We arrived in Bowling Green Bay National Park yesterday after a few hours drive along the coast to find the camping ground tucked away a few kilometres off the main highway and just a couple of tents and trailers already there. With most of the park to choose from, we set up our tent in some shade towards the back of the camping area before heading off to do a little exploring.

At the far side of the camping and visitor's area there were a number of walking tracks that led off into the woodlands, which we decided to leave for another day and instead we headed down to the river that ran through the valley at the bottom of the park. Despite being so close to the highway, it was very peaceful and quiet down by the river and we were there for a little while until it started to rain and we headed back to the tent, where we spent the rest of the evening watching a baby kangaroo hopping up and down along the fence in front of us.

This morning we awoke to some better weather so we headed off on one of the longer walks from the park - a twelve kilometre trail up to the top of the river and some more waterfalls. The walk started off easily enough along a clear pathway that took us up out of the campsite towards the forest that surrounded us. After about an hour we crossed over a small creek and then the trail started to become a little harder to follow.

The grass was beginning to cover the pathway and in some places it was completely covered so we were walking from patch to patch, when we suddenly came out from the forest into a huge clearing. There seemed only one direction which the path could follow, so we headed up the hill with the sound of water a promising sign as we thought we might be getting closer to the waterfalls. After another half hour we came to another creek crossing, although this time we needed to wade across the water to continue on up the path. It was here that we agreed that this was proving to be a fruitless exercise and we turned back to start the trek back to the campsite.

Walking back proved to be just as entertaining and the path often disappeared from view, only to reappear a few metres later to take us in a direction we hadn't planned on. Five hours after setting off from our tent, we came back to the pathway that marked the final few metres of our journey and at least we knew we hadn't managed to get ourselves lost. A little way along we came across some little wallabies playing and feeding in the long grass at the side of the path, where we stood for a while amazed at just how close we could get to the animals.

We even managed our first hot shower in a few days this afternoon, before retiring to our tent for the evening ahead of our trip into Townsville tomorrow.