The most spectacular sight at Kondalilla Falls isn’t the falls. The view from just off  the walking trail to the falls was literally breath-taking. I’m not too fond of heights, so stepped with trepidation down the rocky slope to be greeted by this, and the absolute wonder and awe of it brought tears to my eyes:

This part of Queensland is full of natural wonders, in the true sense of the word – I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves – enjoy!

If you find yourself in the Sunshine Coast hinterland on a Wednesday, take a trip to the bohemian market town of Eumundi. Wander around the stalls to the sound of didgeridoos, have a relaxing massage or perhaps some refloxology and even find out your destiny at one of the fortune-telling tents – as long as you don’t mind an audience! When you’re done, I recommend that you go into Eumundi’s main street and browse through Berkelouw’s Books – ‘new, secondhand and rare books since 1812’. (www.berkelouw.com.au) I think I may have excess luggage to get through the airport; woops!. I also met a couple of local writers, including the incredibly enthusiastic children’s writer and teacher Chris Collins, whose tales of Aussie animals mirror the Australian psyche with humour – for example, Funky Chicken, a bushy tale of crocs and chooks, warns against bragging (tall poppy syndrome has never been appreciated here!). I also chatted with Ian ‘Johno’ Johnson  (‘Healing meditations and Shamanic Walks’), the self-styled ‘White fella dreaming’ (www.whitefelladreaming.com.au) – he insists we were destined to meet; obviously that’s the reason I was drawn to Eumundi markets (I did try and point out that it’s widely advertised and there were hundreds of others ‘drawn’ there at the same time, but hey, who am I to question spiritual forces?!

Special mention to my new-found friend Emma and her husband Paul, originally from Usk in Wales and now making some great food and fab coffee in ‘first batch’ at the end of Memorial Drive. Do pop in and say ‘hi’, I recommend the Eggs Benedict for brekky. 🙂

Apologies for the delay in blogging! Up on the Darling Downs, on my Dad’s place, communication is not as we’ve come to know it. Even that most vital of information for farmers, the weather forecast, isn’t brought by an online national meteorological site, but by cobbling together the guesswork of the local radio (well, it doesn’t look much like rain this morning here at ABC’) and reading the signs of nature (‘look, there’s the butcher bird sitting in the tree, it always rains when he visits’). It’s as well to be aware of nature out here, of course – ‘just watch out for scorpions and brown snakes, will ya, I’ve lost the key to the gun cupboard’. In case anyone ‘out there’ still think Australia is just sunshine, beaches, palm trees and pubs, I took a few random shots of reality on the Downs (sorry Dad!) – although as you can see the sky really does get very blue – that’s a wedge-tailed eagle by the way:

I drove down the Downs yesterday, past impossibly tall pine trees (Bunyas, I believe), and followed Steve Irwin Way to the Sunshine Coast. Ironically, the stretch of highway named after him (and along which his magnified face still invites you to visit Australia Zoo, ‘next turning right’) is littered with regular road-kill; to now I’ve only encountered one wild wallaby, although the birds are obviously thriving – the afore-mentioned Butcher Birds, who were named for the fact that they steal chicks from other species’ nests, impale them on conveniently spiky plants and dissect them for the nutrition of their own young, Family Birds who often appear in groups of seven; magnificent Wedge-tailed Eagles (of which I saw three soaring around the top of the eucalypts ); and the ever-raucous Kookaburra families. The streets of Brisbane are patrolled by Ibis strutting importantly across parks and shopping malls. In Queensland, nature is doing its best to ignore the ‘progress’ of humans.

PS Excuse the different font sizes in this blog – blame jetlag 🙂

Some images from my day wandering around Brisbane – my first iced coffee in South Bank parklands was to-die-for, and the Hare Krishna festival in the city centre was surreal. Not quite as surreal as the very elderly man who stepped in front of me, without a word, and proceeded to mirror my steps – left, right, left, right, as if we were dancing. When I laughed he just waved and walked away 🙂

My journey started like this:

Hi! Welcome to my Blog! As you probably know if you’ve found your way here, I’ll be using ramblingann.com to keep in touch with everyone while I’m out-and-about in the world. I’ll probably ramble a bit about random thoughts as well as where I’ve been and what I’ve seen, and I’ll try to upload some photos every day or two. Later today I’m off to Heathrow to take a night flight to Brisbane, via Singapore. (just in case I’ve not mentioned it!). I’ve done it before, of course, but this time it’s solo. Watch this space! 🙂 xx

PS Ignore the date at the top – it’s now 5th May 2016.