Carrara Markets

Saturday 30th August.

Market day at Carrara is a weekend institution on the Gold Coast and a must do activity. The extent of the stalls is amazing, selling all sorts of goodies at quite reasonable prices. I bought a T Shirt and a "head sock" which is a type of stretchy bandana to wear under my motor cycle helmet for comfort and also to stop my ears being torn off every time I remove my Aldi helmet.

Gail picked up some makeup at very good prices and a top.

Watched the last round matches of the AFL during the late afternoon and evening.

The Long Walk

Friday 29th August.

One of our favourite walks is here at Burleigh Heads. There are a series of walking tracks between Tallebudgera Creek and the beach at Burleigh, then into the shopping centre. The lower track which follows the cliff line through the National Park overlooks the pounding surf below. This is the pick of these walks however on this ocassion this track was closed due to a serious rock fall caused by the recent very heavy rain.

The alternative walk via the top track involves a lot more initial uphill, then a series of stairs at the end of the walk down to the beach at Burleigh. Gail did exceptionally well as this would have been the toughest walk she has done since injuring her back 8 months back.

Today is a public holiday on the Gold Coast as their annual show is on, but most of the touristy shops in Burleigh were open along with all the eateries.

We had brunch at "The Pantry" cafe where the food is always terrific. I had eggs Benedict and Gail had Swiss Waffles with maple syrup and ice cream. The walk back via the same route was taken a little more easily as we both felt weighted down with the food.

Did a bit of washing during the afternoon then went to the Tweed Heads "Twin Towns" club for dinner.

Day Out to Brisbane

Thursday 28th August.

We drove into Brisbane today, specifically to visit a shop whose specialty is mastectomy bras and swimsuits which Gail needs to replace. The lady who owns and operates "Spirit Of Life" is recognised Australia wide as the best in the business with the greatest range available.

The GPS was absolutely critical in guiding our way to Ramsgate where the shop is located.

Tamborine Mountain

Wednesday 27th August.

We met Carol Mac and her mother at Paradise Point for morning tea at a nice little sidewalk cafe.

Carol's mum is getting a bit forgetful and prefers not to be away from her home for too long so the short break for morning tea suited her. It also gave us the opportunity to have a good chat with Carol who we have not seen since our last visit to the Gold Coast last year.

After we left them Gail and I drove to Tamborine Mountain in the hinterland area. To make a round trip of this drive we went via Nerang, then returned via Oxenford. This is very much a tourist Mecca with all sorts of shopping outlets aimed directly at the tourist trade. We had lunch at a Subway.

Retail Therapy

Tuesday 26th August.

First thing this morning I caught the bus to Coolangatta airport to pick up a rental car from Thrifty.

The airport facility is the easiest and best place for me to get to.

We have rented a small compact, 5 door automatic Nissan Micra for 6 days which will give us greater flexibility to do the things we have planned for this week.

A visit to Harbour Town and Pacific Fair shopping centres gave us a shot of some retail therapy.

Back into The Rat Race

Monday 25th August.

On the road by 7:30am this morning as we have a couple of appointments to meet this morning on our way to Tallebudgera. The first around 8:30 was to meet up with the PM Lubricants guy just east of Ipswich, to collect the PM800 addative, then onto Roamsafe to have a better security door fitted. A bit of a hickup in relation to the PM Lubricants, however it will be delivered to us at the tourist park during the week at no cost for the delivery. It was then on to Wongawallan where the new security door was fitted within an hour, allowing us to proceed on to Tallebudgera.

After looking at several potential sites we selected site 135 in second avenue which best suited us.

We had a reasonable easy afternoon, having been on the road early and negotiated the early morning peak traffic on both the Logan and Pacific motorways.

Where the H... Is Marburg

Sunday 24th August.

A bit of rain overnight but not enough to prevent us from walking back into the small village of Marburg. Not much open this morning except for the newsagent and an antique dealer who had a massive amount of paraphernalia both in and outside of his premises.

There are a couple of trotters training on the track today. They appear to have quite a strong harness club here in Marburg with a group of volunteers arriving to scrape the sandy track back to a nice smooth surface. A couple of flat bed contraptions simply towed behind a couple of 4WD's.