SWINGING IN THE TREES

We had two, lovely, relaxing days on Tamborine Mountain. Then it was time to wind our way down the mountain towards home. On the way down we stopped at the Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk.

This is actually quite a sturdy walkway and only swings a little. We watched others first and.......

 .......then it was our turn. The videographer runs ahead.

 We looked up and ......

 ...we looked down. That took your breath away.

 The skywalk ended and there was a path through the rainforest back to the car park.
It was dark and cool and the trees were so tall reaching for the sunlight.

 There were prickly plants and.......

....vines, small ones and..........

....big ones.

There wasn't much water in the creek, but it was pretty.

There was evidence of history and graffiti.  The slot was cut into the tree by the early timber getters hundreds of years ago. They inserted a plank to climb onto to saw the trunk.

Then it was homeward bound. In half an hour we were at the bottom of the mountain and 15 mins from home and reality.

HAVE YOU NOTICED?

While we were on Tamborine Mountain we visited the Botanic Gardens. Have you noticed how the name of Botanical Gardens has changed to Botanic Gardens? Check it out in your town and see which name is used. I wonder why? I'm guessing it has something to do with grammar (no not grandma) English grammar. Anyway, what the heck come and enjoy the Tamborine Mountain Botanic Gardens with us.

 The gardens were formed in 1982 by volunteers from the local Garden Club. Since then the gardens have been maintained by volunteers with some help from the council. There are a variety of different gardens ranging from native to exotic.

We started with a the rainforest walk.

Bill's favourite plants are the Bromeliads so we visited that garden next.Then we walked past the roses and into the Japanese Garden.We strolled around for an hour or more visiting many more sections. 

 Bromeliads

Japanese garden

By now we were getting hungry and Ann planned for us to have lunch at The Bavarian Haus.

 The waitress was in costume. We arrived well after lunchtime and most patrons had left.

The view from our table.

 The view on our table.

 Bill had his favourite. I asked him for some help with this caption. I asked him to write down the name of the sausage in German. This is what he wrote: German Sausage mit Sauerkraut und es was fan-bloody-tastic.

I had Kassler with Sauerkraut and mash. It was delicious too.

After this we didn't need a big dinner so we stopped by a store and bought some cheese, crackers and fruit and a bottle of wine for back at the B&B later that evening. (Life is tough---no, no,  we are very lucky)

TAKING IN THE MOUNTAIN AIR AT TAMBORINE MOUNTAIN.

Tamborine Mountain is only 70k from Brisbane and it has breathtaking scenery, abundant wildlife and clean, cool air. There is a strong cottage industry, many artists and wineries. 

Rotary Lookout

The pastoralist, Robert Martin Collins was inspired by Yellowstone National Park (the world's first), while he was on a world tour. When he returned he campaigned for National Parks in Queensland. In 1908 The Witches Falls National Park on Tamborine Mountain was established as the first NP in Qld, and the third in the world.

Helen, George, Ann, Paul, Bill, Mary and me behind the camera make up the Birthday Bear group.

 After taking in the air and the scenery at the lookout we went to Cedar Creek Estate, where they have created a rainforest and glow worm cave. It also has a winery and restaurant. While we waited to take a tour of the glow worm cave we wallowed in the beauty around us.

Then it was time to enter the cave. It is a man made cave and a haven for the local glow worms called Arachnocampa flava and they are only found in southeast Qld. Glow worms are the larvae of a small fly. Only the larvae glow and they live for a year but the fly only lives for a few days. The chemicals needed to generate the glow are all produced within the body of the glow worm and the light is projected out of the rear end of the larvae.

Glow worms glow to attract small insects that live in leaf litter and water near where the glow worms reside. They construct snares like a spider web made from silk threads and sticky droplets to capture the insects attracted to their glow.The picture at the left shows a glow worm and its snare. This photo was scanned from the brochure because no photography was allowed in the cave, as flashes would make the glow worms turn off their light.

Inside the cave it was totally dark. The guide had an infrared torch. Looking up to the ceiling of the cave was a wonderful sight. It was like looking up to a sky filled with millions of stars.

I couldn't resist buying this postcard.

 After adjusting our eyes to the light we found the restaurant overlooking the pond. It was very relaxing eating scones and cream with morning tea.

 The restaurant was surrounded by gardens with a variety of flowers. The fuchsias and roses were especially beautiful.

The Knoll Lookout

 There are many lookouts, National Parks, hiking tracks and waterfalls.

We went for a rainforest walk called the Sandy Creek, Cameron Falls circuit. However, we didn't get to the falls as it got a bit steep for some of us. So we headed for an easier stroll through the Botanic Gardens in the next post.

LIVING IT UP WITH BIRTHDAY BEAR

Yes! It is time to celebrate another birthday with Birthday Bear. This time it was Ann's birthday and she wanted to celebrate her birthday with us and Bear at Mt Tamborine. Mt Tamborine is a beautiful mountain village in the hinterland of the Gold Coast. It is only 50 k and 50 min drive from home. 

 There were seven of us (eight including Bear) and we stayed in a 5 star B&B. "Villa della Rosa" It was a lovely place with ......

 ...a beautiful garden.

 Birthday Bear came to breakfast dressed as a telephonist as that was Ann's job when she was very young. She often has us in fits of laughter when recalling her time as a telephonist/call girl. Birthday Bear even had her switchboard with her. She had also dashed out in her lunch break to buy some groceries, which are in her string bag.

 Ann loved her Birthday Bear and we loved the scrumptious breakfast that followed.

 It was Helen's turn to dress Birthday Bear and she did a great job, especially with the switchboard.

We all had a great two days at Mt Tamborine. I'll show you what we did in the next posts.

CHOO CHOO TRAIN

I must take a break from our tour of Western Australia for a few posts and return to our adventures in Brisbane. Bill booked for us and our friend Colin to take a steam train ride.

 On Sundays a steam train takes a short mystery trip from Roma Street Station. You don't know where it is going until you arrive at the station. The platform was full of families with young children and then there was us three wrinklies.

  I am always thankful for volunteers like these and the ones below who make it possible for people to experience real live history.

We were in a carriage made in 1903 and our volunteer guard was a little bit grumpy, but he kept us amused with his rules and regulations.

 We were all a bit nonplussed when we discovered that our train was taking us to Pinkenba an eastern suburb of Brisbane about 10 k from the CBD. This suburb is maligned as it is not a nice place to live.

 It used to be swamp land but is now an industrial area.

A ship in the port.

 Pinkenba is isolated from other suburbs, as it is surrounded by the airport, the river port and industrial estates. It is sparsely populated. The railway station has closed but our train could do a loop and return to Brisbane.

 I was disappointed at first as I thought there is no nice scenery to photograph but then I realised that industrial shots would be something different for me to do. These were all taken from the moving Puffing Billy.

There was one small patch of the original, mangrove trees along a swampy creek.

The old men (Colin and Bill) became young boys again on this day.