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Published: September 3rd 2015
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We finally tore ourselves away from the Sunshine Coast and drove down to Brisbane. We found a caravan park at Newmarket which was quite close to the city and had transport - the bus to the city - just a short walk away. The bus stopped right at the Cultural Centre on Southbank, between the Museum and the Entertainment Centre, ideal. We walked along Southbank, the wonderful parkland along the river. There were quite a few areas blocked off, getting ready for the Brisbane Festival and some renovations taking place to the park. The city is across the river but cities don't thrill me, Southbank does.
We walked to the ferry stop and caught the rivercat which now goes even further along the river. We love the ride on the cat, the river winds around past the city, very nice homes, converted warehouses and parkland.After an hour and a half on the cat, we got off at Southbank and had lunch at one of the cafes there, then walked around the area. It's been awhile since we've explored Southbank, the old buildings at the back of the park, now very smart, trendy restaurants - it's come a long way since
the area was used for Expo in 1988, great memories for our family. More walking brought us to a children's water park we hadn't seen before, next to the wonderful beach and pool. We watched the fun the children were having for awhile and then walked to another stop we always visit - the big wheel. We love riding the wheel and seeing a lot of Brisbane below us.
Today we left the caravan park and drove to Mt. Cootha, the big mountain behind Brisbane. Though we left in sunshine, a very heavy black cloud was hanging over the mountain. We drove through the lovely Paddington with it's little old timber homes and the very nice shops and restaurants, very 'on trend'. By the time the poor old motor home had struggled up Mt. Cootha, the rain had come which meant I didn't get out at the lookout to take photos, I relied on what I could see from the motor home.
Our next destination was Mt. Tamborine, it's years since we were there. We first drove west, along very pretty rural countryside, to Beaudesert. Dora, our GPS, let us down, possibly a bad signal because of the
mountain, had us going the wrong way, so we were lost for awhile but did come to a very nice equine area, beautiful horses, lovely homes - money. We sorted it out and were on once more struggling up the very steep mountain road of Mt Tamborine. The scenery changed from tall gums to palms and rainforest gorges, quite lovely, but don't look down, that's quite a drop! We reached the top, surprised how the little towns we remembered were now much bigger than when we last visited, and I'm imagining, very popular for Sunday lunches after the drive up the mountain.
What goes up, must come down, so we held our breath as we went down the steep roads of the mountain and then towards the Gold Coast. Surfers Paradise has beautiful long beaches, perfect white sand, lovely waterways, and very pretty mountains in the background, the natural beauty of the area is breathtaking. What they also have is very very tall buildings - 'anything you can build, I can build higher', and now, in the canyons between the buildings, a new tramway. A lot of the trip through Surfers now seems so unfamiliar, it isn't the Surfers
where we spent so much time years ago, the worst sort of progress. I'm always glad when we've left the area to the other, less developed end of the Gold Coast.
And now we've crossed the border and we're back in NSW, staying overnight in a caravan park beside the Tweed River. We'll go back to Tallebudgera tomorrow night and from there, who knows? We're slowly making our way home, always a bit reluctant for holidays to end.
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