Day 274. Airlie Beach to Cape Hillsborough

A beautiful, relaxing National Park

We left Airlie Beach today after 8 x nights of total bliss. Scarlett has made so many new friends here, and there has been so much for her to do, that it has left us with some free time to also make new friendships. This has been the second longest stay on the trip so far, with Cairns being the longest at 9 x nights, and both within a month of each other. You can really tell how tired we are getting and how much we are starting to slow down.

The Barkla's (Dave, Andrea, Sarah, Lucy and Isabel) are also leaving today, and funny enough we are all heading to the same place. We’re off to stay at Cape Hillsborough National Park, which is only about 70km’s North from Mackay, and it’s famous for their ‘beach grazing’ kangaroos and wallabies. It’s also turtle season and the Flat backed Turtle is known to nest here, providing us with huge opportunity to do some wildlife watching.



Lucy, Sarah, Scarlett, Me and little Isabel




Our site was lovely and shady, and up on a rise overlooking the beach, giving us a great breeze too. We were greeted upon arrival with ‘Scrub Turkeys’; they are everywhere here, along with Kookaburra’s too. We pretty much set up, had lunch, and read a little. When Scarlett’s little friends arrived, we moved over to the pool to relax and swim for the rest of the afternoon.

Late in the afternoon, I took all the kids down to the beach in hope of seeing our first kangaroo’s. Unfortunately there were none to be seen, but they had a great time none the less, playing in the sand and collecting coconuts. It was still a perfect evening watching the sun go down listening to the gentle waves, under the palm trees. It’s such a pity swimming here is still a no-go, as the water is so inviting, but as usual with the stingers and the odd croc we will just have to make do with the pool.

It was an early evening, as I promised myself an early get up to catch sunrise at the beach and hopefully a photo of some kangaroos out on the sand. If I am really lucky there might even be some turtle tracks and signs of nesting too….