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Finding the elusive Platypus

The next day I drove back down to the Finch Hatton Gorge—last bit over unsealed road with a few shallow creek crossings—and walked up the trail to 'Araulen Falls'. A nice walk, but I felt like I could stand to walk a bit more, so I decided to go on to the 'Wheel of Fire'.

Nice walk and quite worth it. I wish I had thought ahead to bring swimming gear with me, though, because the pool at the end of the 'Wheel of Fire' trail looked mighty inviting. Ah, well, next time…

After getting a steak hamburger in Finch Hatton I drove on through to Broken River. Determined to see the little bugger I planted myself on the viewing platform and readied my camera. There was a family with two little girls there, who kept on running and stomping about on the platform, so I was losing hope of the shy platypus showing itself. Luckily the family gave up and left.

And then the magic happened. First this fellow showed up:

And then the main attraction showed up:

That's what it does, by the way. It dives down, swims about a bit on the bottom—which I couldn't see—and then resurfaces a little further up or down the river. Looks about a bit and does it again.

So, sighted in the wild, a platypus. And I even got film (but click through as it is cropped on my site for now):