Day 209
Tuesday
25 July 2017 – Completed A Time To Kill by John Grisham. It
was a good read and I am looking forward to starting the sequel Sycamore Road
Mackay – Finch Hatton Gorge – Eungella – Broken River –
Mackay
Our caravan Park is on Bruce Highway and set amongst an
industrial area. Across the road is an engineering firm working on LARGE mining
machinery and by the sounds of it, is a 24 hour operation. The banging and
clanging went on late into the night and for all I know continued right through
to it waking me up this morning. Thankfully it was 7am and I wasn’t too
disturbed.
I read in bed, finishing off my novel, Paul didn’t last as
long as me, heading off for a shower. I got out when I finished my read and set
up the breakfast stuff before going for a shower too.
After breakfast, we packed up our things and left the park
heading for Finch Hatton Gorge. It was about 60km inland and the route took us
through can farming land. There was lots of activity happening at various farms
from harvesting to planting.
Once at the gorge, which required a couple of small water
crossings (not the clean car!), we parked, loaded up and began the 1.6km walk
through the sub-tropical rainforest. The path was well worn and easy to
navigate. There were some small rises but nothing we couldn’t handle and before
long we could hear the rush of water and then spied Araluen Cascades.
I found a spot to set up the tripod and take some photos of
the gorge and waterfall, admiring the pool of water and thinking how nice it
would be to swim in on a warm day; no doubt the water would be quite
refreshing.
We spent a short while just enjoying the tranquillity,
before walking back to the car and heading on to the hinterland town of
Eungella. This required a drive up the range on yet another twisty and turny
road. At the top we drove through the town and checked out the Goodes Lookout,
which provided a good view back over the valley and I assumed back to Mackay.
We moved on to the Sky Window lookout in Eungella National
Park, doing the short loop trail to check out the view of the valley from two
different platforms. On returning to the car I spied a crispy frog, frozen in a
crawling pose.
We stopped in Broken River to have our lunch and then we
walked the trail along the river hoping we would be lucky enough to spot a
platypus. Paul thought it was doubtful, being the middle of the day, but I was
happy to be patient and we were rewarded. Bubbles reached the surface of the
water and a platypus soon followed. Unfortunately he was right over the far
side of the river and he wasn’t the easiest to see.
We weren’t in any hurry to move on, so I kept a vigil,
hoping he would creep a little closer and eventually he did and we got a much
better view of the little critter as he skirted along the water’s surface
before diving below and popping up in another spot.
Eventually we spotted a second platypus who appeared a fair
bit larger than the one we had been keeping an eye on. The both floated about
on the surface before ducking away to find themselves something to eat.
Satisfied that we had experienced yet another close
encounter with unique Australian wildlife, we began our drive home following
the path we had taken this morning. We did a very quick roadside stop at the
132 year old, Melba House in Marian. The building that stood was the first home
Dame Nellie Melba lived in when she was first married though it is not located
in its original location.
As we returned to Mackay, we did a quick shop at Woollies
before arriving back at the caravan park. We didn’t hang around for long as
Paul wanted to check out Goanna Brewing.
We navigated to the premises, only 5km away and entered.
Paul gave his spiel while I took some photos. He was disappointed to hear that
he couldn’t sample their brews due to Mackay Shire Councils regulations. It was
obvious that the proprietor was just as peeved by this. We did manage a way around it though as those
that were bottling their own brews were happy to let Paul try what they had
created. The brewery is really a glorified U-Brew it.
Satisfied with what we had seen, we returned to the van,
ready to enjoy our afternoon. Paul loaded the car while I went through the
photos. We then decided we should go for a walk to pass the magic 15 000 steps,
so we took off around the park and then made our way into the industrial area
completing a lap of a couple of blocks before heading back for dinner.
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