Day three and before the sun is up we're woken by the raucous cacophony of
thousands of magpie geese returning from overnight roosting to the St
Lawrence Wetlands where they feed all day on the rich vegetation. The sun
rises to present us with a glorious morning so we take a walk through the
wetlands to see the abundant birdlife. Magpie geese, the islands are black
(and white) with them, black swans, ducks, coots and moorhens of every
variety together with the ever present cranes and egrets. Set against a
background of reeds and water lilies it's a magnificent sight.
time to strike camp, have a shower and hit the Bruce Highway again. There's
not much to see apart from fields of sugar cane but some of the road signs
ask trivia questions. What is the national flower of Queensland? Answer,
the Cooktown Orchid. I play my own trivia mind games; if there's a Bruce
Highway, how come there's not a Sheila Highway? Why do all the continents
start and finish with the same letter? I did say that the Bruce is tedious!
At last, the navigator directs a turn off on to a lesser road that takes us
through pastoral countryside to the tiny settlement of Marian which boasts a
sugar cane processing plant and the house where Helen Porter Mitchell became
bored with small town family life and escaped to London and Paris where she
became Dame Nellie Melba, the original diva,. Vaun the volunteer guide (the
place doubles as the local tourist office, museum and craft market) waxed
lyrical about Dame Nellie's early life and how she rose to stardom in the
last quarter of the nineteenth century. All very educational and most
enjoyable.
Our journey through the cane fields came to an abrupt end as the road
climbed steeply into the mountains of the Great Dividing Range to Eungella.
After many twists and turns we arrived at a spot known as Broken River.
'Why' do I hear you ask? Well, Kim and I have seen the elusive platypus,
but only in captivity. Kim has wanted to see one 'in the wild' but
everywhere we've searched has drawn a blank. And this part of Broken River,
according to local lore, is the place to see them. The first half an hour
revealed quite a few long necked turtles and a colourful kingfisher but no
platypus.
"Oh dear, not again. And I really wanted to see one" complained Kim. Then
suddenly, right in the middle of the river, up pops the gleaming shape of
the creature that looks as though it was made of the spare bits left over
after all the other animals were made. A genuine wild platypus. By the
way, the head is towards to bottom right of the picture.
Wow, that was some thrill. And then we spotted another, and then another
quite near to where we had set up camp, but by this time it was getting dark
and clouds were rolling in ready for a drop more rain.
Generally when camping we set up just the roof top tent and that's
sufficient, but as the cloud became lower and drizzle set in we decided to
add the walls. This makes a cosy two storey tent that rapidly warms when
the cooker is on. I've made some modifications, adding LED lighting and a
convenient hook to hold the ladder out of the way in the roof. This
provides a clear space about 6 feet by 8 feet which is quite sufficient for
the table and a couple of chairs. So ended the day. Will tomorrow bring
sunshine? We'll have to wait and see.
No, it doesn't. The morning mist clears but the weak sun is quickly
displaced by drizzle. However, the lush tropical rainforest is something to
be experienced and so we stayed in the mountains, although dropping down a
few hundred metres to Finch Hatton Gorge where we forded four rivers in
quick succession, only one of them deep enough to be interesting. But we'd
had enough of wet and decided it was prudent to head for the coast before we
picked up any leeches.
Back among mile after mile of sugar cane we arrived at Bowen, noted for its
mangoes. They even have a giant one that was stolen a few months ago.
Happily it's now back in its proper location.
As we've seen so much sugar cane I should perhaps include a note about this
crop for readers who are not familiar with it. From a distance the plant
looks similar to bamboo. Growing up to eight feet high its stems are about
three quarters of an inch in diameter with a cluster of wide green leaves.
Some have a feathery seed head, similar to tall grass. Field after field of
the crop present a picture of uniform green that is quite attractive, at
least initially. The crop is harvested using special machines that cut the
stems at ground level, strip off the leaves, cut the stems into lengths
which are dropped into cages on wheels. The cages are carried on the backs
of trucks and deposited onto railways lines. When enough filled cages are
coupled together, they're picked up by an engine and taken by rail to a
processing plant. There must be hundreds of kilometres of these narrow
gauge cane railway tracks. They cross roads, pass through villages,
progress in front of houses and eventually arrive at one of the many sugar
mills. Queensland produces about 4.5 million tonnes of sugar annually.
That's a lot of spoonfuls, something to think about when you have your next
cup of tea.
Overnight at Bowen, just off the beach with the sound of the waves lulling
us to sleep. Morning, all too soon and we're awoken by a whole family of
kookaburras noisily arguing. Then a gentle drive on the dreaded Bruce
Highway to Townsville where we catch up with Matt and Natalie who were once
our neighbours in Brisbane.
The scenery is beginning to look drier. Are we at last getting away from
rain?
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