Tamborine Mountain

There was some rain overnight but by the time the sun came up it had cleared but man, it was humid! We figured we couldn't take the heat on the beach today so we headed back to the hinterland. We had picked up some information about Tamborine Mountain which appeared to be a combination of a small town with shops, galleries and cafe's and a National Park. We found that yesterday it was a lot cooler when we got up to a higher elevation so we decided to take a drive to check it out.

We stopped at a resort on the mountain that Mel Gibson used to own which had a great overlook of the coast and Surfer's Paradise. Too bad it was a bit hazy from the humidity.

The little town had a main street with a number of eateries and shops. Not quite a Niagara-on-the-Lake experience but we managed to spend an hour browsing.

The most intriguing to me was the German Clock Shop. Hundreds of coo koo clocks and other German timepieces.

We bought some lamingtons* for later this evening then stopped for lunch at a cute outdoor cafe.

We did a little walk through another rainforest to a Curtis Falls. Not as spectacular as yesterday and a fairly muddy trail.

We slowly made our way back to town and had two great overlooks. The first looking inland to the west.

Next, a great view of Surfers Paradise on the coast. The humidity was starting to clear.

We got back to the apartment mid afternoon and went across the street to the park to sit in the shade and read our books, taking in the traffic on the waterway.

We were going to go into Surfers Paradise for supper but decided against the 5 km drive after seeing the amount of weekend traffic today. A 20 minute walk down the street to a Japanese restaurant looked more appealing. They featured Teppanyaki style cooking where the chef prepared our food at the table and entertained with his grille work and conversation. I had the Moreton Bay Bugs** and Chris had scallops. A fabulous meal and we met a very nice young couple at the table who gave us lots of travel advice for our trip north to Cairns.

* A lamington is a dessert of Australian origin. It consists of squares of sponge cake coated first in a layer of traditionally chocolate sauce, then in desiccated coconut.

** T. orientalis is known by a number of common names. The United nations Food and Agriculture Association prefers the name flathead lobster, while the official Australian name is Bay lobster. In Australia, it is more widely known as the Moreton Bay bug after Moreton Bay, near Brisbane Queensland

A Day's Outing in the Hinterland

We didn't move too far yesterday so today we decided to explore a bit inland and picked Springbrook National Park to explore. It had some interesting write-ups on Trip Advisor and the Lonely Planet Guide and was less than an hour from our apartment.

It didn't take long until we found the twisty roads of Australia! Like NZ but with better pavement although I think a bit narrower. Springbrook Mountain (1,000 m) is a plateau at the southern boundary of Queensland with numerous waterfalls, walking tracks and ancient rainforest.

We stopped at a self serve information centre and luckily encountered a volunteer that was maintaining the building. She was very helpful in guiding us to the best areas to visit.

Our first stop was the "Best of All" Lookout. Looking south into New South Wales. We walked through Antarctic Beech Trees to this fabulous view.

After that, we drove to the Tallanbana Picnic Grounds and picked up the Twin Falls circuit hike. This passed through rock clefts, behind two waterfalls and among ancient palms and tree ferns. About a two hour walk with lots of stops for photos.

From some of the lookouts, you can see to the coast. Surfers Paradise in the distance.

We did have a couple of critter encounters. The first one was a Blue Crab that was right in the middle of the trail as I rounded the corner to walk behind the waterfall. Unfortunately I had the Nikon all bundled up in my waterproof camera bag but I was able to get a picture of one pincer while he was hiding in some rocks with my phone camera.

Near the end of the walk I saw some movement in the forest and encountered a Pademelon (Rainforest Wallaby) with baby. How cute is this!

After the walk, we had our picnic lunch and had a parrot join us in a nearby tree.

We left here and drove south to Natural Bridge. We had a short walk to a rock arch spanning a water formed cave. Time for some creative photography!

From here we drove a little south into New South Wales towards the coast through the Numinbah Valley. Lots of twisty roads and we marvelled at the large sugar cane fields with the plateau in the background.

We hooked up with the Gold Coast Highway at Currumbin and got home by dark (6:00 pm).

