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Camping in Eungella National Park (Queensland)

One enjoyable memory of my travels is Eungella National Park which is located approximately 70 kilometres inland from Mackay and roughly 900 metres above sea level.
It was a late evening drive to the park and the road was spotted with Cane Toads.
I remember seeing a sign indicating it was a steep climb.
After driving around Cairns I felt I was prepared but I didn't realise what was ahead. As the climb got steeper and steeper, I realised that I should have put it into four wheel drive before I started the climb. Unfortunately the Landcruiser did not have auto locking hubs.
We were towing a 24 foot caravan. I was in high range two wheel drive. It got too steep to continue in high range. That meant stopping. As soon as I realised this.. I broke out into a cold sweat... that meant a steep hill start with six people in the vehicle and a fully loaded caravan and to make matters worse.. I knew I wouldn't make it around the bend before I had to stop. Like all challenges it was necessary to overcome it, but I have to admit to worrying about the strain of roughly 5 tonne of weight plus gravity the clutch was about to meet

I love Toyotas. The rest of the climb was uneventful and mostly low in visibility because of low cloud cover. We arrived in the camp ground in darkness and fell into bed.
The next morning we were greeted by a really beautiful place and a really nice camp ground. It even had hot showers, plus, it was ten degrees cooler than Mackay because of the altitude.
There is an abundance of wildlife in the park which is not shit scared of the presence of people, a real credit to the rangers and previous campers/visitors. Speaking of wildlife, anyone who has camped in Queensland is aware of bush turkeys. They're a really colourful looking bird, but an absolute pain in the bum when it comes to leaving anything resembling food outside. We had experienced them before and knew what to expect from them.
It was also here that I saw a platypus for the first time in my life. I never realised just how small they are. One thing that sticks in my mind more than the platypus is a school group that were also camped there. The morning after they arrived they all went hiking. One of the teachers was still in their camp when I noticed a lot of food was on tables under the marquis and quite accessible. I explained about the bush turkeys and the need to hide food from them. He either didn't listen, or felt I had no clue because he hung up about three items and went off hiking.
We knew what was coming as did the rest of the campers and we all got our fold up chairs and sat in a line to watch. It wasn't long before the turkeys came into their camp and started to raid their food. What a fiasco... but the best was yet to come. There was also a very friendly kangaroo that liked to hop around the various camps.. and we soon found out why. This kangaroo was a marvel to watch. It hopped up to a bag, UNZIPPED it and took out the buns it had obviously smelt inside. It then proceeded to hold it like we would hold a hamburger bun, and proceeded to calmly eat it. It was an absolute blast to watch.
We even watched some smaller birds fly in and one of them crapped into some mugs... it was so funny to watch. The animals had almost lost interest by the time the hikers returned. Those animals that were left quickly ran when the first of the kids walked under the marquis. We watched as they discovered one thing after another that the animals had lunched on : ) It was a very funny thing to watch, especially the looks on their faces as they made the discoveries. My kids still talk about it even though this happened over two years ago.
On top of this we had a really wonderful stay. The park is full of nature walks and many really beautiful things just waiting for you to discover. It is a place I can highly recommend to anyone planning on travelling near Mackay.
Life is made up of many wonderful experiences like the one above, but travel seems to condense them into much less time. if you have an inclination to travel you will discover an absolute goldmine of memories.
Travel is an exceptionally good path to discovering life, the universe and everything. Get out there ... discover life... and have fun doing it.
Good luck and happy travelling.
Don
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>>>>>>>True Peace is found when your inner self is set free<<<<<<<
home page http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/5588 __________________________________________________________

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