Sunny Garden

Being a lover of the driving holiday, we decided to bypass the plane in favour of the car. The drive from Canberra to Queensland is quite long and, being Australians on a road trip, we had to keep the mandatory road-kill tally. For most of the drive the level of carnage was almost non-existent. Then, just when we'd given up hope, we saw it. A beacon of light for the road-kill tally, it was road kill like no other, it defied existing categorisation - it was a road-kill cow.

Moo.

There was something tragic and yet highly amusing about a road-kill cow. In an effort to depict some semblance of good taste, we didn't stop and take a photo. We did, however, engage in many impressions of tortured cows for the remainder of the drive.

Road kill aside, we also had the excitement of seeing many famous Australian icons along the way, such as the big oyster, the big prawn, the big banana and the small Uluru...

In a nation dominated by big things, the small Uluru was quite a surprise. When it suddenly materialised on the road just outside of Karuah, New South Wales, we were rendered speechless. We had to stop.

It was actually a roadhouse - The Ayers Rock Roadhouse to be precise - and, in its heyday, was probably quite a tourist attraction. Or at least was intended as a tourist attraction. At ten-thirty that Saturday morning, the enormous carpark held one other car. The roadhouse had once been home to many shops, most of which were now closed or empty. Still, I'm glad we stopped. It's not every day you get to walk through a scaled-down model of a giant rock.

The rest of the drive passed without incident and all too soon we crossed the border into Queensland. It was here I discovered a sight even stranger than the Ayers Rock Roadhouse - it was called the Gold Coast. Sure, I'd seen pictures of the Gold Coast before, but nothing could quite prepare me for the experience. Thankfully, we spent most of our time on the Gold Coast in the isolated existence of the theme parks. Once the theme parks were exhausted, it was with some relief that we hit the road to Brisbane.

Disclaimer:
Sunny Garden is designed, written and maintained by Liz Perkins, in cooperation with Nick Earls and Penguin Books. Any questions about Sunny Garden should be directed to Liz

All original contents are © Liz Perkins.