The Adventure Continues...: Whitsundays... not yet!

On the way to the Whitsundays we stopped at a beach town on the coast called Hervey Bay. We were walking near the ocean when we saw a few dolphins out in the water. I love seeing wildlife in the wild so I was stoked about this. After, the walk we decided to stop at a free zoo in town. We just happened to get there during feeding time so we got to see the zookeeper feed the chimps. They ate just like a human with a spoon and bowl. Pretty groovy! Did you know humans share 98.6% of the same DNA as chimps? Fun Fact. After that we went to the koala feeding. The zookeeper gave us a lot of information about koalas including their habitat, feeding habits, family life, etc. Afterwards she let us go in their cage and pet the koalas. An unexpected great day full of wildlife!

We were supposed to leave on the Whitsundays Islands tour when we saw that a cyclone was headed straight to the islands. It wasn’t an hour after we got news of this that the tour company called and said our trip was delayed a couple of days. We decided to stay the night in a city south of the islands deporting beach town, as we assumed they would have more to do. There was a park nearby called Eungella National Park so we headed there for a two day trip. It was a beautiful park in the middle the mountains/rainforest. Unfortunately, they were getting the weather from the cyclone so it was very windy and rainy. We didn’t get to do as much hiking as we would have liked, but we did get to see the platypus playing in the water. We got there in the afternoon and saw one a couple times, but got up early the next morning and saw a few. They were so much smaller than I would have thought. They are unique to Australia so we felt really lucky to see them in the wild.

The following day we headed back to the city Mackay. The only free overnight parking was a boat landing with a park attached to it. Being parked right next to the ocean we definitely felt the cyclone weather. The wind was so strong it was rocking the van and large pelts of rain were hitting the van. It was a little freaky, but at the same time awesome to fall asleep to.

We decide to spend the next rainy day at the mall. En route to the mall the vehicle starts to overheat. We pull over and let it cool down before we continue our drive. We checked the fluids and everything looked good. This is strange. Once we get back on the road the van over heats again. What is going on?! It’s cyclone weather outside and we are stuck in our overheating van… this is what dreams are made of. We call every automobile place, but they are closed because it is Sunday. At this point I am starting to get a bit worried considering we are suppose to be in the Whitsunday area (two hours away) tomorrow afternoon for that tour. Mark decides to walk to the auto store across from where we are parked at the mall. He comes back with a business card of a guy that does auto repair call outs, we call the guy hoping that he will come check out the van today. Thankfully, he says he will meet us at the mall in twenty minutes. When the man arrived he checked everything out and informed us that the problem was a broken radiator hose. YAHOOOOOO! A new hose was cheap and easy for him to replace. I offer to go get a new front head light and a new hose while they stay in the dry parking ramp. There I was, running around the city during strong winds and a complete downpour to get to the car store to hopefully purchase the correct parts… this is exactly what I dreamed of when I thought about wanting to go the land of OZ. The van got fixed and we were stoked! Next stop: Whitsundays… take two!