Mackay and Cape Hillsborough National Park

After our Whitsunday adventure, we landed in Mackay. It's not a particularly attractive city that has much interesting tourist attractions, and since Andi couldn't walk far anyway, we had to come up with something relaxing for Sunday. Luckily, we're in Australia and even on Sundays, the stores in the big cities are open. So we went shopping a bit. Beforehand, we asked at the visitor centre about markets, and there was one on that day, right in the city's shopping centre car park. Perfect for us, so we drove there first. It looks pretty funny with all the stalls set up in the car park. It was about 11 am when we arrived, and unfortunately, everyone had already started packing up. We could only stroll around for 15 minutes before everything was packed away. But during that time, Andi and I found a necklace each with a small sea turtle pendant at a jewelry stand, each for $5. That should be a reminder of the many turtles we've already seen during our snorkeling experiences.

After the market visit, we went to the shopping centre and bought some groceries, a nightgown for me, and shorts for Andi. What I noticed while shopping: in Australia, Christmas seems to come earlier than in Germany. Christmas wreaths, tree ornaments, and fairy lights are everywhere, and Christmas songs are playing in the shops. There was even a Santa walking around, wishing people "Merry Christmas" and listening to children's wishes in his elf village. Really crazy, and it's not even mid-November yet! I think in Germany, the start of Christmas markets at the end of November keeps the Christmas hustle and bustle at bay a bit, but here, there's no reason not to start everything in early November.

After the first shopping centre, we briefly looked at the marina and then went to another shopping centre because there was a lagoon next to it, and we wanted to take a swim. Unfortunately, it was already a bit too late, so we decided to head to our overnight spot: Cape Hillsborough National Park. There's a beach where you can see kangaroos and wallabies at sunrise, and we didn't want to miss that sight. To avoid having to stay at an expensive caravan park, we booked a spot at the national park campground, from which we had to drive a few kilometers to the marsupial beach in the morning. But even the national park campground was located at a very beautiful beach, and in the evening, we had very nice neighbors who let us use their bright light for cooking. We chatted with them for a while, and they live only an hour away and are on a 2-week vacation at this campground. Finally, we went to bed. We had to get up at 4:15 the next day to be at the kangaroo beach before sunrise at 5:15.

Unfortunately, there was a pretty heavy storm with lots of lightning and rain during the night, so we could only hope that it would be dry in the morning and that we would even get to see a sunrise. It was indeed dry, but the sky was covered with clouds, and when we arrived at the beach, we already realized that it wouldn't be a classic sunrise. However, the kangaroos and wallabies were still there, and they made a really nice picture. We've already seen some animals, but it's something special on the beach. Unfortunately, there were relatively few animals and quite a few people, so the whole thing was a bit different than we had imagined. But I guess we just had some bad luck that day.

By about 6 o'clock, it was already quite bright, most of the kangaroos had disappeared, and we were hungry. So we had breakfast at a picnic table in the beach park. That's where we met a very curious wallaby again and saw many birds. Among other things, our first kookaburra in the wild. Really cool. Unfortunately, Andi felt pretty bad that morning. He somehow caught a cold, so he had a sore throat, a headache, and two injured feet. I set up a lying breakfast spot for him with a towel and a pillow because it was more comfortable for him. Of course, getting up early didn't really help, but we had decided to do it. We didn't plan anything strenuous for the day; we just wanted to drive a bit further south. Andi could rest in the car.

I'll write about what happened next in the next entry :)