The
ferry from Heron Island took us back to Gladstone Saturday and after we picked
up the Jackaroo we headed for Marlborough to spend the night on the
way to Canungra.
Sunday
we drove to North Tamborine where we had reserved a room at Stonehaven Manor
Lodge. Stonehaven is a rather
interesting place to stay. It is built
to look like a country estate in Scotland with names for the rooms instead of numbers. Names such as Inverness, Balmoral,
and Edinborugh. Most of the décor came
from movie sets. Anyway, their mid-week
prices were low and they are on top of the mountain and close to restaurants
and the Mt. Tamborine launch.
Stonehaven's website
We
arrived too late to fly on Sunday so we settled in to the Stonehaven and had an
Indian dinner that was within walking distance from the lodge. Nice dinner but surprizing to me there were no Indian people immediately in sight. Funny to have your order for Indian food taken by a teenager with a strong Aussi accent.
Like
almost every site in Australia the sites at Canungra require paying a site fee
to fly there. $30 for two weeks as a
visiting pilot or $20 per day. It is
supposed to be payable on line using PayPal but it didn’t work for me and I
eventually just ended up sending the treasurer the cash in the mail. Canungra club website
Monday
I headed for Tamborine but when I got there the wind was over the back. After some discussion with Jerry, Simone and
Diego we headed for Beechmont. Tamborine is a west facing site that usually
works in the morning until the sea breeze takes over and then everyone heads
for Beechmont which is on another range and faces east. Athough as we found out lateer talking to Jerry quite often the sea breeze never makes it to Tamborine and it stays west all day.
At
Beechmont we arrived a little late in the day so we just had 22 minute sled rides
working what little lift we found on the way down to the bailout LZ. We all stopped for coffee after the flight at lodge Diego knew. We were treated to a beautiful sunset.
Tuesday
we met Simone at Tamborine. We started
early with sled rides down to the LZ
ending the day with a nice flight thermaling up 1000 meters above
launch before heading for the LZ. Three flights. Not a bad day. It was interesting to see the wind blowing smoke from the east coming from the coast but plenty of west wind on the west side of the mountain.
Wednesday
was pretty much a repeat but with clearer skys.
It’s pretty amazing to fly there.
When you climb up you see the high rise buildings at Surfer’s Paradise
and the ocean looking east and then when you look west you have the mountain ranges
and green valleys to the west. I decided
to use the wing mount on the best photo day so had some great video of things
below me but not the classic shot of Surfer’s paradise and the ocean. Guess that gives me a reason to go back.
You
meet some interesting people who are “living the dream” of flying when you
travel Australia. Simone is an
interesting example. He’s from Italy and
a hairdresser by profession. He takes
temporary jobs working up to16 hours a day Thursday through Sunday so he can
fly the other days. He lives in a shack
rent free and is saving money for skydiving lessons. Susan is a German pilot we met first in Bright
who has been showing up at a lot of the same sites as us. She is living in a van and doing odd jobs
while she travels around Australia. I could go on listing people we have met like them. They
are here on 1 year visas and make our 4 month trip seem way to short.
There are lots of good restaurants in North Tamborine. We ate at an Irish pub one nite and had great pizza at Belevdere's on Main two other nights. Simon recommended it since he worked there and knew the owner. They cook thier pizzas with a wood oven and have great itallian dishes as well.
Anyway,
Thursday we headed for Manilla. Simone
had to work and the Canungra club requires a local be present when visitors are flying
there. There was no guarantee we would
have anyone to fly with and Manilla weather looked good. Canungra sites are sensitive due to landowner issues
around the landing zone. Too many pilots
landing short or on the roads near the LZ.
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