Gold Coast Day 2

With time on my hands and no plans, I had searched the Australian Groupon to get ideas and this is what came up.

Gumnuts Half Day Farm Stay

http://www.gumnutsfarm.com.au/

Gumnuts Farm Resort
400 Biddaddaba Creek Road,
Canungra, Queensland
AUSTRALIA 4275
Tel: +61 7 5543 0191 Fax: +61 7 5543 0668

Staying at Surfers Paradise meant I had to make a 45min journey to reach the farm. It was a great drive and my trusty iPhone5 did a great job directing me to my destination. The route is pretty straightforward and there are great views too! The only drawback was the gravel dirt track for the last 15min of my journey. My 1.3L Mazda clearly wasn't cut out for the road and I was crawling at a snail-ish 15km/h.

Tip for drivers: Do get a car charger. The iMaps app sucks up quite a bit of battery. Sometimes, reception in these rural areas is 'iffy' so the 4G may let you down. Best to get some general directions before venturing off. 

Gumnuts is a huge place with a vast expanse of land. They have about 30 horses, several goats, some cows and a cute free-loading wild possum who stays in the roof of their shack. He comes out for food and eats from our hands. Apparently, he is partial to their Australian breads. After he has his fair share, he will retire to his corner on the beam of the roof and wait for dinner time.

When I reached, I was brought to visit the goats and cows first. Theses goats have a knack for escaping so they chain up some of them to prevent them sneaking through the holes in the fences. They were like dogs and looked rather happy.

Feeding time! When you step in with a bowl, suddenly you're one popular guy. The goats throng around you in anticipation of tasty morsels. That said, they are one choosy herd. They were picky about which part of the cabbage they got to eat and they specially liked fruits! 

I like the speckled one who behaves like a dog. Maybe being pregnant makes her a little twitchy. I found out from the farm hand that a goat can be bought for AUD40. 

This is Daisy the cow who has a head-butting habit. Her horns are shaved down because she doesn't like the workers on the farm and likes to rib them from behind. She has really pretty eyes and lives on the farm with her son. I tried to milk her with some success. So the technique is to really squeeze the teats from the top to the tip, applying moderate pressure starting with your index finger. I felt slightly weird having to handle her udders. It was warm and the teats were coarse and dark, but aha! some milk did come out after a few attempts.

This is her son who wasn't very friendly. He was in the enclosure with another two cows. One of them had a calf who died and since then, she hasn't been able to produce milk. Many people see cows as just meat; but when we hear stories like this, we see that they have personalities, thoughts and emotions too. And death and sadness affects them adversely just like humans. Maybe it's time to really cut out steak from my diet. It's really hard to eat that piece of meat and interact with them. Makes me feel like a bit of a hypocrite. 

Part of the package includes traditional whip cracking and boomerang sessions. I definitely have little talent in these departments. Whip cracking involves quite a bit of triceps strength I discovered. Speed is needed to land the leather whip hard upon the grass before a satisfying crack can be heard.  When done properly, the crack resounds and echoes throughout the area. It is used to call the horses back to their stables in the evening. After having to dodge my own boomerang and whipping my own back and arms several times, I decided to call it a day.

Now we get to my favorite part - HORSE RIDING! 

As you can see, I have specially brought a light long-sleeved top for the ride. The sun was really a killer and even though I had almost doused myself in sunblock, I still got a tan. Do bring along protective gear against the Aussie sun! As we had Japanese tourists in the group, we were accompanied by former Japanese workers of the farm who would visit to ride the horses. 

Much of the boring reluctant ride was up the hills into a sparse forest. The horses didn't seem to enjoy it and mine kept stalling. Much nudging and kicking was needed to coerce him to move on. Only at the end of the ride were we brought into an open field to do a bit of trotting. In total it lasted about an hour, but for AUD39 for the whole day, it really is a steal! Thank you Groupon! heh heh!

Incidentally, my horse has a quaint habit of wearing shoes. We're talking about shoes that covers his hooves. I was told that without those, he refuses to move! 

The whole trip was really worth it. If you are like me and enjoy nature and animals, do take time out of your Gold Coast trip to visit a farm. I had such fun on this trip and am totally falling in love with Gold Coast. Where else do you get the sea, the sun, the mountains, the animals and yet retreat to the safety of a city at night? 

Gold Coast Day 1

It's been some time since I last blogged, so to get the rusty old engine cranking again, I decided to do a short piece on my short but enjoyable trip Down Under. The first day was a bummer because I arrived in the morning sans my traveling companion (but we shall not go into that). 

So left alone to my devices, I went on a Curtis Falls Creek Glow Worm tour. It wasn't cheap, but the experience was totally worth the price and the trek into the woods. The driver cum tour guide comes to pick us up  about 6pm and takes us up the Tambourine Mountains. We stop for a short session of light pastries and drinks at a quaint little rustic cafe along the way and for views of the city skyline before ascending higher to the tracks. It was rather chilly at night, so if you are thinking of a forest tour at night, do bring some warm clothes, especially after a rain. 

What I really loved about going up to the mountain were the stars! Being a city dweller means I don't get to see stars that really look like diamonds in the sky. The 3 other Singaporean ladies and I were like 'mountain tortoises' (very apt for this location) as we gaped into the sky and marveled at how sparkly and glittery they were.

The guide was a bag of laughs and very educational at the same time. Along the way, he pointed out some creatures of the night, mainly insects as well as provided first hand insight into why some trunks (as pictured) are hollowed out.

The following picture shows the entrance to the den of the Trap Door Spider. We peeked in, and true enough, a shy but ferocious spider burrows deeper into the tunnel. They can be quite lethal, so we were happy to just take a peek.

One tip for the adventurous: I would recommend bringing some salt along if you are brave enough to do the trekking without a guide. Due to the recent rainfall, leeches were a problem and we were careful to avoid the grass. One Kiwi lady did lose some blood to a small leech. What the salt does as you sprinkle it on the leech, is to cause it to drop off magically! Spot the leech below. Hint: it has a stripe of yellow along its body.

Anyhow, about 20 minutes into the trek, when we reached the end of the route where there was a waterfall and a creek, our guide instructed us to switch off all the small torches we were given and let our eyes adjust to the darkness. After about 3 mins, we were all awe-struck. Into the darkness where were all stared, were greenish specks that were at first very faint, which then grew increasing brighter. It was like a wall of stars and the feeling was really surreal. The glow worms gave off a pulsating gentle light that felt almost dreamlike. It is incomparable to anything I had experienced before. In my ignorance, I decided to take a few pictures so that I can share the magic with my friends. This was supposed to be the spot with the densest colony of glow worms. So, here goes.....nothing.

I pointed my camera and snapped away. Nothing. I used the video camera. Also nothing. 

Unfortunately, there is nothing I can use that can capture that moment and take it home with me. Later I found out that camera flashes were detrimental to the worms. It causes a decline in their population. So, if you wish to experience these rare insects, just enjoy the moment. The other alternative is to go for the man-made cave where glow worms are bred, which i shall blog about subsequently.

The trek up was a lot faster and I found myself lagging behind at the back of the queue. It was a scary experience walking alone in the dark. So, do not attempt this trail alone! The forest is a strange place at night.

Stay tuned for day 2!