Arrival

It is the final day of the journey, and I am as excited as a child waking on Christmas morning. It has been a long time in the planning, this holiday, and now I am curious to see if the " Rainforest Retreat " lives up to its Airbnb profile.

I am not anticipating a letdown, but I have recently completed reviews for all the accommodation I have frequented on my travels. It seems that I am a hard woman to please, and my reviews rarely accord with the glowing ratings of others who have also stayed in the same premises. I still maintain dated but cleanish and functional is a six or seven not superb. That said, I did rate a couple of nines which were new and functional and stylish. I have decided to stop rating. I notice that the owners did not reply with thanks to my reviews as they did all the others, and this seems somehow against the laws of feedback. Despite trying to be both generous and objective giving my personal opinion on social media feels like a minefield. A rare user, I gain a quick insight into how debilitating social media must be for some people. I am not surprised that we have an anxiety epidemic.

I wend my way up the coast following the very serene estuary which rises to the east of the Blackhall ranges and flows into the ocean at Maroochydore. I am heading into the ranges and the forest becomes ever more present on the hills leading down to the water as I progress up the coast. It intensifies as I turn off on to the road leading to the rainforest retreat and soon the little red car is climbing a largish mountain with ever increasing stunning views glimpsed through the gaps in the very tall straight palms that are rapidly becoming a feature of the landscape. They epitomise Queensland and I can for the first time on this trip feel the excitement that this tropical landscape has always held for me.

I had a well spent youth in the far north of Queensland in the days when a very conservative premier, Joh Bieke Peterson ran the state (with no assistance from his regime, in case there is any confusion.) Whilst the conservative values of the place eventually led to my leaving, the warm climate, the complex vegetation and the cycle of rapid growth and decay which characterises the tropics sings a particular tune to my soul.

My soul is not let down by the Rainforest Retreat which awaits me after a winding ascent of the mountain. It is fantastic. Probably, all things considered a very solid nine.