havecarryonwilltravel

After a week of staying put in the Gold Coast we hit the road headed south to Coffs Harbour. A couple of former Snow Valley employees moved here and since we are within driving distance a visit is in the offing.

When in tourist central and it is a travel day it is best to get up before the masses and get on the road. 9am we are on the highway. M1 is still quite crowded but our plan will take us inland on smaller highways. Hoping the lemmings will follow each other down the main highway, we expect much less traffic.

The road is small, really small. I’m thinking I might clip the mirror of the oncoming vehicles. It is still 100kph though. This road is taking us up into the mountains. Twisty, turny, no straight what so ever road. The scenery is fantasic. There are a few farm/ranches about but most of the area is forested and completely covered. As we guessed, it is Sunday and the traffic is very light. Never in a line up. As we are playing tourist and not in a hurry we find places to pull over and let those with somewhere to go pass.

Over the first range of mountains and we are on a sort of plateau. To us it is reminisent of the Alberta. All cleared with rolling hills like our foothills.k

As lunch time approaches we start to look for a cafe or the like so we can eat. Again I will say it is Sunday. I remember Sunday in New Zealand a few years ago and having to forgo lunch because Sunday is a day off. Well, seems as though Sunday in the hinterland of Aus is also a day off. We eventually find a small city big enough to have a few places open, Grafton. On the main street Debbie spots a few folks seated at tables outside an open establishment. We stop. I Scream is open and they serve not only ice cream but burgers. Lunch has been found. And damn the milkshake is good. If you happen to be in Grafton, New South Wales have a milkshake. It is well worth the time and expense.

Coffs Harbour is another small city but it is on the main highway and there are a few things open. It is not bustling but at least it is not sealed up. We had done some research on hotels here so we knew a couple of places to try. Drove by one of them without even seeing it but found another on our list without much trouble. Pretty standard motel but nice enough.

The owner has taken up a hobby of feeding the lorikeets twice a day and we are around when the 4 o’clock feeding takes place. The birds must have a clock in their stomach because they arrive about 5 minutes early and make a hell of a racket. We duck outside and the pool area is chaulk full of birds. Bright green birds with orange and red and yellow feathers. Not afraid of us at all and screaming like mad.

Then the food arrives and they go nuts. The nice fellow lets Debbie hold the pan with the bread soaked in maple syrup and the birds befriend her quickly. Sitting on her shoulder or head or wherever they can grab on.

This is Debbie smiling, not grimacing, cuz there’s a bird on her head!

We connect with T & S late in the afternoon and have a chat catching up on each others lives and our common ground. Like the happenings at Snow Valley, etc.

There is a happening place in Coffs Harbour, it is Hoey Moeys. Bar is packed and a live band is playing when we walk in at 6.30. Odd because most places on earth normally have bands that don’t start until 8 or later but here it seems they are packing it in at 7. The attached restaurant is also packed. Food is only OK and it is somewhat pricey but the portions are large and that would appeal to the younger crowd seeming to frequent the place.

A couple of random thoughts. Street lighting in Aus is terrible. For the most part it is dark. There are lights at intervals but between is blackness. Our back alley is lit better than all but the most main roads. It makes for less light pollution but it is quite hard to drive or walk as the light is intermittent.

And we made it all the way from Cairns to Coffs Harbour using paper maps. How 20th century. But as those that try to sail the Atlantic Ocean in a paper boat or walk the Camino de Santiago using the medieval pathway we were able to use ancient technology to traverse our way 2000 km down the coast of Queensland and only got off on a tangent a couple of times.

Our journey southward is complete and the last leg was somewhat different but very pleasent. Tomorrow we will explore Coffs with our friends and then double back to the north and Southport for one more night.

Today is our last full day with M&D. D has a lunch date with a friend, so M, Murray and I walk the beach. We walk to the north edge of Surfer’s Paradise on the pavement, and then turn around and stroll the sand back.

The beach goes for miles in both directions.  I look south and the tall buildings go on for miles too. It is an odd sight, these 50 story buildings fronting this magnificent beach. There should be grass huts and tiki bars.

The water is turbulent today. No body surfing, just frolicking in the rollers and foam balls. In some spots there are four sets of waves crashing in parallel towards the shore. It is close to high tide, so the water rushes up the sand and gets us wet.

Walking the beach is therapeutic. The sound of the waves, the movement of the water and the heat of the sand on my feet are calming. I could walk forever with the sight of the blue water on the right, the light brown sand in the middle and the greenery on the left. Blue skies and cooling water as we walk the beach.

Today we introduce D to Australia’s wildlife, in a zoo of course. We are off to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

We meet dingos,

wallabies,

fresh water crocodiles,

merino rams (can you please make me a sweater?),

red kangaroos,

and, my fav, koalas.

We also meet many other birds, mammals and reptiles indigenous to Australia. I think D’s fav is the koala too!

