Thursday 24th August 2023

Once again we had a terrible night’s sleep again at Neem Hall, our camp is right on the road and the traffic starts at 5am and goes continuously. It is a 100km zone ans it sounds like an plane is taken off every other minute. It was a lovely campsite on the creek but unfortunately the traffic noise was too much to cope with.

Today we are doing part of the 56km Mackay Hinterland Great Walk. We had intended doing it all but it is an 1.5 hopur drive from beginning to end and there are no transport options. Instead we are doing the Broken River to Crediton section which goes beside the Broken River mosts of the way. It was a lovely rainforest walk, with a fantastic trail undulating the whole way. It was a 16km return walk and took us just iover 5 hours with a couple of long stops. Once to take photos of the king parrots high in the dense foliage and the second stop for lucnh by a pool. As we arrived at our lunch stop the first thing David saw very close was a platypus. We thought we were going to be entertained the whole time but unfprtunately we nevcer saw it again.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife today staring with the turkeys at Neem Hall. Once at the National Park we saw a Eungella Honeyeater, Whipbird, Australian King Parrots, either an Azure Kingfisher or a Little Kingfisher, Swamp snake, Wild Pigs, and many platypus. As we headed towards the Eungella Dam we saw a Pheasant Coucal on the side of the road. These are quite large birds and their tail feathers are amazing.

We drove the 25km dirt road to a beautiful camp site at Eungella Dam. There are only about 5 or 6 campers here besides us. We love it. We enjoyed a lovely dinner as the sun set and then I watched the stars for a little while. It is quite cold up here as we are about 600m above sea level.