Tues. June 22nd

After a good nights sleep we managed an earlier start continuing driving on the Bruce Highway.We are travelling through sugar cane growing country and the cutting began this week so all the time we are seeing the cane cutting machines, the road trains which transport some of the cut cane to the factories and most interesting of all the sugar cane trains which in the big fields ran into the fields for the cane to be loaded directly on the train and then straight to the factory where the railway line actually runs into the factory.We passed 4 factories in just a few hours.

Our idea today was to try to see platypus in the wild.We have seen them in captivity last year in Tasmania and we have sat very quietly on river banks at dusk where we have been told there are platypuses but no luck so when we read in the guidebooks about this place where you can see the little darlings in daylight we decided to give them another chance.As we approached Mackay we turned left and drove about 70k to Broken River in Eungula National park (pronounced Young-g lah) when we got there and read the noticeboard of course it said best chance at dawn or dusk.It was 1pm. We have taken a unanimous decision to give up platypus big hunting and if they want to see us they will have to wait at the side of the highway and we may deign to wave to them as we pass.

We took another diversion to Midge Point on the coast to see the view of the Whitsunday Islands and guess what yes the light had gone and all we could see was black lumps in the sea. This made us late looking for accommodation and gave us a few anxious moments until we managed to get the last room in Bowen. We really must get our timing right.