Nina's Topic

My question... where is your favourite place to be in the world (your happy place), and why?

Whenever I think of Happy Place I always think of Happy Gilmore which sadly is a movie that I love even though it is Adam Sandler and very very B grade. But I digress. In previous posts I've detailed the fact that I have moved around a lot, therefore I've not had really that one place that I could always escape to. There have been some constants that always make me feel at peace though. So the physical places...

1. Suttons Beach at Redcliffe. This is a little family beach that opens onto yellow/orange granular coral sand and green seaweed where the air is saltier than just about any other beach I've ever visited. There is often a discernible odour of dank seaweed and there are almost always gelatinous jellyfish washed up on the sand. There is almost no surf being as the beach is protected by the islands and to get down to the sand in the first place you have to climb down steep concrete steps. But in spite, or rather because of all this, it is one of my favourite places in the world. We had barbeques and picnics here under the ancient pine trees, I walked this beach with Nana and found unspoiled shells and rock or glass rolled smooth by the surf. Shiny opalescent mussel shells with their smelly beards. I made sandcastles in the coarse sand and decorated them with the seaweed.

It is also the place where I go to be close to my grandparents. Their ashes were scattered off Woody Point and I love taking the girls to run on this beach so that they can be close to their Great Grandparents who would have loved them so much.

2. Lamington National Park
This is one of my favourite places in the world to be. The drive up through the winding moutains is incredible, sheer drops off the side of the mountain into temperate forest and then subtropical rainforest. In parts the road actually winds a single car width through the forest as it treks and crosses back in places so steep and so precarious that your heart will be in your throat as you drive it. Especially if it is a misty afternoon. We always go via Tambourine, where the tourist strip is abundant in artsy stores, coffee shops, markets and stores that sell fudge. It is impossible to come home from one of these trips without a crisp packet of fudge in weird and wonderful flavours.

But nothing compares to actually getting out of the car into that sweet, gentle, brisk and damp mountain air. To feel the breeze whip your hair while inhaling the delicious tang of balsam. To rug up the girls and wander into the forest. To listen to the trees and to feel my heart sing that I am *home*. To watch the bustling Japanese tourists excitedly taking photos of scrub turkeys, and the bored Australian tourists with their smokes dangling from their hands who neither see nor feel the actual forest.

I hear music in the forest, I hear voices and I believe that fairies and elves are not fantastical constructs. I know the Elfling feels it too because both of us look different in the forest - something makes our eyes sparklier and our ears just that little bit more pointed. At O'Reillys plateau there are two things that thrill my soul - the first is the treetop walk that allows you to walk about mid canopy through the forest. About halfway along this walk is a tree with a steel ladder that ascends up to about 110 feet off the ground. Often there is a crowd gathered around the base of this ladder, but many are too spooked to climb, especially when the wind is blowing and the tree is swaying. But last time we went, the Elfling at all of 3 and a half climbed up the ladder with her Daddy so that they could look out into the vast crater formed by the McPherson ranges and feel her spirit come alive as well.

The second thing that buoys me is at the edge of the plateau looking out on sheer drops into the canyon is a botannical garden full of beautiful exotic plants that flower and bloom amongst winding stone tracks. Here in the middle of the forest a secret windy garden clinging to the edge on the mountain. When I am there I cannot but dream and thrill to my soul.

I only discovered these particular national parks while living with my husband, but my home is amongst trees, and my spirit dances whenever I am there. I cannot describe in words how light I feel, or how my heart lurches when I smell the sweetness or the breeze begins to tease tendrils of hair at my neck. How golden my eyes shine and how unearthly I feel.

Next post I'll talk about the happy place that is within me, and can't be reached by plane, train or autmobile...