Main Beach. D is lolling in the sun reading. Murray, M and I are in the water. I was smarter today and am wearing my sleeveless scuba diving  “hoodie” made of neoprene to keep me warm. M is teaching me how to body surf.

Timing is everything! We try to catch the lip of the wave, just before it starts to break. Swim like he** for a few strokes and then extend arms and put hands together, like a surf board shape, and go for it!

I ride a few waves getting caught in the foam ball. Don’t get nearly as far as M does. Salt water up my nose every time.

The waves come in sets so we wait. Murray watches out to sea and warns us when they are coming.

M tells me about not getting caught at the very top of the wave as it will break and pummel a body surfer into the sand. Great. It is quite shallow, only about 2 feet of water in the trough between waves. Sure enough, I get caught on the wrong part of the wave and get nicely tossed around. Fortunately I do not hit the sand, just a huge nose full of water. Ouch, that burns!

M coaches me when to start swimming on the next wave and we both ride the wave for about 40 feet. WOW! That was amazing! I went as far as M did that time and could feel my body riding with the wave. Another nose full of water.

Main Beach

I think I have had enough water in my nose, so I frolic in the water as I make my way to shore. Even after all the salt water up my nose, I am eager to try body surfing again!

Once upon a time, a long time ago in a back room of the parliament buildings in Canberra, Australia, the marketing group for the Department of Tourism sat lementing the fact that tourism has become big buisness around the world and yet no one wanted to visit Australia. For many years they had tried to sell a big rock in the middle of nowhere calling it Ayres Rock. It had sparked a little interest but not what they felt was their market share of world wide tourism. The brain storming session went on for days. Someone off handly mentioned ‘too bad all we have is deadly snakes and spiders, Australia would be easy to sell if we had a cuddly little bear or something like that’. Everyone in the room got excited and the ideas flowed like water from the tap. An artist was called in and the Koala began to take shape. It took several renditions but the image they had been looking for was eventually produced. Adorable, fluffy, cute, cuddly.

The next step was to come up with a name. A contest was held. It was a closed contest as only the marketing crew knew anything about this. The prize was the first stuffed animal off the line. As you can guess Koala was the winner. The secretary won the stuffed animal and it sat in a place of honor in her livingroom until she passed on. It is now in a vault accessible only by a select few from the Department of Tourism. Even though the animal was not truly a bear the department head insisted bear be added to the name thus the Koala Bear is known around the world.

The ruse was only partially complete. There was much to do. First every zoo in Australia had to be outfitted with a couple of Koalas for display. The idea was to place them in y’s of the branches of gum trees with the explanation that they spend most of the time sleeping and only move very little at night when no one is allowed in the zoo. These stuffed animals would have small motors that allowed things like twitching ears and other minor movements. Over the years, as robotics progressed, this part of the marketing campaign has been very successful. There are now zoos where one can pet or even hold a Koala and they are very life like.

The next step was to indoctrinate every school kid in Australia, who by the way know Koalas don’t really exist, to point out Koalas in the wild to any tourist they run into. Of course the untrained eye would never be able to pick out a small ball of fluff sitting 30M above the ground in a gum tree so who is going to question it.

I discovered all this while walking on a forest trail at Binna Burra in the Lamington National Park about an hour west of Gold Coast. A beautiful park it is, with much forest that is viewed from very high up an Australian mountain.

The trail is groomed and easy to follow. In the literature its difficulty rating was 4 out of 5. I did not find it hard walking at all with a hard surface and actual stairs to traverse the changes in elevation. The scenery is great, well worth the time to get out of the city and commune with nature.

Which brings me back to Koalas. There are plenty of signs on the way to the national park indicating drivers should watch for Koalas as they may be crossing the road and no one wants a teddy bear as a hood ornament. So, upon arrivel at the national park one would expect it would be an excellent place to spot one of these visually elusive animals. The trail is not sidewalk smooth so I keep my head down when I am walking but every 100M or so I stop and look up into the gum trees to see if I can find a Koala. Not one. We walk 7 km which means I stopped about 70 times and looked up into the trees around and there are no Koalas. After that much searching and a little contemplation it was fairly easy to figure out all of us tourists have been hoodwinked. Personally I am OK with it, so far this trip has been quite enjoyable and even the pie in the sky idea of a Koala is a cuddly thought.

D has an appointment this morning so we hang out with M at the condo, which is just fine as it is raining. We research hotels in Brisbane, as we are spending two days there at the end of our trip, and book one.

Murray and I muse on how the type of traveling we are doing in Australia is quite different than traveling with a guide, like we did in Myanmar, Bhutan, Tanzania and Botswana. When traveling with a guide, gone is the stress of navigating and driving. Gone is the stress of finding a room for the night. Everything is taken care of – hotels, food, transport. All that is necessary is to look out the window at the wonderful sights going by. And a deep wallet!

