Sadly, the day had been one of disappointment. We had been driving hours and hours out of the way in pursuit of the rare and elusive platypus, only to realize, that despite our lengthy detour, we were still a couple hours from our intended viewing area and the roads were far too steep for our camper van to be able to handle. After abandoning that plan, we were stuck in a pickle. Should we drive all night in the hopes of making it to our final destination with time to relax, or, do we explore a bit more of the coast searching for something cool. After a few cabin-fever driven “heated discussion” we choose to give it one more night of exploration. After a few more hours of driving we arrived at Cape Hillsborough, a beautiful nature park. We had a quick walk about but we didn’t want to get too far away as night was beginning to set in. We made it back to Bertha and we decided that we would run the risk of parking her at the side of the road within the park even though we weren’t too sure if it was OK to do so or not.
We quickly made our dinner and then we all went to sleep, all a bit worried that we might be woke up in the middle of the night and told to leave. That didn’t happen, thank goodness, however, Jono, Tim and Aimee all woke up extra itchy and blotched, as sandflies had attacked throughout the night. We don’t know how she did it, but Amanda didn’t have any bites (too sweet perhaps)!
Anyway, we quickly moved our car into the parking lot, and made our way down to the beach to see the sunrise. It was an amazing site, but not as incredible as the wild kangaroos and wallabys that were coming out of the forest and onto the beach to receive a bite to eat from a local caretaker. We took our photos with the beautiful creatures and were amazed at how close we got to these animals out in their native habitat. As the food ran out and the marsupials once again returned to the shelter of the forest, we began trekking along the forested path.
Before long, we made it to the top of Cape Hillsborough, were, as we looked out into the ocean below, we were able to see sea turtles swimming beneath us. Determined to get a closer view, we made our way back down to the beach. We walked for what seemed like ever, only to soon find out that there was no way of getting a closer view The tide was slowly going out, and it was becoming more and more difficult to walk due to the mud and the barninckles that were scraping our feet. Muddy turned to mucky and after a couple near slips we all decided that we should probably be heading back. All in all, Cape Hillsborough turned out to be the right decision… as long as we still had enough time to hit our campervan delivery deadline.