Burleigh holiday

We decided to head south this morning for our morning walk - along our street a little way to the start of the Burleigh Head National Park walking tracks. The park covers a bit over 27 hectares and is the only rocky headland left on the Gold Coast that remains substantially in its natural state - which helps explain why there are so many native birds around the nearby trees lining Burleigh Beach.

We walked around 5klm today on the tracks through the park. Some of the tracks were quite steep, but always with the reward of fabulous views of the coastline.......

And healthy coastal Pandanus palm sightings (which I love) .......

Getting higher ..........

.... walking through this beautiful littoral rainforest environment - a dry form of rainforest which grows only by the sea......

At the highest point (Tungun Lookout) we had this wonderful view looking southward over the entrance to Tallebudgera Creek. Beyond that we could see all the iconic beaches stretching out to the NSW border: Palm Beach, Currumbin Beach, Tugan, Kirra Beach, Greenmount and Coolangatta way off in the far distance, on this perfectly clear day.

Eventually the track wound itself down closer to Echo Beach (on Tallebudgera Creek). This was the view to the bridge linking Burleigh to Tallebudgera.

We stood for a while on Echo Beach looking over at the creek and reminiscing about holidays spent here, playing and "swimming" in these waters as very young children - well over 60 years ago - yikes! We also fondly remember our year 12 experience of the Education Queensland operated Outdoor Education Centre, located just beyond that line of pines in the pic below. Those were the days!

We followed up our park walk with some wonderful time on the beach today - swimming in the pristine clean ocean off Burleigh Beach. It's been many years now since Rob and I have enjoyed an ocean swim together. Its always been too cold or too rough for our taste since we've got to this very picky stage of our lives - but today it was just PERFECT - and we stayed in for AGES - long enough to be a bit concerned about sun damage - despite our efforts with the SPF50 etc!

Later this afternoon, feeling very noble after our quite active day so far, we drove all the way up to Labrador - Southport, just for the fun of seeing all the beach resorts and high rise havens of Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise along the way.

Labrador and the northern part of Southport face a protected bay/harbour, formed by the Southport Spit. Its where a lot of fishing trawlers come into port so there are some great fresh seafood markets around here.

We ended off our day with some very good quality fish and chips (for Rob) and fresh oysters and prawns for me from one of the markets - which we enjoyed eating in Harley Park facing on to Wave Break Island (and South Stadbroke Island "Straddie" beyond). The seagulls were very envious of our simple but delicious meal.

I don't normally like pacific oysters as much as sydney Rock Oysters - but these were wonderful!

There is a lot to love about a holiday by the sea!