back to the beach to wrap up the day.

So, what do you think? Want to visit? Could you live here?

On a personal note, I have loved being here. We’ve slowed down significantly. We’ve walked many kilometres on the beach, sometimes talking, sometimes quietly. We’ve basked in the warm weather and the simple lifestyle. It’s going to be really hard to leave.

And, regarding the Mental Health Journey (the main reason we came this way), I’m better. Much better although, as is the way with healing, it’s been an up and down process. We are ready to move on, but I am sad to be leaving.

Thanks for joining us on this more simple experience. Next time we ‘meet’ we’ll be in the midst of our “history” road trip phase. More on that soon!

Michelle & David xx

PS. We are also Celebrating Daniel and Kerri’s Engagement! Josh popped down to Tasmania to help Daniel with setting up the “proposal” space. Kerri was overwhelmed. We are really delighted for them both.