On Monday we drove to a place called Yeppoon. It was very hot, as we went for a walk to see if we could see any turtles - this was unsuccessful. Instead we bought myself (Joanna) a new pair of flip flops and had an ice cream.
The next day was unfortunately another driving day, but this was essential as we needed to get up to Airlie beach for a tour we had booked.
We managed one very long day of driving, which meant that the following day could be taken more easily.
On Wednesday we took a detour west for an hour or so to the Eungella National park. This was an interesting drive through relatively flat land full of sugar cane plantations, before a steep and foggy climb into the national park.
(Note from David: Sugar cane is big industry Queensland, one of the more unusual features is the narrow gauge railways used for hauling cane 4000km of privatley owned cane railway is present, some photo's will occur in another post.)
We first stopped at a lookout, where thankfully the fog had cleared enough to give us a view over the valley.
We carried on until we reached a place called Broken River. This area is known for the platypus. We wandered down to the lookouts and were fortunate to see at least three!
They are a lot smaller than we expected; about the size of a rabbit. It was also difficult to see them clearly, as they were on the other side of the river. Also, when they surfaced they looked like a log at first, stayed on the surface for about 10 seconds, and then dived again. Generally they are best seen at dawn and dusk, but because of the overcast weather, they were playing in the river for most of the day.
We also saw quite a few freshwater turtles
After leaving the platypus we had a failed attempt to see a gorge - There was a ford across the road, which we would have been happy to cross in our own car, but not a hired one. Instead we headed back towards the main road where we found another waterfall instead.
That afternoon we arrived at Airlie beach, where we sorted out a few final details for our trip the following day.
Next Time - our little holiday!
