Kangaroos on the Beach

Driving the Great Barrier Reef from Gold Coast to Carins

We were told by several airBnB hosts that MacKay was just another town and that there was nothing to see or do. It’s a good thing we had done some research beforehand because otherwise we would have missed out on a quintessential experience.

Cape Hillsbrough Park, an hour north of MacKay is home to a group of wallabies and kangaroos which come down to the beach every morning at sunset to feed. We got up at 4AM and drove out early so that we wouldn’t miss seeing a sunrise with Kangaroos.

Before dawn the kangaroos hopped up to us thinking that we had food but soon after a park ranger came to give them food and set out some cones to keep the crowds away. The crowd wasn’t large, only around 30 people, which was a relief since I thought there would be heaps of people and there were only two couples stepping in front of people and obliviously taking photos without any regard for others. Everyone else was quite conscious to stay out of the background and accommodate each other so it was pretty good.

Eventually the marsupials begin to wander through the crowd and back into the forest. They are quite at ease with people and it is possible to get very close to them for pictures.

Just as we were leaving I took a picture of the coastline which reminded me of Oregon, USA. I think it was because the Oregon coast has a lot of shallow beaches which reflect the sky as the tide goes out.

The wildlife viewing didn’t stop with marsupials, later on we went an hour out of the way to see a platypus. We were worried we wouldn’t see any but fortunately one was in the river feeding. They’re not very big — only about a foot long. It didn’t get close to shore so we didn’t get a close up view of it but it was still pretty cool to see. Upstream we found 15 turtles swimming under the viewing platform. We weren’t sure if they were waiting to be fed the way they congregated near us but it was good for us to see them up close.