Day 239
Thursday
24 August 2017 – Happy Birthday Rebecca
Completed the novel “The Nightingale” by Kristen Hannah. I
really enjoyed this book. It is another set in France during the German
occupation of WWII, but I found the development of the characters to be really
rewarding and would recommend this as a great read.
Bonogin – Tamborine
I was awake early and eager to get my novel complete. It was
quite overcast so I was surprised that I woke at 6.30am. I completed the book
just before I began thinking about getting up and into the photos and blog from
yesterday.
I pulled myself from bed at 8am, had breakfast and got stuck
into my computer tasks. It seemed to be taking me forever.
I was aware that the morning was getting away from us, so I
organised myself, before saying goodbye to Scott and then we took off in the
car heading into Tamborine.
The drive was a picturesque one. The roads were twisty and
windy and would have suited Paul on his bike. At one stage the road sign
shouted 18% increase, the sharpest incline we have come across and hence a
drive not suitable for trucks and caravans.
As we drew closer to the town centre, we came across the
Hang Gliders Lookout so we pulled over to check out the views towards the town
of Warwick. The cold air sent a chill down us as soon as we emerged from our
warm car. There would be no hang gliding today.
We followed the sign to the tourist info centre and picked
up a map. The volunteer was most helpful with ideas of what to do in the area
and then we continued on to Fortitude Brewing.
Paul was drooling the moment we
were out in the car park, as there were some bikes of interest in trailers
behind cars. He spent 5 minutes checking them out before entering the brewery.
The bar man was most helpful, talking up his time at Matsos,
Colonial and Bootleg Breweries in WA. We then spent some time with Bill, the
brewer before Paul sat down to a tasting in the brewery members only bar.
Finally, with all of that done, we found a park nearby to
have our lunch and take some time out. I wandered off to take some photos of a
nearby church, before we returned to the brewery car park and walked down
the “Gallery Walk” street. We stopped at
the loo along the way and then continued up the street only for me to realise I
had left my phone in the ladies.
I raced back, but by the time I got there it was no longer
where I had left it. Panic began to set
in, knowing that my phone is my life, particularly while we are away. However,
Paul rang it and the lady who had found it answered it and I was reunited with my
precious piece of technology, PHEW!
We completed our walk of the interesting town centre and
then made our way to Curtis Falls, we parked and then followed the footpath
down into the gully. Large palms reached to the sky above, along with the giant
fig trees. We saw a beautiful parrot perched amongst the branches, taking in
the scene.
The trees were incredible, some large enough to stand in.
The bark, ridges and colours were gorgeous. At the bottom of the gully we were
rewarded with the beautiful Curtis Falls. There wasn’t a lot of water cascading
over the lip above but it still made for a pretty scene.
We made the trek back up the hill, stopping near the top
where a bearded dragon had come out to sun itself and once at the top, we
returned to the car and drove on to the next walking trail at the Knoll section
of Tamborine National Park.
There was a lookout at the top before the walk started, but
unfortunately it was too hazy to see much and certainly not all the way to
Brisbane as we were told. We then began the Sandy Creek 2.6km Trail that takes
in Cameron Falls. The walk was again beautiful, but had the added bonus of a
LARGE carpet python. The snake was at least 3m in length and scared the
bejeezus out of me, which Paul found highly amusing, I did eventually calm down
enough to take some photos, but it left me a little rattled.
We continued to follow the path, eventually locating the
falls. These were not as pretty as the previous one. After viewing them from
the lookout we made our way back to the car and out to Eagle Heights Resort. This
resort was originally a home commissioned by Mel Gibson, but he never lived
here, now it is a hotel with a great view to the Gold Coast and it is free to
wander through to their back garden and admire.
We did just that, thankfully the view to the coast was
clearer than that to the north. Behind us we could see the rain clouds
billowing and the distant sound of thunder. We were glad we missed it while we
were walking.
Our final stop was Beard and Brau brewery in Windaroo, back
down the mountain. We followed the twisty road again for about 30km before
finally making it to their brewery restaurant “Malty Grain”. We were met by the
brewer Chris, who was happy to talk beers and show Paul through his range on
tap. Chris had a great wealth of information and was happy to impart his
thoughts on different beers and the origins of certain types. Not everything he
had was on tap, so Paul picked up a few bottles as well and we were finally on
our way.
We were now eager to get home, as it was 5.30pm. The GPS
said it was a 50min drive. I followed the directions and once on the freeway it
was fairly easy sailing amongst the home traffic. By now it was dark and in
place we could see that a fair bit of heavy rain had come down.
We stopped at Mudgeereba for some needed groceries, before
finally pulling in at 6.45pm, we were greeted by Scott who was ready to call
out the search party. We chatted about our day, before leaving him to it and
getting stuck into dinner.
Once we had eaten, I started on the blog, loaded the photos
and put up Paul’s review. Time disappeared very quickly and it wasn’t long
before we were heading to bed.
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