Since when is the rainforest so cold? (Apr. 9/09 - Springbrook National Park, Australia, mileage 205km)

To continue the trend of having major national holidays following us wherever we go, it just so happens that today marks the start of the Easter holidays in Australia, where employees get a four day weekend and school kids get a whopping ten days off. Great for them, not so great for us! Campgrounds fill up, traffic increases, gas prices go up... c'est la vie. We were on the fence as to whether we would go into central Brisbane to check out the city, but between the expensive parking, the size of the city (needing several days to do it justice), and the hoards of people that will be trying to leave this afternoon, we opted to just wave at it as we continued south, ahead of the rush.

The famous Gold Coast begins just south of Brisbane, where a 40km stretch of prime surf beach is virtually lined with towering skyscrapers, busy bars/clubs/restaurants, and is busy year round. Surfer's Paradise is basically the worst part of it (or best, depending on your perspective!), but we wanted to see what it was like so we veered off the freeway to check it out. It was an overcast and sporadically rainy day, so only the hardcore surfers and swimmers were playing in the waves, and not a single string bikini or dark brown tan was in sight. We soon realized where everyone was when we detoured into a shopping mall to pick up a new memory card... The town wasn't deserted after all! The major landmark for this stretch of coast is the "Q1" tower, a 77 storey skyscraper where you can pay $20 for a view from the top. Real estate listings in the lobby showed newish 900sqft apartments with stunning coastal views for about $400,000 Canadian... not bad actually, compared to prices at home!

The beachy towns sprawled continuously down the coast until we decided to turn inland and head back to the interior. Springbrook National Park is up on a plateau about 30km from the coast, comprising rainforests, waterfalls, hiking trails... our kind of stuff. We were over half way there when we found out the road was closed (not sure how we missed all the signs!) and the detour ended up getting us thoroughly lost in a town we weren't even supposed to be in, where a gas station clerk told us to "wing it" since the directions to get where we were going were too complicated! So we did, and we winged it right. The road skirted a big reservoir and then climbed steeply up onto a razorback ridge that was barely wide enough for the two lane road, dropping off steeply on both sides. At one point, we drove into a literal wall of rain, and the temperature dropped ten degrees. We claimed a spot at the park's campground, whipped up some dinner, and then pulled out all our warm clothes to try and stay warm. We're probably so accustomed to smoking hot weather by now that "cool" feels freezing, but when you wished you had a touque and gloves, that's a bit much! Let's hope the rainforest walks tomorrow are worth it!