A Sojourn in Brisbane and Goldcoast - Part 2
One of the days we took a day trip to O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat. The drive up from Brisbane to the retreat was about 2 hours long, but took much longer because the GPS took us via Duck Creed Road. I don't think I'll ever forget that name. It's a long, winding, unmarked lane off the main roads, through private farmlands (read: gates where you have to exit the vehicle to manually un-hinge and hinge), steep, sandy and gravelly terrains, but also, the most breath-taking scenery ever. It was an experience, but not something I would advise travellers to do as even our 4-wheel-drive had quite a lot of difficulty navigating the route and an especially steep slope. So take the main roads, and ignore it when your GPS tells you that Duck Creed Road is the fastest way up. When you're crawling at maybe 10km/hr, it really isn't.
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| Gorgeous blue skies |
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| The cow wonders what the hell we're doing driving in their pastures |
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| Heyyy Luke, do you know how much we had to go through just so we could see your farm? |
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| The kind of place that makes me want to just lie down on the grass, look at the sky and not give a flying rat's ass about time or work. |
While the ride up to O'Reilly's was eventful, I couldn't say the same about our destination. It's probably more suitable if you have kids, as there were some activities for the younger 'uns available, like a bird show? Or something like that. The food was good though, but I'm not sure if it was worth the harrowing ride up the mountain. I believe they also had lodging available so it may be more worth your while if you stayed there a couple of nights. You know, to calm your nerves after risking your lives on Duck Creed Road. It was really cold and windy up the mountain too, so wrap up!
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| Whenever I have fries (or chips) in Australia, I think of my Sinsin Garlic Chilli (also known as McDonald's Chilli) or my Maggi tomato ketchup. Nothing else comes close, man. |
We took the trail through the rainforest, which reminded my of secondary school cross-country runs at MacRitchie Reservoir, where we saw so many rubber seeds, it wasn't even funny any more.
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| My attempts at artistic nature shots |
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| Finally at the end of the trail! Now we can go down the mountain. |
Evening time we went in search of food at the Eat Street Markets! Oh wow you really have to visit this place; it's like our pasar-malam set up (though prices definitely aren't) and you can just walk around trying out different kinds of foods. There's also sitting areas littered around so you can just plonk yourself down anywhere available. Of course, being more atas, there was also an alcohol bar counter and blinking carnival lights, so it could be a pseudo clubbing experience for you. I'm not sure if this place is easily accessible by public transport but I'm guessing you can easily find that out by googling.
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| Awww...these are so me |
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| These! The freshest oysters I've ever had, bought off a man (probably a fisherman) who sold it from a truck. It was AUD$16 for a dozen and has left me with such a strong hankering for oysters that I was looking all over for fresh oysters after I came back. |
Being winter, the night crept upon us really early and by 7pm, it was PITCH BLACK at the car park area, and the street lamps were few and not exactly powerful, so we really had to get back to our hotel. Besides, most of the places closed at 6pm, so once again, we were thankful for our comfy beds (quick plug for Hotel Urban Brisbane)!
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