Kangaroo Sunrise at Cape Hillsborough, Australia

When we stopped at an information site in Agnes Waters, we picked up a brochure for the national parks. It stated that Cape Hillsborough National Park has kangaroos and wallabies feeding on the beach at sunrise and sunset. Sara really wanted to see a kangaroo so we decided to camp there after platypus spotting in Eungella.

To camp at a national park, we had to obtain a permit and reserve a spot. There isn’t a way to pay at the site so it can’t be an impulse decision. The only way to reserve and pay is by calling the agency or by visiting their website. Without a phone or consistent internet access, neither are very easy for us travelers. Lucky for Australia, Sara and I are upstanding tourists so we found internet and pre-booked a site for two nights.

The camping area was not too far from Mackay so we had extra time to shop for improvements to our camper. First, because the side windows do not have bug screening, we can’t take advantage of the cool night air without being swarmed with mozzies (Aussie for mosquitos). Second, the camper gets very stuffy with no airflow through the back. At a hardware store, we bought outdoor masking tape and a meter of bug screening. A makeshift bug screen was in place in just a few minutes – it’s not pretty but hey it’s a rental. We went to several other stores looking for a small fan but the cheapest we could find was a puny foam fan for an outrageous $20. Hopefully opening the windows will keep the back cool enough.

Happy hour on Smalleys Beach

Enough of the boring stuff – it’s time to see kangaroos! We arrived at the campsite early afternoon and lazed the afternoon away on the beach. As we were relaxing, I saw another camper launch their boat from the beach. Near sunset, I made drinks for both of us and we walked the beach in search of kangaroos. We didn’t find any but did see two people with mud up to their knees walking up the beach. Apparently they stayed out on their boat too long and as the tide went out it was too shallow to get back. Even though there were no kangaroos, at least we saw some excitement on the beach!

The next morning, we woke early for sunrise and walked the beach, but still no kangaroos. I was beginning to think we were led astray. Since we booked two nights, we had all day to explore the national park. We drove over and found a beautiful day area with picnic areas, a nice beach, and a friendly ranger who told us about the kangaroos and wallabies. Apparently, a nearby RV resort puts food on the beach at sunrise so that would be our best opportunity to see the wild animals.

View of Wedge Island from Cape Hillsborough bush walk

We spent the day exploring several of the nearby hiking trails. We were blown away again by the number of butterflies and by the beautiful vistas! As we were taking in the beautiful scenery, something in the middle of the path caught my eye. I stopped and calmly mentioned to Sara that we would not be finishing the loop. She was curious, so I pointed to the giant spider and web blocking the entire path in front of us! It was the scariest spider I have ever seen. I didn’t even want to knock down the web with a stick for fear that it would come after me. We turned around back to the safety of the fluttery butterflies.

Once back to the beach, we relaxed while waiting for the tide to recede. At low tide, the nearby island is connected to the mainland by a thin natural isthmus. Once the tide was low enough, we walked over to the island. We didn’t make it to far before we saw the sand moving in front of us. As we got closer, the movement would stop but we ran ahead to see the culprits – tons of little crabs! They would run on the surface in big groups then as we got close would bury themselves in the sand. Sara and I had some fun running after them and trying to take pictures. When we finally made it to the island, it was pretty anticlimactic after the beach walk as the island way very rocky and hard to stroll on. Since the sun was also getting low, we turned around and walked back – happy hour was waiting for us!

Walking back to the car, we saw a little wallaby hopping in the park – finally! We kept walking to the camper and were greeted by more of Australia’s finest… The entire hood and windshield were covered in thousands of ants! Upon further investigation, we noticed they were all coming from a tree branch that was touching the roof. So instead of a nice relaxing evening watching nature, we spent the rest of the evening attempting to wash the ants off the camper.

The following morning, we woke up for sunrise again but this time drove over to the resort. As we were driving up, we saw several wallabies and kangaroos hopping across the road to the beach. I think we were finally in the right spot! On the beach, there were even more eating and looking for food. There were also a few other tourists hanging around as well. Even though they were being bribed to be at the beach exactly at sunrise, it was still neat to see. We had finally seen a kangaroo in Australia! (Now we need to find a koala bear which is apparently much more difficult.)

Ants storming our camper!

Elated after the successful outing, we made our way back to the car only to find hundreds of ants again! We made sure not to touch any trees so they must have been in hiding during all my hard work washing them off the night prior. I didn’t want to wash the van again, so we hoped that they would just blow off on the drive to Airlie Beach, our gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.