Jungle

There were a number of plans. Originally we were going to spend a couple of days in Canberra to do the museums and galleries. An alternative was to spend a few civilised days in Noosa. Then one of the myriad online stalking systems made us an offer we couldn’t refuse: a brief trip to the Gold Coast for less than the price of a large night out.

For my European friends, Gold Coast probably evokes images of miles of unspoiled beaches, tropical palms and cocktails in the sun. Well, it’s sometimes like that, in parts. Most of it is more like Mallorca – night clubs, cheap food, cheaper beer and young people behaving badly. That describes Broadbeach, the up-market end. We’re in Surfer’s Paradise which is, shall we say, the more exuberant, less costly end of town. A bloke had his ear bitten off outside a club last night. This is a normal thing here.

Anyway. Weather. This is Queensland in summer in a moderate year. So. Rain. It’s currently pissing down. Also, cold. It’s about 27Â°C today. Tropical paradise it is not. Still, it’s a truly world-class beach, the locals are friendly, the beer is excellent and it’s an hour’s drive home.

This post is not about any of that.

We took a slightly indirect route here so we could have another look around Tambourine Mountain. The ecology is truly fantastic. It’s a tropical rainforest at 450m elevation. We took pictures.