Another day, another 10km run for Andy first thing. He plans to finish January having completed a morning jog every day.

Once he was back, it was shower, change, pack and then enjoy our breakfast thanks to our host Deb at the B&B.

We then drove north and inland for c. 60 miles to Eungella National Park and a hike to Finch Hatton Gorge.

Arriving into the Eungella National Park, we managed to dodge the rain clouds and started our route through the rainforest.

The hike provided a wonderful landscape of waterfalls, lush flora and volcanic boulder formations – Finch Hatton Gorge is truly a must-see attraction.

The walking track weaved its way through sub-tropical rainforest. We picked the most popular trail starting at the Finch Hatton picnic area which took us on a 4 kilometre round trip to the beautiful Araluen waterfall.

The granite boulders and surrounding vegetation made it an ideal location to take in the scenery.

There was an option of taking a dip in one of the nearby rock pools, a cooling haven favoured by locals in summer, but instead we decided it to leave to the young backpackers who we met when arriving at the falls.

We continued a further walk heading to the Wheel of Fire Cascades, another beautiful waterfall with a large rock pool at its base, popular for swimming, however the path had been closed off a few hundred feet away due to heavy rains.

This second part of the walk was more challenging, with uphill segments and stairs to climb, but the views were well worth it, even if we didn’t quite make it all way up the trail.

As we walked we kept our eye out among the rainforest for rare and unusual flora and fauna, such as the rare gastric brooding frog, the orange-sided skink, Mackay tulip oak, Eungella spiny cray and Eungella honeyeater.

Despite it being a cloudy cooler day, the humidity levels remained high and we both found ourselves working up a sweat.

Our rainforest hike kept us busy for a couple of hours, and we timed our return well, as within a matter of minutes the rain clouds returned and we experienced biblical storms for the next hour or so. Thankfully we managed to steer our way through streams crossing the road out of the national Park and back on to the highway.

We stopped near one of the rivers to see if we could spot the Eungella Platypus – despite taking up a recognised spot in their natural habitat we sadly didn’t manage to spot one – next time hopefully!

As we left the viewing spot, the heavens truly opened, so much so, we had to stop driving as the visibility got really bad.

When the rain eased we decided to visit Kinchant Dam, located in the picturesque Pioneer Valley, a perfect place for some peace and quiet.

It had a lovely park area overlooking the dam, with barbecue and toilet facilities available.

On a sunny day it would have been a great place to hang around and explore further, however the rain returned and we had little option but to jump back in the car and reluctantly head directly to Mackay.

In Mackay we checked into our latest hotel, the Met!

It’s your classic North Queensland local, motel style accommodation above Mackay’s finest pub grub.

The saving grace is that the Met boasts comfortable & affordable accommodation and its right in the heart of Mackay.

With the rain showing no sign of abating, we decided to have a more productive afternoon and found a local laundrette to do all our washing we’ve amassed over the last few weeks.

We spent the next couple of hours washing drying and then reorganising our clothes and bags.

It was then time for dinner and a real treat, cooked chicken and salad from our friends at Coles.

Once back at the apartment we settled into watching the latest series of the Night Agent on Netflix.

Tomorrow sadly looks as wet as today, in fact the next week looks generally stormy and rainy and we are considering how much further we should head in Queensland. Instead we are looking into travelling south away from tropical uncertain conditions.

We’ve booked a couple more days in Mackay and Airlie Beach in the hope of seeing some sunshine on a days sailing in the Whitsunday’s. If that doesn’t play out, we will take our chances by returning south!