Grilled some chops on the barbie tonight and an early bed time.

Beach Day on the Gold Coast

We decided to "take a day off" our hectic pace of the last several weeks and just go to the beach. Hence, an abbreviated post today as nothing happened. We avoided the busy Surfers Paradise Beach and opted for Main Beach, a five minute drive from our apartment. We packed up the chilly bin with some lunch and drinks and found a bit of partial shade to sit and watch the 2 - 3 metre surf for the day.

We did go for a beach walk almost to the main beach at Surfers and were surprised by how few people were actually on the beach in this area. Beautiful gold sand to walk in and almost no shells.

Air temperature 30 C, water temperature 26 C. You can't get much better than that. Here, you are only allowed to swim in lifeguarded areas but they were only letting you go a bit beyond waist deep because of the strong rips caused by the surf. Otherwise the lifeguards yell at you over their loudspeaker equipped truck.

We returned to the apartment for a swim in the pool and sat on the patio doing some trip planning.

Dinner tonight is a steak and veggies on an Aussie style barbie. No open grates like we have in North America.

The barbie lighting procedure was bit of a mystery. Apparently I didn't quite have it correct and the gas erupted on my second attempt. Now I have no hair on my right arm. Instant Brazilian!

Early to bed tonight as we are off to Springbrook National Park in the hinterland tomorrow for some hiking.

Gold Coast

Brisbane, what a great city. Two nights was definitely not enough time for this fabulous city but we had an apartment reserved at the Gold Coast and have to move on. We had to go for a 20 minute walk to pick up the rental car for this leg of the journey but it was a better option than going back out to the airport. This time I got another Nissan, a fairly new Almera (I think its a Micra with a bigger body, pretty ugly but a great boot (trunk) that takes all of our luggage.) A lot nicer to drive than the Tiida!

We had about an hour drive to the Gold Coast. You would think we were in SW Florida here, an 8 lane expressway, real pavement on the straight road, 30 C, palm trees and a fair bit of traffic.

Our apartment is in Labrador (nothing like the Canadian Labrador). We are right across the street from an inner bay that was full of kite surfers and wind surfers enjoying the stiff breeze. I think I found the ultimate live aboard vessel here! Even better hiding out without an address like the ones we saw in Key Largo FL.

After unloading our luggage, we went on a walking tour of Marine Parade (our street). Is it ever humid here, sort of like Florida in the summer! We walked a few km and decided to go for a bit of a drive to check out the real ocean beach across the bay. It was only a few km to get to the ocean seashore.

There were lots of cruising boats anchored on the inner bay.

Also some hazards. Especially the "Dangerous Aquatic Orgasms" no ... organisms. Damn spell checker... ha, ha Doug...

We drove along the shoreside road to Surfer's Paradise, about 5 km south. I'm not sure how to describe it, lots of hi-rise condos, a beautiful walkway along the beach, lots of malls, restaurants, shops and bars along with lots of shirtless, tattooed backpackers with more cleavage than the Grand Canyon. Sort of a blend of Miami's South Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach.

And of course the "selfie" taking Asians...

There was a Disney sand sculpture contest going on and we had a chance to stroll the boardwalk and see the sculptures.

Some were under repair as a result of last weekend's rain storms.

We needed to stock the apartment with provisions so it was off to the supermarket for a supply run. Prices were a combination of higher and about the same as Canada. The only exception was dairy which was more like US prices.

Next stop was the "bottle store". Apparently the tax on the second highest drinking country in the world has not had a deterrent effect! Check your local prices but I think that $52/24 Budweiser and $70/24 Heineken is a bit out of line with North America! The absolutely cheapest beer is around $40/case. You make up for it on the gas price, only $1.18/l today.

I did a check on the cost of living in Australia and found this interesting chart that puts things in perspective.

Once we got back to the apartment it was getting dark, sunset is early. I had to spend a half hour on the phone with Vodafone to get the data working on our smartphone but was finally successful.

We had a relaxed pasta dinner courtesy our shopping expedition and I had time to work on the blog using my expensive wifi connection ($10/Gb).