Eungella National Park

20/6/2013 Paluma National Park

 

We stopped at Frosty Mango, for a morning smoothie, then drove for a while longer into Big Chrystal creek in the Paluma national park.  We dropped of the caravan, then headed into the national park, on roads that caravans were not allowed to be taken.  The caravan could easily get there, its just another instance of conservative measures.. Anyway, the rainforestwas nice to walk through, we had lunch at the dam then tried to spot some platypus - unsuccessfully.

The twisty road and bridges were built in the 1930s during the depression.  The men were paid 2 Bob per day.  The rocks were cut from the local mountains, using hand drills and explosives, and laid in place by hand.  The rainforest was cleared using picks and shovels for the road construction.

 

21/6/2013 Funny Dunny

 

We headed south from Paluma into Townsville.  Took a walk through the city and along the Strand. We then drove for the rest of the day.  We were going to stop at a free camp in Home Hill, but when we got there is was packed. It wasn't that nice anyway - really just parking in a back street, so we drove a bit further to Funny Dunny.  The toilet is a little unusual, but nothing outrageous. Somehow we missed taking a photo.  This appears to be a favourite fishing place for locals.

 

 

 

22/6/2013 Eungella National Park

 

We stopped into Bowen on the was south, but it was a bit windy and cold(ish) that made swimming there not so appealing.  We were told that Eungella National Park is one that we shouldn't miss, so we headed for there.  Its a little out of the way, but we decided to head there.  We found a nice shady site at Pioneer Valley Showgrounds, where powered sites were just $20.  It also made a central location to set up base camp, and avoided extra driving with the van.

 

We went for a drive to Finch Hatton Gorge, and the scenery was amazing.  Even the sugar cane looked good, and the seed heads looked so soft and fluffy.

 

 

When we arrived, we walked along the rainforest tracks to the "Wheel of Fire" waterfalls, which were not quite up to show, but still had some pretty waterfalls along the way.

 

 

We stayed out until dark trying to find a platypus, but there were none to be seen.  Some people showed as were they saw one that afternoon, but was long gone.

 



23/6/2013 Eungella National Park (day 2)

We ran out of time to visit all of the places, so decided to stay at the showgrounds another night (its a perfect place to call base camp).  We had a really lazy morning.  Lidia did some washing and I did some stuff.  We had lunch, then left for our platypus hunt.

Last time, we ran out of energy as it was getting dark, so with torches (and my shooting spotlight) loaded, we were set.  We planned just to take a look around during the day, and go hunting for them in the night.  We found some amazing lookouts.


Lidia thought she would try a Tarzan swing, only moments later the whole vine came crashing down, followed about 10 seconds later by a number of tree branches, then later still, a pile of leaves and stuff... In Australia, we learnt not to swing before testing weight by age 10 - Its still funny though

We had some amazing walks through the rainforest again, with awesome trees, and things you just don't see normally.

 

 

So now down to business.. We found the spot.  It even had a sign

We watched ....

 

And watched

 

 

And we were successful.  A total count of 4 different ones (possible 5).  They were coming to the surface and floating around for a few seconds, then disappearing into the water.  The water wasn't so clear, so you could only see them down about 1 meter under but we watched them in a couple of pools for about 1 hour. Photos were difficult in the low light, but Graham nailed one..