Cape Hillsborough: Sunrises, the beach, and new kangaroo friends

Every weekend, Dom and I do something we like to call "Adventure Weekends". Super original name, I know. I'd love to say we plan ahead, but 95% of the time we just wake up in the morning and say, "what should we do today?" and the possibilities are pretty much endless because Queensland is AwEsOmEee.

So a couple weekends ago, our decided plan for "Adventure Weekend" was spend the night at Cape Hillsborough, and let me tell you: it was f*cking magical. For those of you who haven't a clue where or what Cape Hillsborough is, it's a National Park just north of Mackay, Queensland (or 1.5 hours from our home in the Whitsundays), and it's filled with protected rainforests, eucalyptus forests, walking trails, and a beautiful long stretch of beach.

While all this sounds amazing on its own, the star attraction for Cape Hillsborough happens around 5am down on the beach. Every morning, roughly 10-20 kangaroos hop down to the beach in search of a salty breakfast. Don't ask me what exactly they eat, but each morning like clockwork they hop hop hop down for sunrise and it's seriously remarkable.

Dom and I got to experience this first-hand, because we spent the night camped out in our van, Marshmallow, at Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park. We paid about $40 for a powered site, but they also have tons of options if you want to camp in a tent, rent a bungalow, don't want power, etc etc. Anyways, we pulled up in our van around 6pm, just missing the sunset because we suck at timing, but we cooked some burgers in the community kitchen, drank wine, took some star photos, and then headed to bed with a 4am alarm set!

As soon as I saw the first glimpse of sunrise, I dragged Dom out of bed and down to the beach where we could already see some cute lil kangaroos kickboxing each other (not dangerously - the males typically do this for fun). We already knew not to feed them - they are wild animals after all - but we made sure to bring our camera and snap some beautiful sunrise pics of them all!

Just an FYI for those reading who are probably thinking "well I'm not scared to feed them!". If you feed them, you'll probably scare them off along with messing up their diets. They have a very specific diet, and if you feed them yourself, it will encroach on their personal space and then you could end up scaring them away from the beach. That would be a sad sad day for everyone, so just be respectful! End rant.

We ended up spending about an hour down at the beach while one of the guides explained their history and diet, and it was a morning we will never forget. Check out some more of our photos from our Adventure Weekend below!

To see our Instagram Stories of our time at Cape Hillsborough

And if you want to read our other blogs on how Queensland is the greatest place on earth, check them out below:
4 Days in Tropical North Queensland
Living in a Tropical Island Paradise: The Whitsundays
Road Trippin' Up the Eastern Coast of Australia

No joke, the sky actually looked like that. Oh, Australian sunsets...