Eungella National Park
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2008
1
53
72
Trip End
Ongoing
Eungella,
Queensland,
Australia
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Eungella National Park sits 80km west of Mackay, in the middle of Queensland's sugar cane industry. We drove past endless fields of Sugarcane, with it's sweet smell (much like Candy Floss), with occasional small "cane trains" taking the mulch to the Sugar Mill. So that's where your sugar comes from.
The national park sits on top of a large mountain range, and it was the first time in a while that the Van struggled to get anywhere - plus our ears popped, so high was the altitude. The views from the top back over the valley stretch all the way to the ocean, and were well worth the drive. Up there were also lots of little diary farms, nestled away amongst forests and little streams. It was also a relief from the heat of the coast, cooling us and the Van down for a day
Another shot of the Platypus!
. We had done a number of long drives since leaving Brisbane, so we both needed to go stretch our legs.Our first stop off was at the quiet Broken River. It's no real different to the rivers elsewhere on the eastcoast so far, but it's the shy, elusive creature that lives in it that we came to see. And indeed we did see him - the Platypus. Smaller than you would think, at only 50cm or so (we assumed he would be Beaver sized), he spends most of his day feeding. We watched one play in the River, indifferent to us and the few other people who had come out at dusk to see him. I won't go into it, but it's a remarkable creature (look it up on Google or something) and so we were really happy to have seen one in the wild - they are pretty hard to come by. Saying that, Broken River is meant to be the best place to see them! We sat and watched for at least two hours, only leaving because we couldn't see anything once the sun had set!
We continued our nature watch back at the campsite (right on the edge of the moutain - fantastic views) by going for a late night walk with torches. We found a very green frog, a very purple flower, and Helen found a swing to play on for a while. Pretty successful day, all in.
Cool Butterflys - Finch Hatton Gorge
Next morning we were up far too early and went back down the mountain to Finch Hatton Gorge, a small gorge (obviously) with a couple of little Waterfalls. It was a nice walk, especially after being cooped up in the van for a few days, but to be honest the drive there was more interesting - it has no less than four creek crossings, which were great fun. Luckily, there has been no heavy rain for a while, so they were no more than a few centimetres deep, and not flowing fast. Still fun. Also saw some amazing blue Butterflys which was nice.
It didn't really hold our interest too long, so we were back on the road by midday, to our next destination - the Whitsunday Islands.
