Going North

Today we headed out from Castlereagh for a week on the road. We didn't do much planning aside from an ultimate destination of Brisbane, about 10 hours north. We also planned to spend the night at a campground in Arakoon National Park, right on the coast.

Jon, Jaimie, and I left about 11 and drove for six or so hours, stopping briefly to pick up a camp stove and to eat lunch. The day went exactly as planned until we reached the campground only to find the office was already closed for the day. Things here in Australia all seem to close early- they had closed at 4:30PM. No worries, we'll just grab an extra camp spot; if a ranger comes by, we can pay then.

The campground was stayed at was one of the better ones I've ever been at. We're about 300 feet from a sandy beach with a great view of some small mountain standing over the water. After pitching our tent, the three of us headed down to the beach for a dip. We waded in up to our knees, but no matter how far out we went, the water didn't get any deeper than thigh high. Jon ended up over 500ft from shore before giving up. Closer in, the water was only a foot deep and incredibly warm. Because it was so shallow, the sun was able to warm the water up close to 80 degrees . We hopped out, dried off, and headed back to the campsite to make dinner.

Right across the path from our campsite was a family of kangaroos munching on a nice dinner of grass and weeds. There were three smaller babies being watched over by a large male roo. A few other surrounded them. Two of these were fighting/playing with each other. These animals are surprisingly tall when they stand straight up on their hind legs. They're also a pretty interesting animal to watch- they normally stand on two legs, but use their tail for balance. To eat, they will bend down to nibble on the grass, but can also pick food up with their fore legs. I still haven't seen a baby in a pouch yet, I'm pretty sure all the kangaroo babies have made it out of the pouches for the year.


Tomorrow will hopefully hold a hike up one of nearby hills and a few more hours in the car onward towards Brisbane.