Mackay and Monotremes

Most of you know my ‘DNA story’ – in 2020 I discovered 5 new half siblings – and my eldest brother Pete lives in Mackay. This visit to Mackay would be the second time we would meet face to face.

We were in Mackay by late morning, set up in our very ‘cosy’ spot in the Premier Caravan Park (whose biggest asset is Bev the manager, not the amount of space it occupies 😍) and knocking on Pete and Janet’s door at lunchtime.

We had a lovely lunch at Oscars and then were treated to a guided tour of Mackay for the rest of the afternoon.

Mackay Harbour

Pete’s local knowledge took us to spots we wouldn’t have seen otherwise and it was very nice being chauffeured around and not having to plan a thing!

We arrived at the beautifully situated Eimeo Hotel in time for a pre dinner drink looking out to sea where we were even surprised by a passing gyrocopter!

We finished a packed day with dinner at the Marina and sure felt like family despite our very recent discovery of each other 😍

The next day our ‘tour guide’ had another great day planned with a trip to Eungella National Park, the hinterland of Mackay. It is considered to be the longest continual stretch of sub-tropical rainforest in Australia and is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna. We traversed the wide Pioneer Valley to get there with the last 4.5 kms up a steep, winding (not for Mohos) road to reach the town of Eungella with its stunning vista of the valley below.

After admiring this view we continued along the road stopping at the Sky Window lookout with its gentle walk through the rainforest and more views of the valley.

A short distance further on Pete pulled in to a lovely picnic spot and surprised us by unloading a couple of eskies with a picnic lunch, complete with my favourite Bird in Hand rosé!

The best however, was yet to come. After lunch we wandered across the road to the Broken River walk which meanders along the river reputed to be home to platypus and turtles. Pete has been visiting here for five years and has never seen a platypus and the signage indicated we were too early in the day so hopes weren’t high but the river itself was very picturesque.

We sat and watched turtles for awhile and were generally enjoying the ambience when someone spotted what might  be more than turtle activity around a submerged tree. Instructed to look out for tell tale bubbles and rings in the water we saw both and then were rewarded by an authentic platypus sighting! He (or she) treated us to quite a show, ducking and diving around tree roots never visible for very long. Hopefully the photo convinces you it WAS a monotreme!

Very pleased with ourselves we observed him/her for quite a while before heading back to the car to begin our journey back down to Mackay.

Pete went back to work the next day and we got the washing and some other errands done and then we caught up with a farewell (for now) dinner, sad to say goodbye but happy we have had this opportunity to catch up and meet Janet as well.

Tuesday morning we were at Jayco Mackay by 0930 and pleasantly surprised by their great service in fixing the aforementioned tap issue whilst we had a cup of tea in the lounge! It was then back on the road heading north toward Cape Hillsborough.

I remember Mum and Dad saying how special Cape Hillsborough was 40 years ago and this had definitely influenced the decision to stop in there despite some fairly ordinary reviews of the CP. Cape Hillsborough is only an hour or so north of Mackay but the last few kms are fairly slow going and we arrived around lunchtime and were pretty happy with our site for the next two nights.

Several hikes start from the caravan park and/or the day picnic area and we walked along the very wide beach over the ’causeway’ (which is exposed at low tide) to Wedge Island. If you don’t return via the beach there is an overland hike with some scenic viewpoints and feeling energetic, we decided to go that way.

Of course I was wearing very suitable footwear (thongs) and as we started the steep climb from the beach I remarked to Russell that he should go first in case we encountered any pythons… not 5 minutes later I almost stepped on one lazing across the path and I did a very quick u turn. With Russell leading from then on we followed the very steep path and were glad to have a breather at the Turtle lookout.

Once we had crested the hill it was a pleasant walk with another nice viewpoint looking back to the beach and Wedge Island where we had been earlier.

Wedge Island

One of the things Cape Hillsborough is famous for is the kangaroos on the beach at sunrise. There were signs in the kiosk informing us that 0615 was the time to be down on the beach if you wanted to see (and of course photograph) this event so we set the alarm for 0545 the next morning. One of us made it down to the beach with what seemed like almost everyone else in the park to see the ranger feeding them on the beach….there were signs everywhere in the park saying don’t feed the animals so this seemed a bit weird, but is obviously a big drawcard.

After breakfast we decided to do the walk at the northern end of the beach which goes over the headland and down to Beachcomber Cove on the other side. In winter this walk provides plenty of butterfly viewing opportunities and we managed to add a couple more to our butterfly gallery.

The walk delivered us to a gorgeous deserted beach and I was kicking myself that I hadn’t bought the drone along. We had to wait for an hour or so for the tide to recede so that we could walk back along the beach route so we amused ourselves looking at the geological formations and photographing the beautiful ‘art work’ left by the tiny sand bubbler crabs. They feed by filtering sand through their mouthparts, leaving behind balls of sand that are disintegrated by the incoming high tide.

In the afternoon we drove to the little beachside community of Seaforth where we checked out the ‘stinger safe’ enclosure and then indulged ourselves with an ice-cream for afternoon tea.

The next morning whilst we were packing up to move on,  Russell captured another addition to our butterfly gallery – sitting on the side of the motorhome!

Moonlight jewel butterfly

Next stop, Airlie Beach.

4 thoughts on “Mackay and Monotremes

  1. So happy that you spent time with Pate and his wife, AND that you had the platypus sighting together. Unforgettable!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*