May 2013
Having worked for ourselves for a few years one of the things we tell all our clients is that every now and a again you need to make sure you take some time out to sharpen the saw. Unfortunately being great at dispensing advice doesn’t necessarily mean we are all that great at following our own, and so it came to pass that we were long overdue for a holiday when Tiff was finally able to organise a week away for us in a two bedroom unit on the Tallebudgera inlet. It was a magic week of early morning yoga sessions, body weight workouts, long bike rides with the kids and lazy paddle boarding sessions up and down the inlet taking in the sights, soaking up the rays and enjoying the serenity. The kids spent a fair amount of their time playing on the beach and exploring the rocky out crops around it. It was great for the kids as they would get up just before Tiff and I, have some breakfast and then I would get up, help them get their bikes out of the garage and send them on their way, Tiff and I could do a yoga session and either a body weight workout or head off on a walk down and along the coastline before breakfast.
One of our adventures that is well worth a mention was the walk from Tallebudgera into Burleigh heads and then on to Mermaid. We decided to walk through the national park that stretches the short distance between Tallebudgera and Burleigh heads and over looks some spectacular coastline allowing you to see all the way down to Tugan and beyond. The park is criss crossed with a number of paths that take you around the hill and up to the Tugan lookout at the top. The walk was fairly easy and a bit of fun for the kids who started the morning full of beans, bouncing up and down the various paths. We met a few hard-core joggers who were doing laps around the paths over the mountain; these guys passed us a number of times as we meandered around. We stopped for a while at the lookout and watched some of the surfers having fun on the waves down below.
Once we reached Burleigh we decided to take a closer look at some of the little shops, restaurants and Cafes that are hidden away in the labyrinth of buildings across from the main beach and car park. One particular little nugget was a small deli by the name of Jolosie, this place had a spectacular selection of preserved fruits, vegetables and some baked goods on a large table in the middle of the shop as well as rows and rows of jarred spices and sauces in nifty little shelves that covered the walls. Behind the deli case loaded with preserved meats and cheeses they also had a slow cooker going with a soup of the day, on this particular day it was minestrone soup and at $2.95 a cup we got one each to keep us warm and give us a bit of energy with which to continue our exploration. One thing I will mention is that tucked between trendy little cafes, surf shops and book exchanges we passed a number of bars and restaurants that were all packed up sleeping away the day and waiting to spring into life in the late afternoon or early evening, evidence of another side to Burleigh that could be experienced once the last wave of the day has been ridden and the sun slides over the horizon giving over to the electric atmosphere of the night.
Once we were done with exploring, we decided not to head back and instead opted to keep going and have a look at the awesome power of the ocean where at Mermaid it is currently threatening to wash away a few sand dune dwellings. The decision to continue may have been a little optimistic but continue on our way we did. We walked along the beach all the way to the hill that separates Miami from Nobbys, we decided to climb the hill and go down the stairs on the other side, unfortunately this wasn’t to be as the stairs had been washed away at the base and were fenced off at the top to prevent people like us from trying anyway, so we were forced to back track and seek an alternative way around. All of this extra walking was finally starting to take its toll on the kids as although they are awesome, we had seriously underestimated the distances involved it also didn’t help that the kids had been running ahead to play on all the pieces of equipment that are laid out between Burleigh and Mermaid of which there are many.
Between threats, bribes and having to carry poor Byron for part of the journey we eventually managed to make it to Mermaid where we found that yes indeed the ocean is in the process of consuming peoples’ back yards and getting dangerously close to a few of the more full hardy houses that were perched as close to the ocean as they possible could be. It was interesting to see that where older beach shacks remain they were set right back on their blocks and usually had larger trees and obstacles between themselves and the mighty ocean, I was reminded of some of the raised houses that we saw when we were helping with the flood clean up and couldn’t help but feel that history was attempting to send a message.
Once we were done surveying the oceans ability to remodel the coastline at will, we made our way down to Bar Chino at Nobbys so that the kids could refuel with a couple of milk shakes and Tiff could grab a well deserved coffee. Once we were done with our refueling the kids decided they were good to walk back and we wouldn’t need to catch the bus after all.
This was a great walk and I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for a day’s entertainment, we did the track again on one of the other days however this time we took the pushbikes. The bikes made the journey a lot easier and there were plenty of places to lock them up along the way so that we could strike out and do some more exploring. I can’t wait to get back down there and have a look at some of the bars and restaurants that would come alive in the evening. It would probably be best to do this in the spring or summer months when you would get the warm and balmy evenings, I can almost taste kicking back with an ale, some great company, watching the doings that were happening and soaking up the atmosphere, throw in a bike ride and a surf before hand and you would have one spectacular day.
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