Goodbye Gold Coast

Well our month long stay on the Gold Coast is almost at an end. I initially looked forward to settling somewhere for a month but with all the travelling we have been doing it didn't take long before I got itchy feet. So I'm not sure if in the future I will hang around somewhere this long. That doesn't count home. The caravan park we are staying at is really good and in a perfect location but it's also a park that gets extremely busy over the weekend. I really don't mind it if it's busy but it's when you get surrounded by an extended family in four tents that set up almost on our laps and have the foulest mouths I have ever heard. I just can't believe that families would use this language especially when they have little children with them. Now I'm not against the odd swear word but all the time, when it's yelled and the drunken behaviour that accompanies it is a bit much to take. OK that's my rant over, thanks for listening.

The view of the caravan park we are staying at from Tallebudgera Creek

I was treated to some great cloud formations 

The other day we went had a day trip up to Tamborine Mountain, which is the hinterland behind the Gold Coast. From the east side of the mountains you have beautiful views of the ocean and from the west you are treated to the mountain views. North Tamborine is a delightful little village that caters to the many tourist to the area. It's main street is lined with various shops, cafes and restaurants.

Amazing views

Treated to one last Gold Coast sunset

Gold Coast, Queensland

Well I've now been on the Gold Coast for about 2 weeks now and this is the first time I've logged on to do a blog update. It's not that I've been very busy, I have been out and about but just not on my laptop much. I have been having a few IT issues and it seems the new iPhone update doesn't want to allow me to upload any of my photos - grrrrr.  I have been to the Gold Coast many many times and still enjoy coming here, although I choose to stay in the less touristy areas now. But I think everywhere on the Gold Coast is now touristy and very busy.

Surfers Paradise in the distance

How have I spent my days so far, well there has been shopping at the shopping centres, warehouse outlets and a few markets. Walking along the beach, catching up with friends, eating some yummy food and most of all relaxing.

Amazing fruits at the farmers market

My type of mini golf course - Buddha theme

I have been lucky enough to have my cousin Sue staying for the week. We are extremely close but don't get to spend a lot of time together so this is a very special week.

Suzie and Davine 

One day we headed south to the very spiritual,amazing Crystal Castle and Shambala Gardens. I have been there before and just knew Sue would love it, and she did. Crystal Castle and the gardens is a privately owned property filled with the most amazing crystals, statues, sub-tropical plants, labyrinth and a walk to the most beautiful stone Buddha I have ever seen. We had a glorious spiritual day of meditation and relaxation.

Lakshmi - The Goddess of fortune, prosperity, wisdom and fertility.
She is also the embodiment of beauty, grace and charm.

Avalokiteshvara - embodies the compassion of all the Buddhas

The Great Buddha

Toowoomba, Queensland

Toowoomba with a population of around 115,000 is a city in the Darling Downs area of Queensland. With over 150 public parks and gardens it is  affectionately known as the Garden City. Toowoomba's history dates back to the mid 1800's when the English botanist and explorer discovered 4 million acres of  it's rich farming and grazing countryside. Our Saturday night was an extremely cold night spent at the PBR Bull Riding. It was a fun night watching fifty bull riders from Australia and one from Brazil tackle the very angry, very big and very mean bulls for a very long eight seconds.

Australia's history consists a lot of the travels of the Cobb and Co. wagons, so it was natural that we visited the Cobb and Co. Museum. Not only did the museum consist of a number of historic wagons there were a few other exhibits and special events.

The exhibition A Room for Wild Animals features 20 large and very impressive taxidermy specimens of big cats, bears and deer from the Queensland Museum collection.

Another special exhibition was Let Me Be Myself - The Life Story of Anne Frank. Seeing her personal story from her birth in 1929 to her death in 1945 and her story during the second World War in photos made me remember how sad I feel about her life. I was once again so engrossed in her story I forgot to take any photos.

I had previously read about a couple of the gardens in Toowoomba that I really wanted to visit. Situated in the grounds of the Southern University of Queensland are the Ju Raku En - Japanese Gardens. Designed by Professor Kinsaku Nakane of Kyoto in 1989 consist of 3 kms of paths, 230 species of Japanese and Australian native trees and plants.

