Day Three

Wednesday we go on the all day “Hinterlands” tour. We are expecting a vehicle, possible a four wheel drive type, that will take us to remote places where the tramping might be too strenuous for us. Instead we have a very nice tour bus that drives us to….

A winery. We sample seven different types of wine from that winery. We begin to think that strenuous tramping may be overrated.

We pop back in the bus and go to Mont Ville. It is a small town in the mountains outside Caloundra that is wholly devoted to shopping for bric-a-brac. There is a shop that sells Black Forest cuckoo clocks, a shop that sells Irish linens, a shop that sells Turkish whatnots – you get the picture. Lots of shops selling foreign stuff for tourists. Not exactly what we had in mind.

We walk the length of it and return to an attractive coffee bar. It takes a long time to place our order, and a while for it to arrive, but we are sitting outdoors, the weather is beautiful, and the coffee, when it comes, is delicious. We both order “flat whites.” This is maybe a cappuccino, or maybe a foamless latte, but whatever it is, its about three hundred percent better than any coffee we have had in Australia. We realize that Mont Ville is not a complete bust after all.

While we wait for coffee two Kookaburra birds come and perch in the trees directly over our heads. We are delighted to see them, but they are disappointed that we have not ordered anything they can share. They compensate by stealing some food that children at the neighboring table have dropped.

After Mont Ville we go to a very nice restaurant with stunning views. We are seated at long tables, and they serve two entrees (one fish and one lamb) and two desserts (one a key lime pie and the other ice cream with berries in a crystallized sugar basket). The entrees and desserts are delivered to the table in alternation. If the person on your left gets fish, then you get lamb. If the person on your right gets key lime pie, you get ice cream. We have not seen this before. Trading is allowed and encouraged, and it all works out nicely.

We then drive to a small rainforest. We have an hour, and decide to walk slowly for a short way, rather than hurrying to see the whole thing. One of our companions stops and points into the forest. A wallaby grazes. I whip out my camera and get a great shot of tree bark and a blur that might be the wallaby.

The rain forest is full of vines; they range in size from twine, to rope to hawsers. The vines wrap other trees forming odd patterns. Some of the trees are very large, and look to be made of many trees that have melted together. We learn these are strangler fig trees. The wrap themselves around, and strangle, a core tree. More wrap around and melt in. They look like they should be part of the set for the movie Alien.

The driver takes us home. Someone who lives at the hotel has agreed to allow us to share her high speed, wireless internet connection for $5 a day. We get the password and, with minor difficulty, get hooked up and check emails. All is well.

We go to bed about 7:30. It was a good day. Not what we expected, but a very good day.