Day thirty seven

A quiet morning at the house while James and Grace went of for a run and a swim. We sat on the terrace overlooking the pond, watching the wildlife. There are various ducks, two kinds of cormorants, Aussie Ibis, parrots, miner birds, many different corvids and more birds than I can name. Two highlights....  

Azure kingfisher

Australian King parrots

Then we went with James and Grace for lunch at the Surf Life Saver's Club on Surfer's Paradise - the surf rescue clubs often run cafes and restaurants on the beachfront to raise funds for their club. This was a particularly good one! I had stir fried chicken, James had chicken parmigiana, Kate had a pasta dish and Grace had Roast Lamb and roasted vegetables! I also got to sample the local beer which is known as VB. Very nice, very cold, Very Beery. We then felt it was necessary to have a short walk. We went to the nearby Burleigh Heads and took a short walk along the promenade and cliff path.

Looking North, towards Surfer's Paradise

Looking South, towards Byron Bay  

Burleigh Heads is a basalt outcrop in a largely sandstone area.

Our hosts

 Grace has had to return to Sydney, ready for work in the morning but we have two more days here. Tomorrow we hope to join Francis-not-Henry on Bryon Bay to watch James and him surfing. 

Day thirty six

  Yesterday we had a delayed but otherwise uneventful flight to Gold Coast.

Leaving Sydney

 

Leaving Sydney

We collected the car and drove out to the house, via a 'Wholefood Restaurant' run by that old farmer. 

House and car

The house is built over the side of a private lake and is surrounded by trees and birds.

Lake

After a good sleep we headed out to investigate the Springbrook National Park which is on our doorstep. First we went to Purling Brook Falls where we hoped to do a 4km walk but sadly (😉) it was closed due to heavy rain recently? But it meant that the falls were in fine form.  

Purling Brook Falls

Purling Brook Falls

The we drove on to Natural Bridge, another water feature. It too had a section of the path closed but we were able to see the phenomenon, a river that forced its way through the roof of a cave.

River

Cave

 Even more interesting than water crashing trough a cave ( even if it was a basalt cave ) were the bent-wing bats that live in the cave. Here is a video ....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7BwY2Wu6FY We still had not had a walk so we took our picnic to a nearby picnic area by a river and dined. 

Picnic by a river

We then drove to another part of the park and finally got our walk through rainforest.

Rainforest

Walkers

Then back to the house via the butcher to buy meat for the BBQ as a surfer friend of James' was joining us for a meal.  Much meat and wine followed.

Day thirty five

A quiet day before we set off for our evening flight to Gold Coast. I did a little gardening to pass the time, putting down membrane on two of the beds prior to covering with a suitable mulch.

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I spotted this beauty on the agaves that grow in the back garden.

Orchard Swallowtail

It measures four to five inches across.

Orchard Swallowtail

 I then had to deal with the largest spider we have seen so far on this visit - I won't post the picture as it might put you off visiting Australia. I understand it was a Huntsman...... Shortly we will be off to catch a bus, a train, another train and then a plane!

Day thirty four

The return journey from Central Coast to Sydney was uneventful.  The car was returned without incident and we caught the train earlier than expected.  The highlight of the journey was being able to photograph this building, near to Sydney Central Station.  

Station building

To quote Wikipedia -  The Regent Street railway station, formerly known as the Mortuary railway station, was a railway station on Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery railway line. Funeral trains departed from the station, bound for Rookwood Cemetery. The station found later use as a part of Sydney Yard. The ornate Gothic building is still standing on the western side of Sydney Yard at Chippendale, close to Central railway station and Railway Square. This how it looked in its heyday.  

Mortuary Station

( thanks for the photo to - Pickering, Charles Percy (New South Wales. Government Printing Office) • Public domain) We are now back at the Bronte house, unpacking and re-packing...... the trip to Tasmania was too complicated to arrange at short notice so has been put on hold till our next visit (!) and so tomorrow we are flying up the coast even further to Gold Coast, just before Brisbane. James and Grace are flying with us, Grace has to return on Sunday night but James will say on and fly back with us on Tuesday evening.   

Map

 

Day thirty three

A quieter day. We started with a walk along the lake, in the other direction. The morning light was very good and there were some interesting things to photograph.

Morning on the lake

Sky and water

Rainbow Lorikeets

Kookaburra

We then headed out to the coast for a change of scenery.

Coast

It was very hot and humid so we quickly retired to a shady picnic spot.

Umbrella trees or they may be cabbage trees

As it is Autumn here fungi is all around.

Fungi

And there are birds - This one is being very Australian

 Then back to the Airbnb in time for a last walk along the shore

Evening light

Which turned into a dash back when the wind across the lake went from nought to sixty and the storm swept in.

Storm clouds

   

Day thirty two

A busy day! We started off by going to Sumersby Falls, about thirty minutes from our Airbnb. Recent rainfall meant that there was enough water falling to make for some decent photos. 

Upper Falls

Middle Falls

Lower Falls

From there we went on to Mount Penang Gardens, a public garden, designed by an Australian garden designer.

Water feature

Most plants were in their Autumn phase but a few were still flowering bravely on. 

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The bottle trees were particularly interesting.

They are called bottle trees but I think all the bottles had been picked.

and of course there were birds...

Galahs

Water birds too

From there we drove to Bulgandry, a site of Aborigine rock carvings. Their date in unsure but the technique is known - first a drawing in charcoal, then the outline is picked out in dots dug out of the rock and then the dots are joined to form the outline. 

Kangaroo/wallaby

Speared fish

Man with boomerang and lovely hair    Our next stop was a viewpoint looking over the various lakes - we barely noticed the view as a white-bellied sea eagle was soaring high overhead.

View

White-bellied sea eagle

  From there we made our way down to the coast and had ice cream and cold drinks on Putty Beach at Killcare.

Putty Beach

It was then time to drive back via the supermarket and bottle shop - the supermarkets are not licensed so there is always a bottle shop nearby for essential alcohol purchases.  But even then our day was not over. Our Airbnb hosts had invited us to join them at the opening of a local Art Exhibition where there would be canapés and drinks and chance to see some work by local artists. On the way to the venue they took us to their favourite locations on the sea front. The exhibition was interesting and the little bites were very nice, as was the Aussie red wine. 

I am obviously deep in thought  

With our hosts Jacqui and Brian