June 7-8 (Day 128-129) - Ilbilbie to Finch Hatton via Mackay

Sunday 7th June

 

It was a wet and miserable night last night so we packed up after breakfast and headed straight off from Riverside Bush Camping, deciding to hold our meeting in the evening.

Our first stop along the way was Sarina. While Mim did the week's shopping, I filled up the caravan's water tanks and collected several forests' worth of brochures at the Information Centre from an enthusiastic staff member on duty that morning! Once again, however, the value of information centres came through, in that amidst the many options available to do in a given town, a knowledgeable information centre staffer can give you a few specific and timely recommendations about things which our family would enjoy doing. She directed us out to Finch Hatton, where the local showgrounds offers powered camping sites for $25/night. She also said while we were in the area that we must make sure we visited Finch Hatton Gorge, Eungella National Park (pronounced 'Young-gell-lah' g as in golf) and Broken River, where platypus are often seen.

Armed with this knowledge, we collected Mim from the shops and headed up towards Mackay. Mackay was the home of the guy who bought my last VL Calais in 2002... I entertained a fanciful notion I might happen to see it driving past but was, unsurprisingly, disappointed!

Along the way we passed one of many sugar mills. As I mentioned in an earlier post, sugar cane is everywhere up here, as are the cute little cane train lines, where there are very narrow gauge lines snaking in and out of fields, across roads at random spots, and running parallel to the main road. It appears the cane in a particular area gets crushed locally, and the cane syrup is then taken on a freight train to larger centres for refining.

Cane train, sugar cane, and a misty mountain.
A common sight up here!

 We carried on until we reached the Finch Hatton showgrounds. These were set near the base of a range of mountains which provided an impressive looking backdrop to the park.

Out the back of the park was a freshwater river, and the kids had plenty of fun exploring this.

Later in the evening we had our meeting and headed to bed.

Monday 8th June

First up I had an Instagram Live call for the business about 8am. We're sponsoring a BBQ competition based in Texas and they were holding a live call with each of the sponsors. This was the first time I'd done something like this so it took a bit of time to set the phone up on a tripod so it didn't shake, and with reasonable lighting. It seemed to go reasonably well.

After this we had breakfast, did our morning reading, and then got ready to head on our way to a range of National Parks.

First stop was Finch Hatton Gorge. Located about 10km north of Finch Hatton itself, the gorge has a freshwater river coursing through it which made its way over a number of water falls. On our way the river went just under or just over the road, so the car got a bit of a wash again in spots. There were some simply beautiful, serene spots along the way. Check out this one:

One of the streams in Finch Hatton Gorge

 



Once we got to the carpark, we had about a 30 minute walk through the gorge to get to the falls. As would be expected, it was a delightful walk! The air was still, cool and dense; the paths had, as Bro Roberts described in The Final Consolation, a 'firm softness' (or was it a soft firmness? Now I can't quite recall!). Either way I think you get the idea. There were hardly any people on the track, so, apart from the three highwaymen women kids occasionally running ahead and then ambushing their 'unsuspecting' parents, all was very quiet and very peaceful!

After our walk, we arrived at Araluen Falls, which was lovely! The others all went in for a swim; I had to stay out to keep my cut toe dry, which was still healing.

The kids and Mim had a great time swimming, although
I'm told the water was C O L D !!!

Some very interesting fungi growing on dead wood in Finch Hatton Gorge!

After we'd (thoroughly!) cooled off with our dip, we walked back to the carpark for a healthy lunch of, appropriately, 'dip' and Jatz biscuits!

The walk out to the Sky Window

After leaving Finch Hatton Gorge, we drove back through the town of Finch Hatton and onto Eungella National Park. Our first stop was the 'Sky Window' lookout. which was a 10 minute walk on a path which ran around the side of the top of a mountain and gave breathtaking views back east. If you look back at the map at the start of today, you'll see the Sky Window and that it looks right back along the road we drove (west) along to get there. The view takes in the two mountain ranges on either side and and a long flat plain running probably 10km into the distance. It was the type of view that just comes upon you with little warning as you stop at a clearing and takes your breath away! It was truly awe-inspiring! (as Uncle Brian once said in reference to Whyalla! :))

The view from the Sky Window Lookout. A photo simply does not do justice to the enormity and all-encompassing view!

From the Sky Garden, our next stop was Broken River, where apparently we were to see platypus. We did, indeed, spot them, although there were further away that we had hoped they might be.

We did, however, get a much closer view of nature when, in our efforts to be quiet and not scare away the elusive platypii, we heard a rustle in the bushes and got to witness first-hand a snake attempting to eat a frog! Both snake and frog were quite small, but were both fiercely engaged in this battle of life and death. When we first saw them, the snake had the end of the frog's right rear leg in its mouth. Over the next several minutes we watched in spell-bound awe, horror, pity and amazement, as the course of nature played out before our eyes. Our natural sympathies were with the frog, and the kids were longing for us to intervene and release it, but we reminded them the snake probably had babies at home waiting for Dad to bring home the bacon (frog), and that we had to let nature run its course.

Round-and-round the garden, like a teddy bear...

a' one-step...

a' two step...

gobble that leg up there!

It was an amazing sight, watching the battle between the two forces. The snake's progress up the frog's leg was imperceptible to watch, probably because it happened when they wriggled, but obvious when comparing where it had been or in photos. From time to time the frog would let out a heart-rending squeal, and a big struggle would ensue as it tried to pull itself free by its front legs holding onto some frustratingly loose leaf or twig which would simply get dragged along the ground with the frog as the snake, well anchored by its tail to numerous bits of grass and rock, slowly but surely pulled it back and swallowed more and more of the frog's rear leg. You can see in the third photo in the series the frog is holding on for dear life with its front legs to the end of a soggy leaf!

Then suddenly, it was all over. We weren't quite sure what happened but the frog was suddenly free! We assume the snake must have relaxed its hold for a second to go for the next bite and the frog, sensing its freedom, withdrew its leg in a flash and hopped a short distance away. Snakie seemed to sense his battle was lost and slithered away, while Froggie eventually hopped, apparently unharmed by the ordeal, onto a nearby rock and took in the afternoon sun!

Froggie - safe and well with all his limbs!

This was pretty well our day done and it was now past 4pm, so we headed back to the caravan park and had tea at the local hotel which we'd been recommended to by the showgrounds owners. It was certainly a delicious meal and decent value.

Dinner at the Criterion

With this done we headed back to our van and off to bed. We intend to leave tomorrow and head back to Mackay.

-- Greg