Gold Coast Hinterland

Well only 1 more week here in Surfers Paradise for us. There's really only so much one can explore on foot and I think we've covered all we can. Perhaps that's why we rented our old friend Miss Capri for another 2 day road trip. We really did check out other car rental places but the Ford Capri was calling our name so we took her on another adventure. This time instead of doing the Sunshine Coast we travelled into the Hinterland of the Gold Coast. Since this was a 2 day trip (not overnight I might add - we did make it home to our own bed rather than sleeping under the stars somewhere) our first day consisted of exploring Lamington National Park.

DAY ONE: Leaving Surfers Paradise we had no idea what kind of roads we were going to face. Nothing - I mean absolutely nothing - like the roads back home. All was fine until we actually reached the park - then it was twists and turns galore!! The roads were no wider than 4 ft when we were lucky because usually they were only around 3ft wide. Obviously whoever makes the speed limits thinks that driving 80 km/h is a good speed to take these turns. Are you kidding?!?! I mean there's no way to even accelerate that fast because of all the twists and turns. No shoulders either on the road. On one side you have mountain - I could have probably stuck my arm out of the car and had it scraped right up. On the other side is a cliff... and we don't want to know what happens if we go off that side. Blind curves cause you to not see a single car until it's right in your face. There was a couple close calls - mainly because other drivers tend to hug the inner line and are half in our lane. It wasn't fun. Nate seemed to think he was in the Indy 300 taking the turns at maximum speed (ok - he did slow down to 60 but that was still too fast!!). It was seriously like an amusement park ride and let me tell you I wasn't feeling good one bit!! I had my head down for most of the trip because I was getting sick to my stomach. It wasn't fun I tell you - plus it seemed like it would never end.

Finally we reached O'Reilly's rainforest!! I thought it would never come. It was a gorgeous sight - being that high up in the mountains in the middle of a rainforest!! We hiked up a trail that led to a treetop walk. They basically have a bridge on cables connecting the treetops together for people to walk on. So of course we did!! Pretty scary looking down at the ground below. You have to remember that the trees here are thousands of years old so they are alot bigger and much higher than the average tree back home. So just walking across those we were approximately 50 ft above ground level. At one point you come to a ladder in which you can climb up the side of a tree to a lookout. So obviously we headed to the top of the ladder which was another 50 ft. Being 100 ft above the ground was quite an experience!! Especially since we were only standing on the tinyest platform there was. One slip and... well let's not even go there. We finished the treetop walk shortly after. I was happy for that because a group of Asians were up there and obviously couldn't read the "6 person per length" sign. They were loading on these bridges by the numbers and bouncing around on them. I thought for sure the cables would snap and down we would go. Thankfully we made it out in 1 piece.

We made alot of new friends at O'Reilly's as well. We had to pay $1.50 for them to like us but it was well worth it. We bought some birdseed and the birds came flocking to us. As you can see in our pictures they sit right on our hands... and in my case - on my head as well!! That was so much fun even though their little feet sometimes pinched!!

We left O'Reilly's to head out for Binna Burra. It wasn't as exciting as O'Reilly's but perhaps that's because it was nearing the end of the day and we knew we wouldn't have as much time to explore it. We did find enough time to go on a hike to check out some of the Caves there. After that we left for home.

DAY TWO: Top down on the Capri we headed out for Springbrook National Park. Our destination was the Natural Bridge Section. The roads to here were much better than the day before. Most of it was farmland so we saw alot of cows and horses. I must remind you all that the fields here aren't like the fields in Sask. These have rolling hills and trees and mountains. Absolutely gorgeous!! It was a bit odd to see a cow grazing next to a palm tree but we think those were planted there on purpose!! It wasn't a long drive to the Natural Bridge so it seemed that we were there in no time. Again we had to hike... although this time being the airhead I can tend to be I forgot my shoes and socks at home. So I had to hike in my sandals - which wasn't fun because they are giving me blisters. Anyway - we headed out on the trail which took us to a stream with a waterfall. It was gorgeous!! With it being so hot outside I wanted to dive right in but that would have probably gotten me kicked out of the park. There is part of the trail that veres off into a cave where the water falls in from a crevase above. What a sight seeing the sun light a path for the water to fall into the black cave. We got some pictures but they weren't as good as we would have liked them to be. We couldn't use our flash because there are glow-worms in the cave and it kills their larvae or something. It would have been neat to see the cave at night when the glow-worms are all lit up. We didn't have time to wait until dark though... we had more destinations to explore!! We left Springbrook National Park for Mount Tamborine.

Again - this wasn't too far of a drive so we made it about an hour's time. Mount Tamborine is a huge incline to drive. There are plenty of warning signs everywhere saying to use low gears and such. I think the incline was straight up at 18-20% or something. Nate had the Capri floored and it was only going 30 km/h. She just didn't want to go. We finally made it up - luckily without exhausting our car. The top of the mountain is plateau with a community of people and shops. It was a definately nice little community!! We watched some people run off a cliff to go Parasailing. It looked fun but I'm not sure I could rack up the courage to run off a cliff so I'll worry about it when the time comes. We hiked to another creek and again there were more waterfalls. Unfortunately I wasn't able to jump in the water here either. What's up with that?? Probably a good thing since we drove to the markets shortly after. Walked around there abit and then headed for home.

So we've come to a conclusion that we both prefer the hinterland to the tourist based coast. We've had enough of Surfers Paradise. Schoolies week is coming soon. It's basically a "rite of passage" for school kids when they finish. There are tens of thousands of school kids that flock to Surfers for partying, boozing and gawd knows what else. We won't be here for that. Thankfully!! Where are we going next you ask?!?! I guess you'll just have to stayed tuned for that!!

Signing off... Erynn (& Nate!!)