Robin set up his Garmin GPS system and it took us (and our rental car) to the Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk. Tamborine Mountain is the northern slope of the great Tweed Volcano. The car park was full, no doubt because it just happens to be the school holidays. The 1.5km walk is a combination of forest floor trails, 300m of high tech steel bridges taking visitors through the highest points of the upper canopy, and a 40m cantilevered bridge above the rocky creek.
Platypus can be found in the streams of of these 30 pristine acres, and koalas live in the eucalypt trees surrounding the rainforest. Of course, we saw neither of these species during our visit. We saw all sorts of interesting trees and shrubs, such as Strangler Figs climbing up a tree.
Strangler Fig
On the cantilevered bridge
We found a memorial plaque on the walkway, dedicated to the memory of Sir Jack Brabham, who was a great friend and frequent visitor to the Skywalk. At his request, his wife scattered his ashes at this special place in his life on September 2014.
Memorial plaque, and the creek on the forest floor
After enjoying lunch in the café, Robin set the Garmin to take us for a trip to the Gold Coast – just because we had never been there. We stopped at a lookout on Tamborine Mountain to take a few snaps, passing by all sorts of trendy arty places, cafes, and wineries.
View from Tamborine Mountain
Nobby Beach
High rise buildings could be seen away in the distance at both ends of the beach. Hotels and apartments buildings, we presumed.
High rise buildings in the distance
The GPS took us back to Brisbane, and right through the middle of the Gold Coast (town or city, we are not sure). But at least we can now say we have been to the Gold Coast at long last!
Unfortunately, we almost had an accident going around a round-about on the trip home, but Robin swerved away in the nick of time. That really shook us up, but luckily the rest of the trip went perfectly, and we made our way into the CBD, found our car parking building, and breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a great day, and we made a round trip of 200km along busy motorways, all new to us.
Our rental car
2 comments:
You were so lucky!! When we went to Tambourine Mountain a few months ago it rained the whole time we were there just about,,,, cleared briefly while we did the Skywalk but we didn't see any of the supposedly amazing views from the top of the Mountain.
It sounds like another great day of sight seeing. You are inspiring us to see more of our own back yard......it will happen one day, as there is just so much to see.
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