We found a fabulous, huge, upmarket shopping mall there and wandered around it for a while before heading back to the beach to wander back up north to SP. We'd seen the earlier warnings about no swimming in the sea due to the high wind and tides and also the warning about "marine stingers", several of which had been washed up on the sand. They were fairly small, albeit with long tentacles, but the ones we saw at Broadbeach were substantial plump things and we certainly wouldn't mess with them:
It was hot - time for a beer and a bite. We had spotted the House of Brews earlier, so we headed there and did the usual paddle of samplers:
The pool back at our resort was our next stop and we returned to House of Brews for dinner in the evening - after an aborted trip to Southport.
Thursday was a day for the car again - we headed inland up the steep drive to Tamborine Mountain - a lovely place in the rainforest with lots of things to look at and do. Our first walk was down to Curtis Creek to see the falls there:
Next stop was the glowworm caves, after which we strolled down Gallery Walk. Jo liked the German cuckoo/grandfather clock shop:
Finally, time for a beer - and there was a lovely brewpub, adjacent to a cheese factory and bistro:
The main event of the day was to do the rainforest Skywalk:
That was great - and we managed one more short sightseeing walk before leaving the area - Cedar Creek Falls, where there are rock pools for swimming - and jumping from the rocks if you're young and foolish enough:
Back at the resort, we resorted to room service for dinner.
Friday was going to be another non-driving day, but we didn't just laze about - we took a short morning cruise along the river, then did some quick shopping and went back to our room for lunch, using the cheese that we had bought in Tamborine. The afternoon was then spent poolside before our final night's dinner at the teppanyaki table at the Marriott Misono restaurant. Great way to spend an evening - memories of Benihana all those years ago in Florida with Jim Cowie and his family. Excellent Mojitos to finish off a fine day.
Saturday morning and it was time to finish the packing. Our flight wasn't until 20:45 so we decided to spend the day looking at the city of Brisbane. We parked our car up and headed for one of the hop-on, hop-off bus tours. It was another steaming hot day and we got stuck in a traffic jam caused by a road accident, but finally hopped off at the South Bank - as recommended by Chris. After a spot of lunch, we headed for one of the local brewpubs, only to discover that there were two of them virtually next door to each other. It would have been rude to have only gone to one of them.
We picked up the tour bus again eventually and then went to find our car - where did we park it again? No Sat Nav, so finding our way to the airport had to be done old school, but we got there safely in good time.
I'm finishing this blog after dinner on our flight on the huge Airbus 380 - upstairs of course. The internet is intermittent so I don't know if this post will make it or not - I'll find out when we get to Dubai.
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