Ay Canungra!

Canungra has to be one of the most picturesque towns we have visited so far, it reminds me a lot of Olinda, at the Dandenongs back in Victoria. A small town in the bottom of a valley, amongst lush green hills and National Parks it has become one of my favourite spots so far. Canungra is only 30 kms from the Gold Coast, which made it perfect for my locum, only 30 minutes drive to Ashmore which is where I worked for three weeks.

Our home in Canungra for the first two weeks was at the Showgrounds, and two weeks only as it’s this Showgrounds' policy. Even coming in the Showgrounds every time we went out was an exciting exercise as you had to drive through a water logged road which the kids absolutely loved, they would stick their heads out of the window and Carlos would drive fast enough to get them wet.

The Showgrounds were perfect for us, slightly dear than other Showgrounds we have stayed at, this Showgrounds had two levels, the bottom level by a creek, secluded and surrounded by trees, top level around the oval, it allowed fires, dogs, had clean amenities, electricity and water.

Our morning routines when I didn’t work involved walking to town, getting an Anzac cookie at one of the cafe’s and walking back… on hindsight, this may explain why we did not loose much weight even though we were walking. On our first weekend there, our long time friends Tadhg and Hiroko came for a visit. We met this couple12 years ago during prenatal classes at Monash Hospital and we have been friends since, their son Ryo and Noah were born a few weeks apart, we have kept in touch and are very special friends to us.

During their visit we drove to Lamington National Park, unfortunately not known for "Lamingtons" but for the green mountains. Although we ended up in the mountains by mistake, originally thinking we were going to an alpaca farm, the road to get there was really something, quite an adventure in fact, as I was driving, firstly most of the time the road could only fit one car at a time, second, many blind curves and its one of the most windiest road I have ever driven. Apparently there were some mudslides and it has been under repair ever since, it reminded me of an episode of “Top Gear” in Bolivia, the Yungas Road/Death Road, where the treacherous road faces a cliff and blind curves and mud slides makes it one of the most deadliest roads in the world, that was me, in my own version, up the mountain, sweating every time I had to go through a curve, the road of no return…I may be exaggerating a little but it was challenging, needless to say, we saw no alpacas.... and I lived to tell the tale!

The second national park we visited was Mt Tambourine, once again, another cute little town full of character, there were castles and cottages that you would only see in fairytales stories, there was a German store that sold Cuckoo clocks, a Japanese shop, a Greek restaurant that sold souvlakis and many more just to name a few.

At the top of the mountain stunning water falls, one with different level rock pools, some you actually had access to and could swim. We weren’t prepared for swimming so we just sat down and tried to enjoy the scenery and live the moment.

Canungra not being too far from the coast meant we also did a couple of trips to Surfers Paradise, yes, just like every other tourist, I did also take my camera and took lots of photos.

Work in Ashmore was very different to my previous locum in Bathurst, a lot more relaxed and here at the Gold Coast, at least a third of my patients were less than "1 year old". Although trained to treat these fascinating little creatures, I tend to treat more adults in Melbourne, so I thoroughly enjoyed treating them, plus there are just soooo cute! I learnt a lot from working at the Gold Coast, made friends for life and Deb and Melinda (receptionist and naturopath) made me feel very welcome and comfortable. I will miss them!

Our time at the Showgrounds was coming to an end so I started doing some research of where we could go next, not as easy as it sounds as there are no free camps near the Gold Coast and caravan parks were either too expensive or did not accept dogs. With that in my mind we prepared for the "Anzac Day" dawn service on Wednesday 25th, however, should have known better, we slept in but we made it to the 9:30 am service.

The kids wore the scouts uniform and represented Mulgrave and Monash district proudly, at the end we spotted other scouts and went to say hi, Barney and Leigh greeted and welcomed us, a few minutes later they invited us to stay at the scouts den in Canungra: 8 acres by a creek, access to toilets and showers. We could not believe it, the generosity was overwhelming, our prayers answered.

The scouts den, “Gum flat’ was not too far from Canungra town, perfect as our yappy dogs could bark as much as they wanted and walk anywhere they wanted to, kids had so much space and the serenity of the place, surrounded by the beauty of nature was just stunning. One minor concern was the spotting of brown snakes, three in10 years, 3 times to many if you ask me! ... and not a concern really was that the den backed onto a military training base, in fact, this made me feel somewhat safer. We did not really mind drones flying over us at night or the occasional sound of machine gun fire.

Our last week at Canungra we had the best time ever, mornings we went for our usual walks, but this time, amazing views of the bush and creek, I could practice the Ukulele as loud as I wanted to, kids had lots of fun running around and using the swing and we had the best camp fire and marshmallow.

Sunday that week we helped out at the Scouts working bee and Tuesday the kids took part in the Scouts parade meeting. We were so grateful to Canungra scouts, their hospitality and support for other scouts was exceptional, once again, a great feeling of belonging within the Scouts family.

Our time in Canungra will be memorable, the 30 minute drive to work was truly enjoyable through the scenic route, beautiful valleys and mountains. Back at our caravan, in the secluded den, surrounded by nature, stars and that’s it.