My friend Angelica came to hang out with me for the day. She’s a friend my mum met on face book again from the ATP/AI group. Angelica had come last fall to see New York and she’d stayed with us for a few days. So when I knew I’d be in Australia I dropped her a line thinking she’d be busy and couldn’t meet me. Turns out she was super excited to see me and drove two hours from Toowoomba to Gold Coast to see me!
On top of that she and her friend Steve pick me up and whisk me off to the wilds of Australia!
First stop was this cool reservoir.
Then we stopped for lunch and saw dinosaurs. That’s right dinosaurs in Australia.
Hahaha got you. They were across the valley from where we had lunch. I found it highly amusing.
The fun was yet to come. Because it was time to have a hike to the Natural Arch.
There are glow worms in the cave but sadly it was too bright to see them. So I just enjoyed the view and sound of the waterfall.
After the falls we were headed to go find a platypus! You see Steve had grown up in this area and knew a spot that the platypuses normally chill out in the morning. On the drive there Angelica turns to me and goes “Taylor you up for a drive?” Obviously I had to say yes. So it was time for a mini Chinese fire drill and before you knew it I was driving!
It was so freaking weird to be on the other side of the road and I had one little freak out moment when a car came around the corner and I thought it was going to hit me because in my head I was on the right side of the road and not the left. But other then that and the fact that 70kmph was as fast as I could stomach I think I did fantastic driving. Now to me behind the wheel and going 70 kmph was like holy shit this is fast…. In retrospect doing the conversion I was going about 43mph… and I would like to point out when I drive at home I’m sort of a speed demon. And by speed demon I mean I go about 5mph over the speed limit. So in fact I was being super lame freaking out going 70kmph on a fairly straight country road. But it was fun. Like real bad ass fun because I was infact on the wrong side of the road in my head making myself a rebel.
My fun ended when we got to the platypus site. Which I think was good for everyone involved because it would have taken us twice as long to get anywhere with me driving. So it was time to search for a platypus which I was so freaking excited about.
Turns out we just stood on the bank staring at this nest
Watching the platypus make bubbles at us for a good half hour before we gave up. Steve pointed out that they usually are on the banks early in the morning. We shouldn’t have been surprised that they preferred their watery lair in the middle of the afternoon. It was still a little depressing.
Once we gave up on the platypus we headed off to another park to have a hike about…
And see an EPIC waterfall.
On the way up to the last lookout I saw a Wallaroo or if you want to get scientific a Macropus robustu!!
Soooooo cute right! they're smaller then Wallabies.
It was getting sort of late by then and since it’s winter and the sun sets around 17h00 there we happened upon the last lookout at just the perfect time to watch the sun set. And it was beyond amazing. These pictures can’t do it justice. And the fact that we were on top of a mountain and it was quiet and so very pretty.
After that it was time for dinner then off to bed for me. I had ACP the next day and I had to be ready to kick ass!
Cheers,
