The Gold Coast - between Powerboats and Pythons
When we think about the travel decisions we made these two years, it seems we have been quite lucky. We will not sail under the Bridge of Sydney but we just managed to visit New Zealand and Tasmania before being locked down in Queensland due to Covid 19...
Anyway this is a "summary" of our last days in Australia before our trip to New Zealand and before the virus pandemic.
If you want to check out where exactly we are, just follow this link: LouiseAnna on the map
14/01/2020 Departure from Manly. A very nice harbour and one that's into racing too. This reminds us of our homeharbour: Newport, Belgium.
16/01/2020 But it's a long way against tides, swirling through mangroves with unattractive anchorages and difficult to do under sail.
And in order to take a shortcut you have to pass under high voltage cables! The indications tell us to go under along the poles where the cables are higher! Euh off course! But it's still scary!
The only nice anchorage worth talking about is Jumpinpin. Even with bad weather, the scenery stays impressive. The sanddunes are enormous and it's a wonderful walk through the dunes towards the ocean.
You have to cross a salt lake first, where thousands of my "buddies" have a great life... I really don't like walking on them, you can here them "crack" 😱
Not only tiny crabs, but many rays, birds and wallabies surround this salt lake.
It takes a half hour walk to get on the other side. With amazing views!
Walking, running, jumping, seems we need to get rid of a lot of energy after days being "stuck" on the boat!
And suddenly you come across an ocean of shells! Never seen this before!
A perfect breeze at the ocean side. A perfect day for kiting!
For the girls and daddies 😁 Too much wind for me to try 😌
A lonely garden chair is just so weird and yet a perfect spot to chill and contemplate our many ocean passages!
The water is quite good, but besides the bigger "warrior" crabs, it's full of jellyfish ...
It's almost getting dark when we go back. It's been a great reward after days of rain, mangroves and school work 😊
Pelicans are sitting on the beach in front of our boat. They are enormous!
17/01/2020 While the boat gets a free wash, Louise decides to go for a "rain-tan" and free shower 😁
And then suddenly the sky clears and as it's Friday afternoon the crowd arrives!
We go one more time for an exploration of this wonderful nature reserve and were amazed to see that the huge open space full of shells was flooded with fresh water. It did started pouring last night until this morning, but we didn't realise it was this much water!
This time we came back with a very nice shell collection!
And how can you ever get tired of these amazing creatures?!
Campers from last night... The closer we get to the Gold Coast, the more rubbish everywhere. So sad ...
We're not catching any fish but we're a bit more lucky with these delicious Blue Swimmers. These ones are too small, so back into the water!
22/01/2020 After another insignificant stop and impressive but less scary thunderstorm (compared to the one in front of Fraser island), we decide to go visit the Gold Coast in all it's glory!
The sound of all these engines is overwhelming! Imagine the helicopters taking off every 2 minutes from about 11 o'clock until 4 ... for a 4 minute tour. Talk about a contribution to Global Warming!
22/01/2020 First stop is Surfer's Paradise! About an hour walk along this beautiful beach full of curiosities 😃
It's a bit calmer by night and actually nice to be close to the city again!
We have to match to the surrounding lights 😋
When the small Bluebottle Stinger jellyfish suddenly arrive in big numbers, the party in the water is over and we went for a walk along the Ocean View Track.
Too bad but we completely forgot to eternalise this moment with a picture. People in the grass everywhere, BBQ'n, ... It felt a bit like being on the prairie of a Rock Concert 😃
A big tip is to go to Burleigh Head Fishmongers at night for a delicious Fish 'n Chips!
27/01/2020 It's just been 5 days, but we're quite happy to get away from this madness to a very calm marina and explore the hinterland for three days 😊
28/01/2020 We rented a car to visit the Tamborine National Park, only about 30 km away from Hope Harbour at the Gold Coast. There are all these signs, but we still haven't seen a Koala in the wild!
After the noice of engines along the Gold Coast, this is ... well different! If we would have a decibel meter I'm sure it would hit 80 or more! We still don't know what made this sound...
We're wondering what she swallowed a-whole and how we should get over her... The girls are convinced it's a small Wallaby... We decided not to take any chances as we didn't know if she was poisonous at the time. So we climbed in the bush quite far around to get back on track 😂😳 Although it doesn't have yellow spots it would seem to be the Carpet Python that is non venomous 😎
Next stop is a St Bernard Restaurant (beautiful dogs but very smelly!). While the view is pretty nice, I wouldn't suggest it as a great place to eat...
The Rotary Lookout.
The Rainforest skywalk. I guess it's a nice experience to walk around in the canopy of the trees, but you're actually a bit too low and you should do it in a rainy season 😌 Better to just spent your time actually walking (for free)...
Joalah section and curtis falls. Very easy walk and you get to meet bats 😜
A Bush Turkey 😂
Knoll Road lookout. This actually seems a lot nicer walk, but we're out of time... For once we weren't as good in picking our hikes and visits, but luckily we started off with a short but amazing experience in the McDonald section! We just hope the girls will not have nightmares!
29/01/2020 As we'll not stop at Byron Bay by boat we decided to visit it by car. It's very pretty, very popular, lot's of boutiques and if you're not living on a budget it must be quite nice to spend a week there 😊 For us it's all about food and nature, so we're happy as there's quite a nice choice of restaurants and a very pretty view over the Bay and ocean! We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on the beach, although the waves are less fun than along the Gold Coast.
30/01/2020 Today we made an excellent choice for our discovery of Springbrook National Park. We did the Purling Brook Falls circuit. And it was just amazing!
Almost at the bottom of the valley!
The girls got new hiking boots and walk even faster now! Wonderful how these short legs can keep up with ours!
And now there's only one way to go and that's back up!
We still have time for a small visit of the Springbrook Natural Bridge. At night you're supposed to see glowworms. Must be a nice view!
The drive towards the Park is pretty impressive too with the massive Hinze dam and many spooky trees due to the flooding ...
One girl has a blind confidence in the 'bad' jokes of dad, the other one not so much ...
01/02/2020 We feel we've done quite well exploring this part of Queensland. Now it's time to prepare the boat for a lift out and our suitcases. Next time you'll see us in NEW ZEALAND !
Ciao!
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