On our first night out of Townsville we took the advise of Kate and camped out at Bowling Green National Park. Thanks Kate it was a beautiful site with an amassing swimming hole. We watched the sky and guessed it was going to rain so when picking out our camp site we looked for the highest ground. The camp area was pretty flat but we found a nice spot under a tree and hoped for the best.
Around dinner time the rains began to fall and it was coming down hard. We cooked dinner and hung out playing cards for a few hours under a picnic shelter as it RAINED and didn't let up. Finally we went back to the tent to see how things were holding up and had to wade through a 4 inch deep puddle to get to the tent. The tent amazingly enough was on a tiny island of dry ground but the puddles on all sides were rising quickly. We decided to move the tent under the picnic shelter for the night. As we dragged the tent through the tempest, the ranger came by and invited us to stay at his house for the night. Yippee! We left the tent under the shelter and followed him to his house. Our guardian angel, Greg Croft, set us up with mattresses, a hot shower and a nice cuppa tea. Great guy, we stayed up late talking travel adventures, fine wine and politics.
The next day we continued on south to Eungella National Park in pursuit of the elusive duck-billed platypus (in case you're wondering, there is only one platypus, but it has a duck-like bill.) The road to Eungella took us through the cane fields of Queensland and then up and up to the McKay Highlands, a rainforest plateau perched above the farming villages and pastures of Queensland. The air cooled as we climbed in elevation and stepping out of the car at the Broken River information center, we felt instant relief from the muggy, suffocating heat of the tropical lowlands.
We arrived at Eungella in the late afternoon, perfect time for platypus spotting. We headed down to the platypus-viewing platform - other folks must want to see a monotreme too - along the river and waited. And waited. It was getting dark, and we still didn't have a campsite so we got back in the car. After many winding country roads, we found a place to camp, quickly made dinner and collapsed in our tent.
The next morning we drove back to the river in hopes of spying a platypus. Nothing. So we headed out on a hike through the rainforest. Gorgeous, dense, green foliage, water dripping from every leaf and our (or I should say my) first encounter with land leaches. Woody remarkably didn't have any on him. After finding half a dozen on my legs, I tucked my pants into my socks. They would brush off of the ground plants on to your shoes or pants and then climb up like an inch worm until they reached skin, they really were not that bad once we got used to them.
The trail on the other hand went from very nice to completely over grown but we kept going. When we made it back to the visitors center we bought a Fanta and a candy bar to take to the river with us and this time we were lucky enough to see a platypus swimming and playing in the water. Success!!!
Moving on.... we found a spot to camp at the beach near Green Hills, Made dinner, check our selves for leaches and fell asleep to the sound of the waves.
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