The Platypus Safari

May 16th, 2003 at 12:00am

Still here, decided to take an extra day to rest up and catch up on the website. Yesterday was a full day of doing the’platypus safari’. There were 6 of us from the hostel who went plus an Australian couple who we picked up along the way. It was a one-hour drive to the Finch Hatton Gorge where we had morning tea followed by a walk through the rainforest up the gorge to a waterfall. Best thing about that was seeing the fresh-water eels swimming in the water – very cool!

From there we went up to Eungella National Park and had lunch before heading over to the’platypus viewing platform.’ The platypuses only come out at dawn and dusk and so we couldn’t really start looking for them until after 4:30pm. The platypus is a very strange animal, only found in Australia, and even though it lives in the water, it is a mammal yet it lays eggs, but milks it’s young. Freaky, eh? They have a bill like a duck and a tail like a beaver and webbed feet and fur. It can be difficult to see them in the wild because they are so shy. Eungella National Park is a popular place to see them because there is a high population of platypuses in the one creek and they’re pretty used to humans so they tend to not be so afraid.

So we stood on the bridge overlooking the creek and waited to see our elusive platypus. Finally, after about 30 minutes, he appeared! Actually, it was a ‘she’, according to our guide. She took her time, swimming downstream, coming up for air every few minutes. It was pretty cool, but you’ve gotta be into wildlife to get into to that kind of thing. I was just happy that I saw one.

That was an all-day outing and we didn’t get back to Mackay until 7pm. Today I decided in the morning to spend an extra day here because I desperately needed to catch up on the site and I spent nearly 5 hours going through photos of New Zealand. Always feel good to catch up a bit on that.

Tomorrow I am northbound again. The distance I will make will depend on what time I get out here here, and of course, the weather.

Looking for the playtpus

Lush rainforest of north Queensland

Finch Hatton Gorge

Entry Filed under: Australia,Cycling,Mackay