Proserpine Wildlife

We are still very much enjoying being on the road full time. Although we still have to make time to do ordinary day to day things like do the washing, including sheets and towels, grocery shop,  get haircuts, wash the car and van etc, we get to do all of this in different places. We don’t miss having a base, and are loving life in our van.  We are eating more healthy, exercising heaps, and enjoying being in the outdoors and feel blessed to have the time to take in all that is around us.

Following our 2 days camping in Proserpine town centre, to grocery shop, and get a hair cut, Lake Proserpine was a lovely change of pace for 3 nights. The town has a sugar mill processing cane 24/7, and not too far away the lake/dam is used as a fishing/boating recreational spot, and they have now added camping. Great facilities with hot showers too. It is evident that Proserpine region has done heaps in its recovery from Cyclone Debbie’s devastation in 2017 and are glad to have tourists/travellers stay again. 

The wind blew at 30-40 km in short gusts for most of the time, and from all directions. It didn’t matter how exposed we were, it was the same even back from the lake.  Boating and fishing was disappointing.  Many travellers have been telling us that strong winds have been blowing from further north at Cairns to Mackay for the last 3 weeks. We hope it settles as we head back to the coast.

We walked/ran to the dam wall twice a day, so it was easy to get our 10,000 steps per day completed.  Derek has lost 7.5kg in 25 days, so is pumped.

Sunsets were pretty awesome,

Cattle wandered past us each evening....even had a dip, they love eating the water lillies

Awesome teddy room in an op shop ....not for sale... all those discarded preloved teddies now have a home together

The wildlife mingled and swam all together, little cormorants, pied cormorants, pelicans, 3 types of ducks, ibis, herons, egrets, black swans, but my favourite was the Australasian Darter who love to sit like this and dry their wings after fishing

But a new water bird for us was the Cotton Pygmy Goose

A family of ducks set up camp in front of us....all fell asleep at one stage

Plus this echidna thought we couldn’t see him, he kept trying to hide in the grass next to the post, as we tried to get close

It was a peaceful few days, just sadly not comfortable to sit outside.

Eungella + Platypus

We are loving our life on the road and the slow pace we are travelling. We are enjoying the diverse scenery, villages and nature, as we travel through different regions. It is getting much warmer...time to take off the flannelette sheets!

A short drive west into the Mackay hinterland is the Eungella NP and Finch Hatton Gorge. We made ourselves comfortable at the Finch Hatton Showgrounds for 4 nights to explore the region.

River Crossings as we drove to the Gorge

Gorge walk through rainforest to waterfalls

Drive up Pioneer Valley to the small farming village of Eungella and the NP, the longest continual stretch of sub tropical rainforest in Australia. The road is really too steep and narrow for caravans, but some do and put their brakes and driving ability to the test

Cedar Walk through Rainforest to Sky Window Lookout 6km return

In the NP is the beautiful region of Broken River, a cafe, campgrounds and the home to many platypus, we were there at the optimal time between 3 and 7 pm, and had 5 sightings.  Yay! (Wasn’t leaving until we spotted at least one)...from the walkway just under this bridge

You have to be very quiet

We had a visit with dear friends as they passed through the region on their way back to the Sunshine Coast, so sorry we didn’t get a photo, and had dinner with our neighbours at the Showgrounds.

Explored nearby Midge Point, where the local folk all own tractors to launch their boats, it was tremendously windy, too windy for the beach, so found a lot of quirky things around the town

A lady talked to us for ages and let us explore her garden, fairies, gnomes, turtles, frogs, and beautiful flowers and bromeliads

We camped for 3 nights over the weekend on the O’Connell River, and had a fish, bird watched, and clicked up many kilometres walking around the cane farms.

Our birds of the week...Bar Breasted Honey Eater (O’Connell Rv), Eastern Yellow Robin (Finch Hatton Gorge), female Fig Bird, plain brown but beautiful markings, Blue Winged Kookaburra, (Midge Point), 

Postcard from...Seaforth

Seaforth has been a little patch of paradise for 10 nights, with absolute beach front position - no power or water, and only 10km north of Halliday Bay our last stop. We love listening to the sound of the water again, and plenty of kilometres of beach to walk.

Lots of quirky things in this quiet old seaside village ...a beach that changes every time the tide goes out,  no curb and gutters, huge trees and parklands, a tree growing out of a palm tree (see the roots dangling) and these gorgeous protected Burdekin Ducks look like they’re wearing a cape

We were excited to pick up our new front awning, to go with our small side awning, which now gives us the feel of an extra room, and much needed shade

Our highlight was the walk out to Red Cliff Islands North and South in the top photo above, via a causeway from the mainland at low tide

View from South island over to North island and lookout hill

View from North island, we had a 360° view

We also spent a day exploring Cape Hillsborough NP. We did the major walk to Turtle Lookout with Russell (a family guy we picked up along the way) who became our unofficial photographer

Oyster covered rocks....huge

Fishing has been lousy again, one small bream in the creek behind us, and nothing off the boat ramp or beach front, the water colour was a beautiful turquoise, but not very relaxing as we were surrounded by mangroves and we are now in croc country, we have to be very vigilant.

Seeing this sign now on all creeks, boat ramps and estuaries




Our bird of the week is a curlew....noisy, eerie howling things, but soooo cute, 

Two curlews are nesting on 2 eggs under the back of our neighbours van...one sits and the other keeps guard then they swap over....for 28 days