diff --git a/cogl/cogl-journal.c b/cogl/cogl-journal.c
index de2315cf3..e6c0c4d2e 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl-journal.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl-journal.c
@@ -1292,14 +1292,16 @@ _cogl_journal_flush (CoglJournal *journal,
   if (journal->entries->len == 0)
     return;
 
-  COGL_TIMER_START (_cogl_uprof_context, flush_timer);
-
   /* The entries in this journal may depend on images in other
    * framebuffers which may require that we flush the journals
    * associated with those framebuffers before we can flush
    * this journal... */
   _cogl_framebuffer_flush_dependency_journals (framebuffer);
 
+  /* Note: we start the timer after flushing dependency journals so
+   * that the timer isn't started recursively. */
+  COGL_TIMER_START (_cogl_uprof_context, flush_timer);
+
   cogl_push_framebuffer (framebuffer);
 
   if (G_UNLIKELY (cogl_debug_flags & COGL_DEBUG_BATCHING))