The other garden I wanted to visit was the State Rose Garden. Located in historic Newton Park these spectacular gardens have more than 1,500 roses planted. With most of them having a beautiful smell it was quite a delight roaming around.

Blackbutt, Queensland

Well it certainly wasn't a very long distance to get to this destination - 61km. Why would we only travel this far, because we wanted to. We did stop off at the little town of Yaraman for a pretty yummy brunch of scones, jam and cream.

Mmmmm Yummy Brunch

The township we are in for 3 nights is called Blackbutt named after the Eucalyptus Pilularis Tree or Blackbutt Tree. The town was established back around the early 1800's when farms were established in the area. A population growth happened in the late 19th century when as with many Australian towns gold was discovered. Blackbutt now has a population of just over 1000 and to me has a little bit of an alternative feel to it with a few shops selling crystals, incense product and art. I have been looking for a small lamp for in Myrtle and I found this little salt lamp that has a tiny LED lamp in it that changes colours. For those out there interested in tennis this is where the Aussie tennis legend Roy Emerson was born.

The Hotel Radnor was built around 1908 - 1912 and was initially was named "The Grand". According to stories the hotel was renamed "Hotel Radnor" after the owner's dog that was killed in 1935.

 The main street is quite pretty with a couple of great old buildings framed by some glorious flowers.

We are staying at the Blackbutt showgrounds which we thought would be quiet but a Motorhome club are having a few day getaway here, but they have been pretty quiet. We are finding showgrounds are a great place to stay being a bit cheaper than caravan parks and usually have old but really clean amenities. Have any travellers out there stayed in any Showgrounds? If so, I'd love to hear about them.

Journey to Kingaroy

After a few days without Internet coverage I am now in a town called Kingaroy and I'm able to catch up on where I've been. After leaving Mackay our first nights stop was at the St Lawrence Recreation Grounds. The recreation grounds are run by volunteers and they kept the amenities block the cleanest I have ever seen for a rec ground. These grounds are situated next to a vast wetlands that had literally thousands of Magpie Geese.When I walked down to have a look I was also greeted by 22 Grey Kangaroos. This amazing sight was quite a bonus.

The big boy and one of his girls

Thousands of Magpie Geese

The next day it was off to a very tiny settlement called Dululu. As we pulled in I thought this spot was a bit ordinary, but as it turned out it was quite a nice quiet bush setting for the night.

Our next night was another free camp in Mulgildie, another tiny township. But this time we were literally camped in the car park of the Mulgildie Pub. The camp was free but seeing we were at a pub we decided to have dinner there and it was very tasty.

We are now in Kingaroy which is known as the "Peanut Capital of Australia"because Australia's largest peanut processing plant is located in the town and the peanut silos dominate the skyline.

Mackay, Queensland

Mackay is situated on Australia's east coast about 950 kilometres north of the Queensland capital Brisbane. With a population in excess of 120,000 people it's quite a big city. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia as the region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar. As soon as you get out of the CBD and suburbs the sugar cane fills the fields. Another industry that Mackay relies on is coal. Coal reserves of central Queensland is the single largest coal reserve in Australia, with 34 operational coal mines extracting more than 100 million tonnes annually. While much of the coal is used in Australia a lot is shipped to Japan and China from Mackay. Standing on the breakwater I could see at least 15 container ships waiting out in the ocean for their turn to come into the dock to be loaded.

The very long Mackay breakwater

This Prawn Trawler was returning from  a night of fishing

The CBD of Mackay is quite nice sitting on the banks of the picturesque Pioneer River, but the thing that grabbed me was the outstanding collection of Art Deco architecture constructed in the early 20th century. Art Deco is an art style which was popular from the 1920's until the 1940's.

Pioneer River

Chaseley House - 1937

Ambassador Hotel - 1937

Australian Hotel - 1940

A row of very interesting buildings 

Parish Hall, another interesting building

 At the caravan park we are staying there are literally hundreds of ducks. We have never seen these types of ducks before, but after asking at the office and doing some research we now know they are the Plumed Whistler Duck. There are also quite a few Plovers with their little babies but they are just a bit to quick for me to get a photo - but I will keep trying.

This is only a tiny portion of the ducks

The Plumed Whistler Duck