North Queensland, Finch Hatton Gorge, and Eungella National Park.

After 4 days out in the country at the General Gordon pub near Mackay and going in daily to town, we went to go to the Museum and Library but found it was Show Day, which meant a holiday in this town, so the whole town was closed. Fortunately the Canelands Mall was open, and having lunch at the Sushi train cafe took me back to travels in Japan in the 90s.

  

We are in the heart of sugar cane growing country and it was the start of the harvesting season.

 

And here is one of the sugar cane processing plants. I’m told it’s mostly steam that comes out of the smoke stacks.

The brown smoke is in fact a nearby burn off of the cane fields, they burn the stubble.

On Show Day with not a lot open we decided on a whim to check out Port Mackay and found the breakwater.

A most impressive piece of roading with a cycleway/walkway.

I may have been the first unicyle rider on this breakwater, and it’s certainly the first time I’ve overtaken a yacht while riding my unicycle.

We bought some bamboo boxes from Kmart for storage in the caravan cupboards and visited the local Mens Shed in Iona West.

Here is Vic doing the work (trimming up the bottoms) for me as I wasn’t allowed on any of the machines. It felt so weird and strange to watch someone else do this job for me! This shed is purely a woodworking Shed, open two half days per week and some Saturdays. Thanks Guys.

We took off west and inland towards Eungella National Park hoping to see Platypus in the wild.

First stop was Finch Hatton Gorge where we stayed at Wazza’s Platypus Bush camp. 

What a camping spot...



Road kill of a different variety!

There was a nice pool, I visited often but no platypus to be seen by me! 

Further inland and up a good hill is Eungella National Park,  below is the view from the Sky Window walkway.

We arrived mid afternoon at Broken River, a reputed great place to see Platypus, and noted the signs saying early mornings and late afternoons were the best times to see what everyone comes here to see ... the Platypus!

We were very lucky, as one was quietly feeding about 3 metres from the riverbank.

The Platypus is one of Australia’s and the world’s unique animals.

It has webbed feet like a frog...

a bill like a duck....

venom like a snake...

and lays eggs like a bird.

They can handle the tropical heat of Queensland and the freezing temperatures of Tasmania.

Their nose is made up of sensor rods which pick up vibrations from its prey of shrimp and other such crustaceans.

They have spikes on each back leg which inject poison which is only for self defence and is not life-threatening to humans.

They have skin flaps which cover their eyes, ears and nose when diving under water. 

They live in borrows up to 100 feet long in the riverbanks and have two layers of fur to withstand the freezing cold in Tasmania.

Upon returning to camp at a Rodeo Ground in Gargett I chatted to a couple of locals servicing their sugar cane harvester in the field (at the end of a day’s  cutting) and thereby found out some paddock facts like...

A new harvester costs around $750,000 and they are either fitted with D8 dozer tracks or rubber pneumatic tyres. The farmer I talked to, cuts his own cane and travels at 5mph to cut 40 bins per day, while a contract cutter travels at 10mph and cuts up to 120 bins. Each bin weighs 6 tonnes of chopped cane and the bin empty is 1 tonne.

And now we continue our lazy jaunt northwards towards Townsville where we have booked in to attend a CMCA rally called Dam Fine Rally for 4 days with 300 other Grey Nomads. But before that we visit Bowen and Ayr.

Cheers from Northern Queensland, where it’s definitely getting hotter with each 100kms we travel north.

Stay safe and be creative ...it’s where all the fun is!

Jimu & Christine.

No Worries!