Cape Hillsborough National Park

From Rockhampton I drove north on to Mackay.   I dropped by one of the beaches, and drove out onto the breakwater to see a large ship coming into port.  

One or two other photos of Mackay - HERE.

There's not a lot to see in Mackay (sorry to the Mackayians), and had picked up a brochure about a place called Cape Hilsborough National Park, just a bit further north, so drove there.

I think the best way I can describe the place is like a tropical version of Wilsons Prom (Victoria) - it was absolutely fantastic and would highly recommend it to everyone.  There is a caravan/cabin park there right on the beach, which I managed to get a powered site at only about 30m from the beach.

The location has a beautiful bay, protected on either end my large capes, along with an island in the middle of the bay.  At low tide, it's possible to walk all the way around the cape and onto the island.  The area has thick, lush tropical vegetation, and there was plenty of wildlife to see including birds, lizards, possums and wallabies.  Interstingly, the wallabies hit the beach at dawn and eat some of the seaweed that's exposed - I was told they get some salts and minerals from it - it's certainly the first time I've seen lots of kangaroos and wallabies congrating on a beach!    It was also my first introduction to the House Gecko.  These are pretty common, but it was certainly intersting to see them on the walls of the bathroom.  The ones in that area a very pale colour and they almost look transparent at night.

Post Script:   From about Rockhampton onwards I'd been hearing this "chuck-chuck-chuck" sound at night and thought it was some type of bird, but I could never see them.  Turns out it's the House Geckos making this sound - which is quite loud for such a small critter.

While at Cape Hillsborough I got some great photos, including sunrise and sunset shots, but also some moonrise photos.   Strangely though, the Canon G1X when taking very long exposures turned all the shots bright green - not sure what's going on there - so I had to turn many of my moon shots into black & white.

Here's a LINK to a few more shots from the area.