On the way down I was listening to a little Neil Young and really enjoying the scenery. As we crested over a hill 30 minutes outside of the town of Ayr, I saw red and blue lights flashing in front of me coming the other way. As I saw Austraia's finest pass me and then make a quick U-turn in the highway, I knew it was me he was after. The traffic stop was pretty routine. He was a typical cop with typical dark sunglasses. I gave the typical yes sir/no sir and he gave me the ATYPICAL $200 ticket. The rest of the weekends expenses...$135.
Now that I was an international criminal, I set the cruise control for 1k over the speed limit and gingerly continued down the road. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Two and a half hours later we climbed out of a beautiful cane farming valley up a steep road to the mountain town of Eungella. We found our way down to the National Park and went into the ranger station/bakery and cafe to check in. The lady behind the counter was very nice, but seemed surprised that we were going to camp. "You should have that campsite all to yourselves," she said, "considering the storm that is moving in." Lindsay and I looked at each other and laughed. We had long ago stopped checking the weather. From the moment we moved here, every day has been the exact same; 77-85 with blue skys. We had a tent with a rain fly so we figured we would make do.
We got set up at our site and then got ready to meet the reason we had travelled so far. To hunt down this beast, the most venomous member of its taxanomic class...mammalia.
Prior to this trip I knew the playpus was unusual, but in preparing to meet one face to face, I did a little research and discovered how truly amazing they are. Wikipedia describes them as an "egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal."
Above you can see the spine and venom sac.
As the sun began to set, we strolled down by the mountain stream and waited. Eungella is a beautiful location with pockets of virgin rain forest and wide meandering streams, perfect for the platypuses/platypi that call it home.
As it got darker and darker so did my hope of actually seeing one of those odd little things. Then all of a sudden a ripple could be seen across the river. Then another, this time closer. After about 10 minutes, there were ripples all over the pond, and then we saw them. They were resting, playing and rooting around for food down in the mud underwater. I can only imagine they were using their electroreception to find prey. Yup, its true. The platypus and the echidna are the only two mammals that used electrolocation to follow the electrical field of their prey.
Lindsay and I watched them for about an hour and then headed up the hill to grill some grub. After being harrased by a very aggressive bush turkey, we put on our headlamps and started cooking. Lindsay was in charge that night and made the best damn lamb burger with onions this side of Wagga Wagga. After that we went to bed.
Of note, the campsite with our tent was about 500m from the car, so when Lindsay forgot to bring our books to read we were too lazy to go back to the car to get them. Our solution? We watched an episode of Star Trek on Lindsay's laptop in the tent. It was heaven.
It was about 3AM when the first drops of rain hit the tent. I was excited because we had seen so little rain during our Australian stay. It was about 3:07AM when it started dumping. I was less excited then. We survived the night, but decided to move camp the next day.
The next morning, we packed up everything between downpours and got back in the car. As we were over 800m above sea level, we had nice drive through the clouds in a misty, spitting rain. I wanted a cup of coffee so we stopped in a cooky little cafe run by an excentric German lady. After that we headed off the mountain, back down into the cane farming valley below. There we stocked up on supplies and went looking for Finch Hatton Gorge and the Platypus Bush Camp.
After a nice dirt road drive past cane fields and mango trees full of fruit, we found the Bush Camp. The Camp is a great jungle retreat straight out of Swiss Family Robinson. There were tree huts, some connected by elevated walkways. Two wild cockatoos sang out as we checked in. The showers only had three walls and the fourth was open to the rainforest. In the middle of it all was a nice open air common hut complete with kitchen and BBQ. It was still raining on and off and as we walked around the camp, we remembered that the nice ranger/baker back at Eungella had told us the storm was supposed to last until the next day. I had a choice to make.
Option 1: For $15 dollars stay in the tent. Save money, get wet, Lindsay not super happy; or
Option 2: For $100 dollars stay in romantic tree hut complete with vintage kerosene lamp and fall asleep to the sounds of the rain in an oversized bed all while staying completely dry, Lindsay happy.
After choosing option 2, we drove up the road and went on a couple of beautiful hikes in Finch Hatton Gorge. We ended up sitting in the rain at Wheel of Fire falls talking to a nice Austrailan couple from Mackay. I went for a dip in the pool but decided to get out when one of the other swimmers found a leach on her leg. After a little more hiking and a cool cliff jump by me, we planned on going back to the car for a sandwich. The Australian couple overheard this and suggested that we change plans and head to the town of Pinnacle, where we could get some pretty perfect pies at the Pinnacle Pub. We adjusted our plans and had quite possibly the best lunch so far consisting of a curried steak pie with chips and a steak and mashed potato pie. All with a couple of XXXXs to wash it down.
After lunch we went back to the Bush Camp and relaxed the afternoon away amid ever increasing downpours. That evening, after unsuccessfully scouting out the local platypus, we BBQ chicken by lantern light and listed to the rain in our tree hut.
The next day we got up early and headed into Mackay. We drove around town and then had a nice Sunday Bruch at the La De Da Cafe. It was there that I discovered that all the Australians eat using an upside down fork in their left hand and knife in their right. They think that we Americans eat like pigs because we turn the fork "upside down" and "shovel" our food our mouths. I gave their way a try and just as with vegemite, I say no thanks.
We had a bit of time to kill before heading to our next destination so we decided to see a movie. Our choices were limited, so we ended up spending $36 (not a typo) to see The Time Traveler's Wife. Lets just say I earned some points.
After that cinematic tour de force we drove an hour north to Cape Hillsborough National Park in search of kangaroos on the beach. I know it sounds like some goofy tropical drink, but we had heard (and seen pics) of kangaroos that would walk on the beach at this spot. We found our campsite and went out on the beach and waited...and waited...and waited. I went back to the car to get our headlamps and there in the park near the car were about 6 kangaroos just hanging out. So after taking a few shots of the beach, we headed up to the park to hang out with the kangaroos.
We had a nice BBQ that night and we were visited by an Australian Possum. The rest of the evening was relatively uneventful.
The next day we got up, pointed the car to the north and in 3 hours we were home. (We did stop in Ayr to again get sandwiches from our favorite deli, Dal Santo's.)
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