Tracking down the Duckbilled Platypus

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Day 214: Thursday 29th January - A relaxing day in Mackay

So much for a lie in this morning. The dorm I’m staying in is full of people getting up early to go to work. Mackay like Gladstone isn’t really on the backpacker circuit and most people staying here are working. Anyway, I need to be up to see what the options are to get to the Eungella national park, home to the duckbilled platypus. I found out last night that there was no tour going from the hostel so I went to sleep thinking that hiring a car today was the best option. Wanda, who runs the hostel finds out that it will be $73 to hire a car for the day so similar in price to what the tour would cost. The only drawbacks are that I don’t know where the best spots are to see the little creatures and that after some heavy rain lately some of the unpaved roads out near the park, west of Mackay may prove impassable. As I’m stood there discussing this with Wanda, someone rings up interested to do a tour tomorrow. Another girl already staying at the hostel has already said the same. Wanda now mentions the possibility of doing a tour tomorrow to me, as they need a minimum of 3 people to go ahead. The problem is I need to be in Airlie Beach tomorrow ahead of my Whitsunday’s sailing trip the day after. Not a problem is her reply; the tour departs at 5am in the morning and returns to Mackay at lunchtime in time for me to make it for my bus at 12:30pm. Perfect, I prefer the tour option tomorrow rather than doing it myself and this now gives me the rest of the day free.

The rest of the day I do very little exciting. Laundry, uploading my blog and grocery shopping are order of the day as well as a wander around Mackay’s lacklustre shopping centre. Wanda had mentioned a couple of museums and an art gallery as things to do in Mackay but they just don’t appeal. Instead, I head back to the hostel cook some food and sit around reading my book. I check the weather for the Whitsunday’s in the evening - heavy rains and thunderstorms forecast for the 3 days I’ll be sailing......just great and entirely predictable. I suppose it is wet season up in the tropics and it’s to be expected, but the fact that the forecast for the 3 days after my sailing trip are for beautiful sunny weather doesn’t help! As I’m talking to a couple from Southern England about travelling - they’re doing a similar trip to myself just the other way round - who else walks in but Louise. I kind of half expected to see her again in Hervey Bay after Noosa but here in Mackay, not a usual backpacker haunt... I’m surprised. She tells me about her Whitsunday trip which she didn’t really enjoy much as it rained. I wish I could stay up longer talking but an early night is required as I need to be up at 4:30am....ouch!

Day 215: Friday 30th January - Tracking down the Duckbilled Platypus

I’m up at 4:30am, on the road heading up to the Eungella national park, 100km west of Mackay at 5am. It takes an hour and a half to reach Broken River, during the journey I try to get some needed sleep. Broken River is the best place in the world to spot the Duckbilled Platypus, native to the eastern states of Australia. Sure enough we spot 3 or 4 platypus as they come up to the surface every minute or so for 10 seconds. They’re strange looking creatures, and they’re smaller than I expected. We spend about an hour at Broken River until the platypus disappear for the day, reappearing at dusk again. Eungella means ‘land of clouds’ in the Aboriginal language and being at 700m altitude it is refreshingly cool in the rain. For about the first time in weeks I don’t feel hot and sweaty! The rainforest in Eungella is the oldest subtropical rainforest in Australia and in the morning rain clouds it is very atmospheric and reminds me very much of Franz Josef in New Zealand for some reason.

From Broken River, we head to Finch Hatton Gorge to do a walk but we can’t cross the creek to get there due to the recent heavy rains. Instead, we turn back towards Marian, picking some Mangoes on the way, for a pie and a coffee. There’s only myself, Zoe from Reading and Petra from Canada as well as Keith our guide on the tour today and we sit talking for a while before returning to Mackay. It’s a shame we couldn’t walk in the rainforest or go for a dip in some pools around Finch Hatton Gorge but at least I got to see the Duckbilled Platypus in the wild. Quite a week for seeing wildlife, Dingoes on Fraser Island, Green Turtles nesting on Heron Island, Black Noddy Terns taking over Heron Island and finally the Duckbilled Platypus in the Eungella National Park, you can’t beat seeing it all in the wild in its natural environment. I just hope now that as I head for Airlie Beach for my Whitsunday’s sailing trip that the weather forecast for the next 3 days is wrong!

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