Our thermometer had read -27°C on the morning of Feb. 7, the day we left Clearwater, but it was + 27° when my husband John and I arrived at Queensland’s Gold Coast three long flights later.
Overall, we were incredibly lucky with the weather, for February in those tropical and sub-tropical areas can be hot, humid and wet. When we were in Northern Queensland, the Gold Coast had much higher temperatures, but we were then comfortable on temperate, green Atherton Tableland. It drizzled occasionally, but heavy rains came only at night, clouds keeping it pleasant during the day.
Those same clouds hid the constellation, Southern Cross, so we settled for seeing it on flapping Australian flags, several visible from our comfortable apartment.
In direct sun, the heat was almost unbearable, making John wish for home – sort of. Actually, we tried hard not to miss the snow and ice too much! John definitely was not longing to be navigating the snow blower.
For most of those three weeks we lived in a noisy, bustling, booming tourist-overrun city – so different from the quiet of Dutch Lake.
Beyond our balcony was its salty equivalent which kept us watching for varied occupants. Actually a bay near the mouth of the turbulent, green Tweed River, the water level rose and fell with the changing tide, reducing its size as more sand appeared.
Not a water lily was in sight. Instead of the mountains and evergreen-covered hills reflected in Dutch Lake, a towering building on one side and smaller buildings elsewhere cast light and shadows into it.
Like our own “jewel”, a trail wound along half of it, though this one was paved and much used by cyclists as well as pedestrians. Green parklands with Norfolk Pine stretched along the other side of the walkway where small lizards often sat sunning themselves. We’d left fishermen, wearing multi layers, dropping their hooks through the ice; now we saw scantily clad fisher-folk trying their luck at all hours of the day and night.
Small seagulls kept everyone company, especially picnickers and us, as we munched our fish and chips in the warm evenings near the shore. Ibis were everywhere, scavenging, wandering around the rim of the fountain, coming and going in droves; magpies were black and white, but that was really the only way to recognize them. We saw herons elsewhere, but not here; nor was there a loon in sight! But dolphins do come into that small area; one was seen the day we left.
At the crack of dawn, two or three distance swimmers were usually making their way around the markers or along the shore. While I never joined them, I swam almost daily in the lap pool below our balcony, no buddy needed to make sure I was capable of swimming the distance.
No need to drive or cycle there either: just take the elevator (lift) down nine flights, walk past the barbecue area, mini-golf course, open the child-proof latch and there I was. With my knee recovering from surgery in January, this was the perfect medicine to strengthen it.
Eventually, I walked, usually with someone, over to the beach. Here, we got soaking wet by sauntering along the edge of the splashing waves of the Pacific Ocean, feeling the sand being washed away from beneath our feet by the receding water. Like the rain, the water was warm. No, it really wasn’t very hard to take….
