Party with the Platypus

Or is it platypuses? platypi?

July 8, 2012:
We drove straight through the night. Britt took the first shift, I drove for two hours, and Jay took over at midnight for three and a half hours. It was really difficult to focus on the road, but we had to stay on constant alert for kangaroo - collisions are extremely common. Kangaroo are the equivalent of deer in Canada. We also had to ensure that we were never above the speed limit; our insurance would have been rendered invalid if we'd been pulled over for speeding, or if we'd had a collision while speeding. It was slow-going, dark, and there were barely any other vehicles on the road to help us stay alert. We strategized: our co-pilot would be responsible for keeping us entertained.

We survived, probably due to the excessive number of road signs warning us about the dangers of driver fatigue. We did end up playing trivia with really bad made-up questions when we ran out of things to do. So thank you, Australian government.

We pulled over early in the morning at a truck rest stop next to a super creepy sugar-cane field, skittishly walked to the truck stop washroom to brush our teeth, and set up our beds. I slept like a baby.

By the time we woke up, all the trucks had left and the sun was high in the sky.

But not for long. We were in for the first of the rainy weather we would encounter this trip. It was a short drive to Eungella National Park in Mackay to see some platypus. It poured.

But the hike was beautiful, and we did manage to see some platypus.

 They are the weirdest little creatures. And they are TINY.

Apparently the park had several species of plant and animal that are unique to that park, which is crazy to think about.

We walked into a clearing between rocks on the river and I could have stayed there forever. It was so peaceful with the water calmly, but confidently, pushing its way through the rocks.

When we returned to the van, I had my first avocado sandwich of the trip - lucky thing I liked it, because I was in for many more. Living in a van was turning out to consist of doing a lot of things in parking lots: getting changed, eating breakfast and lunch, sleeping.

It was only a short adventure, but it was well worth the stop, and we packed up once again and drove to Airlie Beach.