Mossman - Far North QLD

The area north of Townsville leading up to Cairns is Australia's sugar-producing country, the cane fields backed by the Great Dividing Range.

Northern Queensland is sparsely populated: Cairns is the only city, while Port Douglas and Mossman are small towns. Cape York is one of the most untouched wildernesses in the world, covering 200,000 sq km (77,220 sq mile) roughly the same size as Great Britain.

Exploring the area around my current place in Shannonvale, near Mossman I got on the bike and cycled to the nearest beach, Cooya Beach.

The road passes the neighbours Passion Fruit vines,

and on through miles of sugar cane

but you have to go thought the river crossing first!

but with views like this,

it's worth getting your feet wet!

Turning through Mossman, past the Sugar Mill

and arriving at the beach

there was a huge Beach Almond tree at the entrance

and some interesting shells along the beach

such as this hermit crab,

who had plenty of space to grow into his current home

and a great view of this sailing boat

It was a lovely spot to spend a few hours reading, looking towards Port Douglas

It was great to be able to go from the winery to the beach on the bike

This time, I cycled through Mossman to Newell Beach

The road from Shannonvale is very straight

passing Passion Fruit vines used in the making of one of the wines

with mountains of the great dividing Range in the background, it's a beautiful area

and on through the river crossing - keeping my feet up!

The wind had been up, and the water was pretty choppy, and brown, but the beach was still beautiful, looking north

and south towards Port Douglas at the far left of the spit

the sand sparkled

and it was great to sit and enjoy being the only person on the beach

However, on the way home, I couldn't resist buying one of these watermelons

the smallest one cost the equivalent of £3 but weighed 8kg, so it was well deserved when I got home!