Today there was some excitement in the air , we were travelling on roads we hadn't been on before , eyes were darting from one side of the road to the other not wanting to miss out on anything . As we left Mackay , the road took us through many cane fields , and with all this cane , there are sugar mills - one in Farleigh and one west of Mackay- there are a couple of more further west of Mackay .
Cane train rail tracks run everywhere through the cane fields . Many fields are ready for harvesting and there are many ready for , or have been planted out .
It is a scene of green and burgundy coloured soil , with volcanic plugs jutting out of the ground , covered at the base with dense rainforest , gradually thinning out till there is nothing but rock .
Driving up the Bruce Hwy was a pleasant surprise - this stretch anyway - was in really good condition . As we drove we could see houses up on a ridge , and decided we would find our way up there as the views would be awesome . The houses were part of the small township called The Leap !
Not sure why , you can only guess at the meaning of The Leap .
Back on the highway and into the main part of The Leap , we turned off to head to Cape Hillsborough National Park . The drive was through cane & cattle country - on a 100klm zone road that should probably only be 80klm/hr at best .
Before much longer we had arrived at the National Park , there was a mangrove boardwalk that we decided we'd look at later , so we continued in . There was a greeting party there waiting for us - a couple of wallabies , that call Cape Hillsborough home . There is a manicured picnic area with toilet block , covered tables & benches and a covered kids playground . Down further is a resort ?? albeit a rather old one , that also takes campers & caravans etc - not the most normal thing for a National Park.
We wandered down to the beach - Casuarina Beach - a broad stretch of sand - (the tide was going out) - that continued to the left and right . We headed up to the left hand / northern end , and admired the views . It almost felt like we were below the level of the water as we looked out to sea .
There was another drive & walk around on the western side , so we headed round there . The walk was only supposed to take 20 mins - it took us over an hour . It followed an aboriginal theme from the viewpoint of a young girl learning how to survive from her elders . The Yuibera people called this area home and the walk is named after them . There are many signs along the walk showing the plants and food they harvested , and how they used them all .
The walk was along the side of the water & mangroves , and went to a loop track at the end , that took us through some rainforest . It was dense and damp , with many palms , ferns and some very large trees .
During the walk , there were several butterflies flitting about the place , then we looked upwards to see hundreds just floating around the tops of the palms . It was quite a spectacle .
Here are just a few :-
There are remains of an aboriginal fish trap - they made a bit of a rock pool that was submerged at high tide , and as the tide went out fish were trapped , they only used what fish they needed , and stored the rest in pools they dug into the sand .
We headed back to the picnic area and had some lunch before heading up to Twin Beach lookout . It was a steep climb that got the heart rate up and the muscles burning - it was good !! Reaching the top we found many grass trees with flower spikes that were being attacked by native bees , butterflies and other flying critters .
In another 100m we were at the lookout - I'll let you be the judges !!
Pretty spectacular , I think you will agree !!!
We wandered back down to the beach , instead of doing the other 3klm walk around the top . The beach was empty , with lots of Pumice Stone washed up on the high tide mark - it was like walking on a bean bag to get to the beach .
As you can see the crabs have been busy , rolling up the balls of sand .
We then went around to Ball Bay , which is on the northern side of Cape Hillsborough - it is a sleepy little village , with a handful of retired residents , a few workers and some fishing huts .
Heading back to Mackay , there was an alternative road that took us off the main roads , onto some dirt roads , through some more cane fields , through Habana and back into Andergrove to the RV.
Another really good day behind us , we will be moving again tomorrow .
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