11th January 2010
We’ve booked a hire car for the next three days so as we can go out and explore areas around Surfers Paradise, particularly the Hinterland, which is quite beautiful.
On picking up the car we decided to go to Mount Tamborine, driving up through the bush with fantastic views of Surfers Paradise and the massive Q1 building standing out on the horizon. We drove through Eagle Heights, which is the largest settlement up on Mount Tamborine with its 500m street of art galleries and cafes and headed for North Tamborine.
At North Tamborine we stopped at Witches Falls and walked down the zig zag path with views over the verdant Queensland hinterland. We saw plenty of Land Mullets or Skinks which are like tiny lizzards and one very scruffy bush turkey scratching around. Luckily, we didn’t spot any snakes or spiders, probably because Ed was walking so loudly even a group of schoolchildren heard him coming!
After our walk we followed the road along a little way to some more viewpoints across the flat plains of the hinterland into the mountains in the distance. One of these viewpoints was actually a launching point for hangliders and paragliders with a very steep slope dropping off to nothing. There was no-one flying while we were there though.
Our stomachs were rumbling so we headed to the St Bernard Hotel for a spot of lunch. This hotel has a lovely big veranda where we could see right out to South Stradbroke Island, just off the coast, north of Surfers Paradise. There are also a number of proud peacocks wandering about (as well as the odd bush turkey) and we also spotted a peahen and chick - just a miniature version of its mother.
A drive back down a very windy and steep mountain road through the bush returned us to the coast where it was a good deal hotter than up on the mountain, time for our regular dip in the pool.
