Kangaroos and wallabies at sunrise

Kangaroos and wallabies at sunrise

I had set the alarm to wake early so that we could go see the kangaroos on Casuarina Beach on Cape Hillsborough at sunrise.  I made a mistake and set it for 0440 rather than 0540.  Combined with the fact that I had been going to bed around 2100 and waking around 0100 to 0200 then dozing, this wasn’t going to help with my day ahead.

We took the 15 min drive to Casuarina Beach getting there in complete darkness.  It was drizzling slightly but it was still OK for us to walk comfortably on the beach.  As we walked towards the right, I felt a sense of disappointment as we saw nothing.

A little further we saw silhouettes of kangaroos and wallabies in the water and at the waterline.  It was still dark and my attempt to take photos were quite hopeless.  As light came, we were able to appreciate the animals.

Eventually it appeared the animals were ready to hop back into the bush.  A ranger turned up and placed some cones on the ground to keep visitors back.  He then put some food in places on the other side of the cones and that seemed to keep the animals from returning to the bush.  I’m guessing it also keeps them coming back every morning.

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I always thought than kangaroos are larger than wallabies, and that’s the key distinction.  But the ranger explained that size wasn’t the only thing as some wallabies may be larger than kangaroos.  He said, it was the colour and facial shape that was the main distinction. Kangaroos are more brown while wallabies more grey.  Looking on the internet later, the most definitive distinction is in the jaw shape as they have different diet.

As we were ready to leave, two animals put up a fight, which was quite good to watch.  That made our morning and we left happy.

Moving on to Airlie Beach

Back at the motel, we reviewed the weather for tomorrow and made a call that it wasn’t sufficiently nice to go for an excursion at sea tomorrow from Airlie Beach.  We had booked a trip through Viator at a slight premium that allowed free cancellation for another hour or so.  We had the option of booking through other sites for less that didn’t offer this flexibility.

We loaded up and took a brief walk on Seaforth’s waterfront briefly.  It was low tide again and we left without appreciating the beauty of the place at high tide and good sunlight.

Our host had advised us to avoid the gravel road recommended by Google Maps.  We got to Airlie Beach around midday, the journey taking 2h instead of the 1h30 we had originally expected.  Compared to the quiet places we had come from, this felt like an Aussie version of Patong Beach in Phuket.

Hungry, we grabbed a Subway lunch before looking around for any last-minute boat trips for tomorrow.  The weather forecast hadn’t changed but we would be willing to make the same excursion if it was cheap enough.  Nothing was available at cheap-enough prices to warrant going out in cool cloudy weather with southerlies of 30km/h.  No one was discounting as it was school holidays.

Covid-19 chaos

We then learnt that the greater Brisbane area (including Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast) had gone into lockdown.  It wasn’t a surprise but what came as a shock was that Townsville had followed suit as an unvaccinated hospital receptionist had travelled there.

Townsville was our next stop.  There was an urgency for us to start some work replanning.  We got to our next accommodation, the Kipara.  This was a collection of cabins set amongst tropical plants with roaming resident turkeys.

Once checked-in, I started to work on our replanning.  Kim, on the other hand, relaxed and chatted with friends on the phone.

First priority was to cancel our accommodation in Townsville.  I did this 10h before the cancellation deadline.

Second was to replan to avoid Townsville.  After some deliberation and, we decide on one night in nearby Bowen before a longer drive over-shooting Townsville to stay two nights near Mission Beach.  That’s despite weather not expected to be good for the next little while, because there weren’t many other feasible options.  We grabbed accommodation for these two areas.

I love Townsville and Magnetic Island; it was a pity I wouldn’t be able to show Kim some of these areas.

Third, the quarantine-free travel bubble with New Zealand has been suspended completely.  A resumption had been announced from Victoria and a few Covid-free areas but Queensland will not resume till an unspecified date, which would be updated in a week’s time.  So, at the earliest, it looked like our return to Auckland would be at least 4 days later.

We had to work out how we would spend this extra time preferably not spending all of it in Cairns.  We needed wheels for the extra period as we would have returned our existing car.  Rental cars are about AUD200 per day currently but Kim found a budget wreck for AUD40 x 3 days.

With the car, we would be able to stay further north than Cairns for most of the time, since we may be further delayed necessitating a stay in Cairns.

Finally, after a Vietnamese dinner, we completed the last of the travel replanning.  We would stay a night in Cairns since we can’t pick up the new car the day after returning our existing one.  From there we would move up to Port Douglas and stay three nights up there and explore the surrounding area.

We would then return to Cairns and hopefully fly out or stay in the city itself if necessary.

How things change!

We had looked at staying at Port Douglas when we first planned this trip.  There were no hotels available due to school holidays.  Now, we were able to book a 4-star place for the same price as a motel or motor-camp cabin!

The day had taken unexpected turns and we rose to the occasion.  Despite feeling lethargic from inadequate sleep, when the stress levels rise, I perform better!