Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink
Trip Start
Feb 14, 2007
1
24
68
Trip End
Ongoing
Mackay,
Australia
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Having left the excellent hospitality of the flying Dr and his most entertaining family (carrying at least an extra 5 stone body weight each for the second time) we hit the roads once more. Onto Mackay `your gateway to the Whitsundays`. Hmm well forgive us if we sound sceptical about another of Australia`s gateway cities. Gladstone was gateway to somewhere (possibly the chance to spawn mutant children due to its abundance of high radiation chemical factories). But almost immediately Mackay gave us a cosmopolitan feeling café society. Here business folk `did lunch` and the boutique shops consisted of more than dan`s wacky discount warehouse `where everyone gets a bargain` and a stationers selling 1950`s style birthday cards. We embraced this feeling and enjoyed Mackay. We stumbled across a comedy festival which was hilarious, spent long days by the pool, a jolly to the cinema oh and had a very serious conversation about our budget
eungella view
. This was closely followed by the realisation it was our anniversary. This we spent in a delightful tapas restaurant on the marina, drinking expensive wines and eating oysters, (well chris had the oysters as most people know how I feel about them, the nasty salty little pockets of snot). And so the budget was blown, what kind of travellers are we? It was time for some exercise after an excellent week of sloth and glutony in Mackay. With the promise of a 99% chance of seeing platypus we trundled into Eungella National Park. I want to tell you that after only 5 minutes of waiting by the viewing platform schools of 3ft platypus swam toward us, with the acrobatic grace of a synchronised swimming team, piroetting before our eyes, performing backflips and leaping through hoops before playfully teasing the docile turtles. But this would all be a lie. We waited a good hour in the presence of some rather loud feral children and their equally loud feral parents, getting colder as dusk turned into dark, until one tiny little duck billed fella plopped into the river, swam our way and then very quickly dove head first into the dark water to escape the trigger happy camera flashings of above said ferals. I did however see my first water snake... from the safety of dry land.
The next day we planned some hardcore walking in the lush rainforest
just before the leeches attacked
. Again I feel the emphasis here should be on the word rain. Now anyone who tells you the rainy season in queensland means that it rains heavily for about an hour is a big fat hairy liar. What actually happens is the beautiful sweeping mountain valleys, that you had purposely camped in front of, suddenly become shrouded in swirling dense mist and it rains for 24 hours non stop. The whiteout and rain didn't stop us though as we trudged through the forest imagining what lay behind this thick curtain of fog. Ok so you expect to get somewhat wet if you walk in the rain, but when your trousers start oozing water back out of your skin you do start to yern for those hot and sweaty days that you have previously left behind saying `oh but its nice to have a break from all that sun`. Oh my god, oh my god, I am bleeding, I am going to die, my right ankle is saturated in blood, my time has come and the pearly gates are getting closer. Well alright maybe 2 blood sucking leeches won't be the death of me but it certainly made me feel uneasy as they rolled out of my trouser leg (taking at least 7 pints of blood with them). Eeeuuugh I feel weak and oh woe is me. 
