Gold Coast (Brisbane)

Australia is huge! 

A fact I knew before we went, but seemed to be reinforced anytime we went on a road trip.

Andrew and Jo took us on a road trip up Australia's famous Gold Coast, pointing out highlights -- both in their lives and of a more global interest. We passed an amusement park, that in our younger days would have been a top destination. These days we are good with Melbourne's Great Scenic Railway, and walking around Six Flags when we are home.

Our first stop was Natural Bridge. At the fork you could go left or right to take the one kilometer path, we went right, most others went left. It was fun passing the families our enjoying the last weekend of school holidays. The path was my kind of hiking -- paved and smooth. The highlight is seeing the waterfall. Everyone paused here to take in the beauty. Don and I tried looking for glow worms, but I suspect if they are there, they come out at night.

The four of us.

We made our stops on the trip back to their home.

I love this sentiment!

I would go back if I lived closer.

The first was to the Sawmill Café where I had my only iced tea on the trip. I guzzle iced teas at home like most people drink coffee (to be fair, I did have hot tea everyday, so I was not caffeine deprived). It was as tasty as it was beautiful.

The next stop was the real lunch stop was at the Club at Elephant Rock at Currumbin Beach. I went for the parmi. Andrew got Don and I to try fried calamari. Now that I've tried it, I would consider ordering it in the future. Don went with a healthy salad with pumpkin seeds.

Outside we climbed to the top of Elephant Rock for the lookout. The highlight for me was seeing four water dragons out sunning themselves.

The view from Elephant Rock

 

We all walked around the quiet beach. I was the only one brave enough to put my feet in the water. Though it is the same Pacific Ocean we've seen in California, it is warm in Queensland. On a less blustery day, I could picture this beach is filled with families in swimsuits sunning themselves like the water dragons, and surfing in the ocean. Even on this day, a few brave souls were windsailing. It was only about 70 degrees out, but very windy, and on and off cloudy.

Don looks cold in this picture!

Elephant Rock from the parking lot

Our next stop was the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for their nightly feeding of the lorikeets. You can pay to enter the sanctuary and see all of their animals, but we didn't. Instead we stopped near the exit where I held a children's snake, which had a much fancier name that I couldn't remember long enough to add to my notebook. The snake was smoother than I expected. Thank you, Jo, for the picture!

The real purpose of the trip was to time it for when the lorikeets are fed at 4 pm. The lorikeets are wild birds that are extremely colorful. Between seven and 700 return to the same spot each night to be fed. We estimated between 200 and 400 showed up that night.

This tradition was started by Alex Griffiths in 1947 as a way of protecting his flowers. The founder of the wildlife sanctuary figured if the rainbow lorikeets were well-fed they'd leave the plants alone. Seventy-six years later future generations are clamoring each day to be fed. 

For one Australian dollar (sixty cents) you get a dish filled with a sweet syrup the staff keeps refilling as long as you are willing to stand there. It does make for some amusing pictures. I lasted a minute or two before passing it on to Don. Fifteen minutes later he was still having a blast. I think he missed feeding our cats at home. A stranger was so amused she took pictures of Don and sent them to me. Jo and Andrew took a bunch, too. Best entertainment for under a dollar.

We stopped by local pie shop for dinner. Tough choices! The guys returned to the car with a steak and mushroom pie and a chicken pie, plus a berry apple pie for dessert. We at them at the house while watching the game -- Brisbane beat Carlton 79 to 63 to make it to the finals the next weekend.

We were greeted by the nightly swarm of bats. Hundreds of bats. I'm glad I got to see the ritual for myself.