Being Casso-wary ⚠️

We left the Babinda Boulders free camp and had a lovely walk at Eubenangee Swamp, a wonderful wetland area. We didn't spot much but that's ok, we were about to be spoilt again at Etty Bay. On the drive in we spotted a Cassowary roadside and then another right by the beach which we watch steal someone's orange off a bench and swallow whole. They're pretty impressive birds but not to be messed with as some signs at Etty Bay warned. We had a wonderful swim in warm sea in the stinger netted area, but not for long because I still worry about jellyfish getting through.

We drove on south stopping again at a free camp in a place called Toomulla. Now we're back by the coast there's plenty of opportunities of a shower by the beach or at free pools which most of the towns seem to have. We stopped briefly in Townsville but pushed on further stopping at a place called Bowen, when we stopped for lunch we spotted a Brown Tree Snake in a bin. 

In Bowen we walked up to a viewpoint over a lovely little beach called Horseshoe Bay and then watched the sunset before cooking tea beachside, all very idyllic. We then had to sleep in a car park behind a petrol station so you know, swings and roundabouts. 

The next day we went and ate breakfast at Dingo Beach and had quick dip in the sea within their stinger net before driving on down to Cape Hillsborough. We did a walk taking us along the beach and up a headland through rainforest. Our campsite was not far and also by a beach so we made sure we had time to sit with a drink on the beach as the sunset. 

We woke early the next morning as the local rangers feed Kangaroos and Wallabies on the beach at sunrise, we ended up being a little late but still saw plenty of them hopping around. I find these kinds things a bit weird but apparently people from a local caravan park were doing it with the wrong kinds of foods so the National Park thought they'd make it official with the right stuff. We went back to our campsite for a beach breakfast and to properly start the day. 

We pushed further south stopping in Mackay for a shop and a swim at the lagoon, then carrying on to Yaamba rest area so another free, and an early, night. We set the alarm for 05:30am as we said we'd do plenty of parkruns while over here but have currently only done one. There are more now we're on the east coast but we were still a 50 minute drive from one in Yeppoon that started at 7am. But we did it, although I think a lot more walking than running went on for me. We followed it with a lovely swim in Yeppoon Lagoon right on the sea front which was still pretty quiet. Not far from Yeppoon we walked up to a green turtle viewpoint where we didn't have high expectations but saw a few bobbing about in the water, so really rounded off a great morning. 

For lunch we treated ourselves to chip shop chips next to the singing ship in Emu Park. The singing ship is a monument sat on the sea front which makes a whistling sound as the wind blows through it, and it was pretty breezy so we had a musical accompaniment to our chips. 

Our next stop was in Rockhampton where we'd found out there was a free zoo, and we don't like to miss out on things that are free. It was a great place to wander round for an hour seeing meerkats, chimpanzees, crocodiles, kangarooos, and much more. Me and Matt couldn't help but think  however, that there's so much wildlife to see just out and about in Aus that we didn't really need to visit a zoo at all. 

Lots of love,

Lisa and Matt 💕