Eungella National Park

 After leaving Townsville, I started my journey south. I made it to my first stop of Bowen. I had a quick coffee and lunch and went and enjoyed some beautiful views of the beach, but it was too hot to stick around so I headed up up the mountains towards Eungella (pronounced Young-galah). The drive up the mountains was beautiful, beginning with the rolling foothills, which are mostly pasture land, and then turning into steep, twisting rocky roads up the side of the mountain. I checked into my hotel and found that I was the only person staying in the entire resort. I have the whole place to myself.

I wandered down to the river, just the five minute walk from my room, in hopes of finding the platypus. I’ll be honest, I was not overly optimistic about finding a platypus after my failures, with finding koalas at magnetic island, I was certain that the platypus would be also hidden away from the heat and the bad weather. I knew it was the best possible time to go because they’re supposed to be most active sunset and sunrise but even still was not getting my hopes up. as I walked over the river, I looked for the platypus with no luck. I had very little hope but I figured I’d walk the trail and see what happened. Five minutes down the trail I arrived at the viewing platform and I looked down and there was a cute little platypus swimming in the water. The platypus would surface for a few seconds, and then dive back down to the bottom you’ll see a flurry of tiny bubbles coming up the bubbles will start for another second or two and then they’ll begin in a second later a little platypus will pop up to the surface. I was so excited, platypus, one of those creature you hear about, you on nature documentaries, you imagine you’ll never get a chance to see in the wild, they were soon I saw more in total I saw six platypus along the river. I was so excited I sat there for the next hour, so just watching them it was so lovely while I saw some really cool birds as well most notably and Azul kookaburra, which looks like a flash of iridescent blue before it flew off, I also saw a eastern robin. It’s got a gray head and a bright yellow belly, and it sat on the top of a branch looking down at me for quite a while.

As the sunset, I returned to my room to make a quick Ramen dinner, and spent my evening relaxing and painting. 

I woke up early in hopes of seeing more birds and platypus. I was not disappointed. I sat on my patio, eating passionfruit yogurt and watching a whole host of different birds start their day. I saw two beautiful types of pigeons one the brown cuckoo dove a rusty red color, nibbling away on berries on top of the tree. The other a woompoo fruit dove has an emerald green back, a royal purple chest, and a vibrant yellow belly. I was serenaded by bird calls the eastern whipbird is aptly named, as it’s called sounds like the cracking of a whip period. I imagine it could’ve been used in Indiana Jones as a sound effect for his whip and nobody would’ve known the difference. Many other birds called, although I couldn’t tell you what they were, one sounded like a creaky door, another like a long drawn out “what “, another like a rasping cough, so many bird sounds it was beautiful. 

After breakfast, I wandered back to the river to say help to the platypus. I went for a slow couple mile hike stopping just look at skinks, snails, flowers, rocks, leaves, moss mushrooms, birds, and just about everything I could see. I saw butcher birds, fantails, wrens, and many more. It was delightful. 

Following my hike I drove to a second hike which overlooked the valley, which was stunning. Then I went to a campground to put together my lunch. I used my new stove and cooked up a big plate of nachos with Gouda, chili lime chips, 3 different beans, and avocado. I ate while a cheeky bush turkey tried to steal my meal every time I looked away, but it was a fantastic lunch on the go. 

Next I went for, shocker, another hike , I found a trail that was absolutely filled with flying foxes, fruit, bats. They were absolutely everywhere hanging from the trees like giant fruits, screeching, and carrying on. I didn’t stay long one thing about fruit bats is they are pretty stinky and I figured I could find a nicer place to hike, which I did. Followed by a beautiful cruise around the countryside, by then, it was time for a rest, and I went and had a bit of a laydown before heading back out to the river looking for platypus. 

I ended my day on my patio watching a huge thunderstorm pass though. It was so close and so loud that lightening and thunder were occurring nearly simultaneously. My ears were ringing and the hairs on my arms were tingling , and the cicadas and tree frogs were singing at full volume as the musical accompaniment of the sunset light show. 

Update: after I wrote this we lost power 😂 I’m cursed. Dean’s friend Brian was right when he said they need to kick me out cause bad weather follows me. 😂😂😂😂

Update update: power is back on for now, it was only out 15 minutes