Mackay itself is quite a nice city, apparently wealthy, with lovely parks and an excellent information centre and staff. Unfortunately picnic lunches are not the best in wind and rain, though only showers. We finally managed to find some shelter in Queen's Park, which has very old fig and banyan trees and an excellent display of orchids. A drive to the harbour to see the sugar-loading operation (also oil, coal and other products), a short detour to Harbour Beach, a wide yellow but very flat beach, with rough surf today.
Yesterday was a top day with very special attraction for Chris and me. We were going to a national park (no dogs) so the others did their own thing. First we visited Finch Hatton Gorge and the Araluen cascades, crossing numerous pretty streams on the way, and enjoying a walk in a real tropical rainforest. We heard a lyrebird but didn't spot him- no surprise there. The cascades were lovely and well worth the fairly easy climb to get there. On the way back to the main road we stopped several times for photos of the beautiful streams you have to ford, as well as at the long bridge which crosses Cattle Creek- this creek, like Araluen cascade, has some massive rocks which make you wonder at the power of waters tumbling down from the mountain.
We are staying at Mirani (pronounced Mir-annie), a sugarcane area in the Pioneer Valley. The Pioneer River flows next to the town, reaching the sea at Mackay. The river valley is almost dead level, though surrounded by some biggish mountains, the biggest we've seen for a long time. At the head of the valley the road suddenly soars upward, round tight bends with spectacular views, till it reaches Eungella, at the top of the climb. The caravan park there had been recommended to us, but we're very pleased we went up sans caravan, as we met a number of tip trucks both coming and going, and there isn't a lot of room on those bends! (The CB radio, installed to my disgust, has proved to be a boon as we can hear the truckies talking and know in advance when one's approaching. They have many, many very wide loads (mining machinery) in these areas and when we're towing the van, which is wider than the car, we can get out of the way before the wide load arrives).
Eungella (this is tricky, so bear with me- Jung like Carl, gel as pronounced by English toffs saying "girl". Jung gell a). There's a splendid lookout called Sky Window, which lays out the vast panorama of the valley flats before you, the river winding its way down towards Mackay in the distance- the valley's about 60 kms long, so the far view is a bit hazy, to say the least. Sugarcane as far as you can see, fringed by bits of bush and occasional little towns.
Pioneer Valley from Eungella Sky Window
The highlight of the day, though, was watching wild platypus in the Broken River not far from Eungella.
One of the small towns in the valley is named Pinnacle- wouldn't you think it'd be at the top? Not at all. They do have a view of a pinnacle, though. It had been suggested that we should get a Pinnacle Pie at the pub, so we did, and very good too. We got takeaway because a busload of giggling girls on a hen's night had arrived just before us. Curious clothes some of them were wearing- is the full skirt with rope petticoat back "in", or were they doing retro? Some of them had distinctly forties hairdos (which actually looked quite nice) but if they were trying to be retro, they had their eras mixed up. I saw a couple of dresses I might have worn myself at that age.
Tomorrow we move on to another free camp (so probably no internet) between Mackay and Bowen, where we'll stay a few days if we like it. Once we get to Kim's motel at Bowen we may stay as long as a week, doing drives each day to explore the area, visiting places like Proserpine as well as inland.
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