They get up early in the Gold Coast as that’s when it’s coolest. And the birds wake up and cause a commotion from about 5am. Evidently Lee and Mark are often up at 5am, off to walk the dogs and then have coffee or breakfast at a cafe and then to work. That seems to be the norm also and the number of cars at the car parks fits the timing.

We set off with dogs for Palm Beach at about 6.45, secured a car park and then headed for the beach and estuary.

It’s a dog beach so loads of people with dogs all off leads and behaving very well. All off leads except Barney as he is not reliable (despite intensive training efforts) and will take off to mooch with other people at the first opportunity.

It was a lovely morning. Lee and I both went into the water in the estuary, as did both dogs.

After the walk we had brunch at home and then had a lunch booking at a beachfront restaurant (which seemed like 5 minutes later!

It was a lovely venue and we thoroughly enjoyed our mainly seafood meals.

After lunch we did a drive through the hills stopping at a roadside stall for chocolate covered frozen bananas (yum) and then we went to this national park where they have a rock formation and waterfall call the Natural Bridge.

It was a lovely walk. It was raining quite heavily when we arrived so I whipped off my dress and opted to walk in the black petticoat I had on underneath. A bit random but it worked fine and meant I wasn’t managing a flowing dress while negotiating a forest path. The rain eased off by the time we got back. Mostly we were in quite dense bush so there was a lot of protection.

It was lovely and the waterfall and views were definitely worth the walk.

We just had a bits of this and bits of that dinner which was more than enough. We were surprisingly tired and well ready for bed by 8.30pm.