Before mom’s first weekend in Australia was over, she had already ticked off so many animals on her list. The biggest one, and definitely the most anticipated, didn’t come until Sunday afternoon when we went for a walk in beautiful Burleigh Heads National Park.
Continue readingToday we visited two parks in hopes of seeing Koalas (or just beautiful nature, but second to fluffy Koalas). I walked so slowly, always looking up, never mind those snakes (there were none), but not seeing a single one. Another day.
Tallebudgera Creek Conservation Park (Mangrove Trail)
The Mangrove Trail starts just at David Fleay Wildlife Park in Burleigh Heads and, as the name states, goes through mangrove swamps. At least a little bit. Then the path was up on the side of the hill, among tall trees and countless birds everywhere. It was magical! I’m so glad there are parts here which are untouched and unexploited. It felt like walking through the rainforest. No koalas, even though there were several warning signs of them being present.
Before reaching Burleigh Heads National Park, we had to cross through a neighborhood, and honestly, living centrally is amazing, but I could see myself living on Ocean Parade or Vantage Point Drive one day.
Burleigh Heads National Park (Ocean View Lookout Track)
There are three tracks in Burleigh Heads National Park and we have walked two of them now, the Ocean View and the Ocean View Lookout. The Lookout Track today, I feel like the name is a bit deceiving. We saw the ocean only at the Burleigh Hill Lookout spot because the forest was so dense. The trees were massive and some trunks were so big and weirdly shaped. No koalas here either. I’ve heard you can see them in this national park, but maybe our third time, on the Rainforest Track.
Before we even came to the park, we saw a sleeping frogmouth owl on a sign. It slept with its head up. I think this was the first one we saw, unless the big owl we saw one evening on our first week here in a tree 2dm above our heads was one. It probably was a frogmouth as well.
WOW! We have had the most amazing day down in Burleigh Heads today. We were told that Burleigh Head National Park was incredible and it sure was. We followed the Ocean View Track in the national park. There were beautiful beaches in the beginning at Tallebudgera Creek, and it was almost a jungle feeling inside and along the small walking path and then we walked along the ocean with amazing views over the ocean and northern parts of Gold Coast. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The coolest thing we saw was a Kookaburra sitting on a branch overhanging the walkway. It was just sitting there while we took pictures and lots of people walked by. So cool! A group of people we met along the way just told us that there was a Kookaburra ahead of us. People are so friendly here and just tells you about these things to brighten other people’s days.
After the short “hike”, we sat by the ocean, watching the surfers down below and just soaked it all in until the sun set behind the buildings. We had sushi at Oi Izakaya, a small place in Burleigh that had amazing sushi!
Today, we have taken a ride on the local bus and it worked just as well as the tram. Practically locals, haha!
Bemm 