Dec 2008

Awoke to the early morning birds and life in the lovely mountain. Took of early to the monthly markets. We walked and walked and walked and enjoyed the lovely cooler morning and broke all our rules and bought quite a few things. They had a great range of local crafts; everything from reclaimed timber chopping boards, leadlight, polished cow horn products, fabulously cheap plants, handmade felt hats, all sorts of wood worked pieces from bowls to coat hooks and also quite a bit of art, opals and jewellery. There were also some great food stalls under the tall shady trees where you can fuel up for a second visit.

After we took a seat at a lovely gallery/café called the Secret Garden. We sat in lovely comfortable lounge chairs and looked down the rolling green treed lawns to the valley below. They have an adjoining bookshop and often do book launches that take in the lovely view and the gorgeous home cooked food. It was lovely. The mountain is covered with street side fruit stalls selling what ever is in season. Currently we purchased large bags of the most lovely tomatoes for $4 and 3 avocadoes for $2. The fruit is picked daily and you know you’re getting the freshest out there!

We then took a walk about the block which included the lookout at the end of the point and through a huge old treed farm that was donated to the local church groups. They have installed offices, camps and even accommodation all over this magnificent property and it makes for a lovely walking route.

Returned back to Warwick and Janis’ to even more fabulous hospitality and enjoyed roast pork with apple sauce and rhubarb and apple crumble. Yum! We could get used to this!

Had another good nights’ sleep, and then left town early via a plotted course to North Tamborine and Janis & Warwick’s place. Once we got of the Motorway we enjoyed the windy and lush green drive through the back roads and up the back way to the mountain. Tried calling but couldn’t raise anyone, so took a walk through the touristy part of town and as we still hadn’t heard from them, decided to call round. We totally surprised them and they were really happy to see us and invited us in. We enjoyed a most relaxing cold water on their balcony (the very last house on the hill) enjoying the best view in town. It was so spectacular enjoying the south west outlook over the rolling green hills (as opposed to the glitzier east view over the Gold Coast and ocean). The cicadas’ were deafening as one type were silent for a few minutes and then there was this huge crescendo as they built up and up all trying to out do each other and then silence for a few more minutes. The forest is alive with activity and noise. Its just beautiful. Janis and Warwick have a lovely 3 storey timber house perched on the side of a steep hill. It is a large living area on the entry level (the middle floor) with two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, then master bedroom downstairs. Looks like a really great floor plan and it seems to take in the views really well, as well as the great breezes that need to be picked up to cool down during the humid days.

We decided to enjoy a lovely lunch out on the balcony enjoying the view so we went to the local cheese shop and bought some lovely goats cheese and some of the drippiest Tamembert (Tamberine’s answer to Camembert) that I’d ever enjoyed. You needed a spoon to eat it! Along with many cream cheese dips, and fresh bread from Janis & Warwick’s sons’ bakery that he works at. Oh what a feast!

Janis had to pick up Megan from work at the Glow Worm Caves. So we went early and we did the last tour she did before the end her shift. What a great little tour. The sit you down in the man made cave and show you a video explaining the life cycle of the glow worms before taking you into the carnivorous world of the little cave dwellers. It was a great little tour and Megan did a great job as our tour guide!

We went back and enjoyed more fabulous hospitality of Janis and Warwick’s before letting them get ready for their evenings’ Christmas party they were off to.

Got some good rain during the night which enabled our first good sleep for a while. Had a sleep in till about 7:30am! So headed off to Bribie Island. Took a quick look around the island and then headed south to Brizvegas. Ended up on the Brisbane River just outside of a lovely heritage house on a grassy hill overlooking the water in Newstead. It reminded us of the East Perth type of redevelopment that was going on. Mirvac were doing an amazing waterfront redevelopment of the old gas works site. I think the website was www.oldgasworks.com.au. Their first two developments were about 5 and 7 storeys tall. The were designed for owner occupied purchasers with one remaining apartment left in each building. The cheapest being $2.1m for a 2x2 + study. Apartments ranged from 230m2 for the most modest of apartments through to 799m2 for the 4x4 penthouses. I’d hate to think what they were asking for those!

We found a path around the waters edge, so we decided to follow it as much as possible. The Brisbane River meanders around Brisbane like a snake. We really enjoyed the walk through Fortitude Valley, New Farm and then under the great Story Bridge which is a 280m span bridge which looks like a less decorative version of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It looks equally inspiring underneath as Sydney’s most famous bridge.

We were really surprised at the number of older apartment buildings already in Brisbane. It was quite a large and sprawling city. I guess when we were last here, about 10 years ago, we came in by train and spent most of our time around South Bank and north of there. We really didn’t find much in the city of interest. I don’t even think we found the water on our last trip, so it was a totally different view. We did thoroughly enjoy our walk, even though we were exhausted and walked about 15kms in total we think. It was a long and tiring but enjoyable day.

Awoke early and enjoyed the 4:30am start to the dog walkers down to the beach. What a busy spot! All the dogs are happy to go and say hi and jump out of their cars and run of to say hi with all the other dogs. Big, small and anything in between. The only barking to be had, is the anticipation of finally reaching the water… what a cool spot to end up!

Enjoyed a relaxing breaky on the beach while Midget cavorted with all and sundry in her usual way! Then back to Harvey Norman to learn how to use our new TomTom GPS that is nothing like our old dependable Kmart special…

Not happy so went and returned out GPS. They said we were missing a piece of the packaging which was required if we wanted to exchange the unit. Went back to mum and dads and rummaged through all the bins to find the missing piece of plastic and returned to Harvey Norman to exchange it for a Mio. Happy now.

Since we were back at mum and dads thought we’d have lunch with them. Followed them down to Mooloolaba for lunch. I think they were more interested in seeing Midget instead of us! :-)

Now we were finally heading south. Ended up stopping at Wild Horse Mountain Lookout. As I’m still reading Kings in Grass Castles by Mary Durack, I am quite sure this mountain was so named afte the original collapse of Queensland by the first settlers when they just walked off the land and left what was left to the wild. Durack’s book mentioned their families’ round up of horses when they first arrived, and they drove them to Adelaide to market and made a fortune. There were wild horses in abundance, and we think there are still many here today as Steve walked around the pine plantation that we camped in and saw lots of horse poo. It was a nice quite spot to crash for the night; off the highway and away from all the truck traffic.

Today’s the day we leave. Steve wasn’t feeling well. Thinks it was the fact that he was left to finish off the glass and a half of left over wine… He also had a tooth ache. Got him off to the dentist and managed to get a same day appointment. Apparently one of his amalgam filings had expanded (which apparently they do) and caused the corner of the tooth to crack off.

There is a new machine that this dentist actually had that did a full scan of the outside of a tooth, and reconstructed a new ceramic bit to replace the broken bit and its just glued in. Amazing stuff! $950 later he was out in just under an hour with a new tooth!

We then went back home to repack the van and make tracks. Left around 6pm, much to Dad’s bemusement! Only got 25kms down the road and camped at a lovely quiet spot where the Coolum Kite Festival was held.