Friday - An O'Reilly Sad Day.

Up again in time for the bird walk. Today this was led by Michael O'Reilly, a second generation member of the family, who was much more focused on the birds and trees than gobby Glen. Rosena doesn't think that he makes toast as well though. No new species this morning but Michael did identify some of the birds that we saw and photographed yesterday afternoon. After another hearty breakfast we packed up our belongings before doing a bit more birdwatching to kill the time until smoko. On our way down from the mountain we stopped to do a quick 4.5km stroll to visit Moran's Falls which were pretty spectacular.


We were sad to be leaving the Green Mountains but hey - there's a lot more of Australia to do. We skirted the Gold Coast, which looks like Manhattan from a distance , but which apparently makes Blackpool look refined. Heading south on the Pacific Coast Motor way into New South Wales we were joined by most of the population of Brisbane as this is a Bank Holiday weekend in Queensland (for the second week running). On cue the sky turned an ominous grey colour. After an hour or so we reached the Byron Bay turn off - today's destination of choice for most of Brisbane. The traffic congestion in this small town was horrendous but we eventually got to our lodgings for the night. A very pleasant spot with a palm tree full of lorikeets outside the front door.

After unloading the car we headed back into the town centre to explore. It was pretty ghastly if you are over 25. Both of us felt somewhat out of time. Rosena absolutely rejects the idea of wearing cowboy boots with her rah-rah skirt which makes her very much the odd girl out here. Australia is a land of evolutionary oddities and there have been some remarkable survival stories such as the amazing tale of Woolworths who have evolved into a supermarket rather than becoming extinct like back home.


The Dolphins Motel is the billet of Rosena's dreams as they not only supply an electric wok for tonight's banana prawn stir-fry, but also have galahs on the lawn and a small but perfectly formed lizard in the en-suite. The management apologised for the lack of frogs - it's a problem which is toadaly out of their control.