Forest Flying

Our flight out of Prosperpine was in the late afternoon, so we decided to get a new perspective on the rainforest that we had been admiring from the ground. The B&B operator had told us that there was a British couple that strung up an enormous zip line on their property through the rainforest canopy.



"An added bonus," he continued on, "is that their property is home to some of the largest and most diverse bat populations around."



"You could have left off that last bit," I said with a smile.



We set off down the dirt roads and through the creek crossings and drove off into the forest into a place that no rental hatchback should go (thank goodness for zero liability insurance). At one point, it didn't look like there could possibly be people living out here, but we continued to follow this grown-over road and finally came to a farm gate. I knew we were in the right place when I got out of the car and stepped ankle deep in guano. We had arrived.



It was quite fascinating that people lived out here. The couple explained to us that they were completely self-sufficent off the grid due to their location. Quite often, the road gets washed out with big rain and they are "gorge-bound" for days at a time. All of their electricity runs off of a home made water wheel that is powered by the stream on their property and they operate their communications via satellite. Coming from suburbia, it blew my mind that people choose to live this way.



After harnessing up and hiking up the hill, we set off on the first zip line. It was amazing and the bats were surprisingly beautiful. We landed on a platform strung up in the trees to have a better look at the different types of bats and our guide gave us a little bat-ucation. I know more about fruit bats now than I care to!



The second zip line was a bit more precarious where you flew through the palm fronds. Then, it was over all too quickly. Like little kids, we wanted to go again and again, but it was time to go catch a flight back to reality.

It was a great end to our trip.

Platypus Perfection

When the boat returned to its slip, we still had 3 days before our flight back to the Sunshine Coast and we knew that we would be bored in Airlie. So, we quickly consulted our Lonely Planet and decided to rent a car to head inland to Eugnella National Park. Reason being, the park is heralded for almost guaranteed platypus sightings.



So, we drove an hour inland to see if we could spy ourselves some venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed, semi-aquatic mammals.

We found a rustic little B&B, dropped our stuff and set off to see if we could catch a glimpse of those shy little buggers before dinner. They didn't turn out to be as elusive as we expected. When we got down to the viewing platform, there were 2 or 3 of the little guys swimming about having a feed. What a sight! God is a comedian.



As we settled in for dinner, a storm blew in that had us thinking we might be stranded out here for a few days. Floods had just cleared from the Gorge from the last bad rainstorm and this was shaping up to cut us off from the main roads. Luckily, after a romantic dinner by blackout imposed candlelight with an ominous thunder clap soundtrack, the storm passed with no major damage.