A night away; Part 2

Following on from yesterday's post...
After watching the paragliders and getting up close to a sweet little wallaby joey, DH and I continued on our way home...the long way! lol
I had recently mentioned to DH that I had never been to Binna Burra but so many of my friends spend time there to relax and unwind, and I wondered what it was like. So DH drove us there for a bit of a look around...

1. Binna Burra is a parcel of private land and mountain lodge surrounded by Lamington National Park in Queensland, Australia. The lodge lies in the north-eastern corner of the Lamington Plateau in the McPherson Range, 75 km south of Brisbane. Wikipedia

And it is just as my friends described it...quiet, beautiful bush land. There are lots of images of the area here. 

We didn't go on any of the Binna Burra lodge walks...instead, we strolled to the Lamington Tea House. 

Beside the door was a noticeboard...

One particular notice caught my eye...

Luckily the notice did not  refer to either myself or DH! 

The view from our table in the tea room...

After a lovely Devonshire Tea, DH and I once more took to the road. DH wanted to find a particular place in the general area that we had visited  once before. It wasn't long before we saw the sign...Lahey's Canungra Tramway Tunnel. 

 

DH parked the car...

Since our last visit, the tunnel has been closed. Apparently due to all the rainfall in early 2011, the entrance had become unstable. Luckily the track from the carpark is still open. 

But you can still look down the length of this historic structure...

This was a private railway which used the 3'6" gauge; the line provided transport of logs to the Lahey's timber mill  

Some of the information signs...

The disused tunnel played a new role during WW2 

Back on the road again after this stop, we made our way to the M1 and continued on to home. It had been fun exploring the smaller roads. 

A night away...

After writing 2 posts about our holiday in March april May this year, I'm now going to share our adventures a little closer to home; on a little 'overnighter' to the Gold Coast. For a number of years, DH and I have celebrated our anniversary at Jupiters at Broadbeach. We would take the Show, Room and Breakfast package, but this year there was no show in late June. But we get those emails of promotional offers (don't we all? lol) and so it was that there was an offer of Show etc that had to be taken before October 3. So off we went :-)
On arrival we checked in and were offered an upgrade...then we were told that this upgraded room was on the 20th floor which is a 'smoking floor'...so we stayed with the room on the 14th! lol . The room was lovely, with views east and south.

Looking towards Pacific Fair, a rather large shopping centre

In the years that we have been staying at Jupiters, the number of tall buildings on the 'beach side' has increased...

 Looking south ...

In the morning, while looking out the window, I noticed some Hi-Viz clad workers...

Window cleaning day...

I don't think I would like to do this maintenance man's job!

 No sir!

After a late breakfast DH and I headed for home...but not by the freeway. We travelled via some of the coast's hinterland.
Quiet, bush lined roads...

 A stop at Beechmont...

 Then back on the road...
We passed 'one of a kind' homes...

This one had sculptures in the front yard...

 Lovely country road...

 A very modern large home on acreage...

 How's this for a front yard?

 The lovely views beyond...

 Rolling hills...

As we neared Canungra we saw quite a few cars parked by the side of the road...

So we stopped too :-)
I'm so glad we did!
The locality was Rosins Lookout with views south to Mt Warning, nestled amongst the border ranges.

And this steeply sloping site was where the Canungra Paragliding club 'did their stuff'

My camera followed the progress of one of the club members...

 'Yellow' joins the others...

While we were watching the paragliders, DH pointed to some people sitting on the ground near us...

 Yes a little wallaby nibbling away on the grass!

He hopped towards us...

 It would have been churlish of us not to give him (?) a pat...

Then one of the men from the group sitting on the ground, came and scooped our new little friend up and took him(?) back to sit with them again...they were wildlife carers so this little fellow (?) was possibly orphaned.
What a stroke of luck that we stopped when we did :-)