It would be completely insensitive to my readership of seven mostly working people to say it was hard leaving the catamaran where we were waited on hand and foot and going back to our own cooking and cleaning and road tripping. So I will read the room and not say that. We arrived back at our Airlie Beach caravan park after our sailing was over, excited for the next stage of our road trip. We packed up and headed off that afternoon to Cape Hillsborough.

I had heard about Cape Hillsborough on some Facebook sites. It’s famous for kangaroos on the beach at sunrise. I just wanted to go because the beach looked really nice. It was an easy two hour drive south from Airlie Beach.

We stayed at Cape Hillsborough Resort which is right on the beach next to the National Park day areas. We arrived at about 4.30. As soon as we set up, we headed to the beach. It was getting close to sunset, and the light was beautiful. It was a bit of an overcast day but I loved the moodiness of the beach.

The sand crabs had made beautiful patterns all over the sand.

I loved the palm trees that lined the beaches.

There were also some pine trees along the shore.

The crab patterns literally covered the whole beach.

Day 2

When we checked in we were told the ‘kangaroo experience’ starts at 5.15am. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Weren’t we just going to the beach at sunrise to see the kangaroos?

It’s a bigger deal than that. We arrived at the beach at 5.15 and there was already a crowd. There were markers on the beach showing the boundary of where we could stand. Everyone was asked to turn off their flash and torches. The ranger was feeding the wallabies.

There were 5 wallabies initially and a few kangaroos came later. I estimated a person / wallaby ratio of about 20:1.

It reminded me a bit of a trip in 1986 to the Philip Island Penguin Parade and there were about 6 penguins. The people who hadn’t seen wallabies / kangaroos before were loving it. It was nice to watch the overseas tourists seeing the kangaroos for the first time. No one seemed to mind that on this particular day there wasn’t a big turnout.

The wallabies didn’t seem too bothered by the humans.

The sunrise was beautiful.

After coffees and breakfast we headed off on some bush walks. They are all fairly short, couple of kilometres, a couple of hours for Andrews Point Track (recommended). Just enough for me to get my steps to 14,000. I have been terrible at my exercise plan. On my holiday excel spreadsheet I made the mistake of adding an exercise column. The column listed the exercise plan for each day. I should delete. I don’t know what I was thinking. It is way harder to do exercise on a road trip than I thought. That’s my excuse anyway.

We saw some amazing box like spider webs.

Chris kept walking but I came back a bit early to watch the AFL Grand Final pre-entertainment. Didn’t want to miss Katy Perry. By the time Chris arrived, Katy was about to come on, I was on my second champagne and pizza was on the way. There was a small but enthusiastic group of AFL supporters in the communal lounge area.

For the record, Katy was great but the game Swans v Brisbane was a fizzer but it was fun to watch with a group.

Thoughts on Cape Hillsborough Resort: Big thumbs up. Fab location near the beach. Helpful, friendly staff. Great pool for kids (needed because there are stingers at certain times of the year). Toilets / facilities were ok. Communal area with couches, tv, billiards, tables and chairs really great. Mini golf (we didn’t play but would if we had been there longer). Good takeaway. Beautiful backdrop in the park (not surprising it is in the middle of a national park). A few kangaroos lying around when we were there within the resort.

Tip: If driving from the North, do not follow the google map instructions that turns off at Mount Ossa. It will take you to a sign that says ‘not suitable for caravans.’ Believe that sign. Continue down the Bruce Highway and turn off at Yakarpari Seaforth Road instead.