A view of Surfer’s Paradise

D returns, we munch lunch and are off for a tour of “A Day in the Lives of D and M”. We first go to Griffith University and have a quick tour of where D spends her days. The building is called G40, which is the Health Center. We leave her there to do some studying and M, Murray and I drive to Bundle to see where M works for the City of Gold Coast. We visit the floor where he works and his coworkers are thrilled to meet us. We visit for a few minutes and say bye so we can go on a short walk around the park housing the Arts Center and Counsel Chambers. The rain has abated and the sun is shining on our easy day.

Morning destination, The Spit. This spit extends north from Main Beach/Surfer’s Paradise. The land has been claimed for what was in the 1970’s a narrow penninsula of sand. It is now built on, although not extensively and is somwhat manicured to keep a channel for boat access to the interior water ways. There is a lot of action at the end near the boat channel. A nice beach draws the swimmers and surfers, a causeway draws the walkers and fishers and a park draws the folks out for a day of relaxation.

Surf lessons at The Spit

On the return trip we pull the car into the fishermen’s co-op and buy fresh prawns right from the boat. Dinner tonite has now been confirmed.

This afternoon Debbie and I tram it to the iconic Surfer’s Paradise. If you have heard anything about the beach life in Australia you have heard of Surfer’s Paradise. The beach is amazing. 50M wide and kilometers long. The waves just keep rolling in and the people  swim even in the middle of winter.

Surfer’s Paradise

It is not far from M & D’s place and we need a little exercise so we decide to walk back. This takes us off the beach and along the main drag. This is where the action is. Funny though, it is not overly crowded, more like the downtown of a city. Lots of shops and hubbub but not elbow to elbow as Noosa is. Pretty touristy with shops such as the ‘Condom Kingdom’ front and center. The walk is along the ‘highway’ so not idillic but interesting enough.

After a bit of rest M and Debbie tackle cleaning the prawns. Heads, tails, shells and legs and then entrails. They cook up Chorizo and Prawn Pasta with a large green salad. We enjoy this delicious supper after another day touring.

The Gold Coast Marathon starts at 7:20 this morning. Murray and I calculate when they will run past the 30 km mark near M&D’s condo building. We walk out to the bridge at about 8:30. We can see the runners getting closer and closer by the helicopter hovering in the air above the lead group.

The Pace Runner

The lead group is small, they are following a pace runner. Mostly Japanese and Africans. The Africans legs would measure up to my shoulders they are so tall and lean and they are so graceful in their movements, and appear to run effortlessly.

The pack at the 30 km mark

We walk down closer to the finish line as we have time before the lead group gets there. We line up along the fence right at the corner where the runners go off the main road towards the finish line. We wait patiently and then we see the lights on the lead police vehicle. Two runners have broken away from the pack, Mungara from Kenya and Kawauchi from Japan.

As they round the corner, Mungara shows no expression on his face while the Japanese fellow looks to be in pain. They sprint to the finish, which is amazing since they just ran 42 kms. Mungara wins by one second at 2:09!

Now many of the faster age groupers are passing by, on the opposite side of the road, heading to the turn around before coming back to the finish line. An amazing 6,200 runners registered for the marathon. These ones are the speedsters, almost as fast as the elite athetes.

One of the marathon wheelchair athletes spins by. She looks like she has been working hard. I clap for her and her effort.

Shortly after, the first woman races by. A Japanese going hard for the finish line to finish in 2:26.

We watch for a little while longer, cheering for more and more runners coming to the home stretch. It is great to watch and cheer on these athletes, no matter what their time or ability is. Everyone of them is an inspiration.

We have a lazy morning. M&D are worn out. They need down time, so we hang out, watching and listening to Southport wake up. This weekend is the Gold Coast Marathon. Today is the 10 km, 5.7 km and two kid races. The loudspeaker wakes up at about 6:30 and we listen from our cocoon on the 18th floor. Tomorrow are the half and full marathon, and two wheelchair events, which we will go out to watch and cheer the runners on.

After lunch we four pile in the car and drive to Kirra Beach. It is about 40 minutes south of Southport, past Main Beach, Surfer’s Paradise, Broadbeach and Burleigh. Although the thermometer says 20 C, the wind is chilly. The lifeguard notice board says the water temperature is 19 C.

Murray and M brave the water and go for a swim, catching some of the 1 foot rollers that are coming in. D and I sit on the beach, reading and trying to hide from the wind. The water does look inviting and I want to go in, but I know how cold it is going to be, especially when I get out. I was going to bring a wetsuit hoodie to wear in the water, but I forgot it at the condo. RATS!

View of Surfer’s Paradise from Kirra Beach

Murray and M come out of the water to warm up. We watch a couple of surfer girls on long boards, kids playing at the water’s edge and families walking the beach. Only the hardier locals, and northern climate tourists, brave the water at this time of year.

Murray starts to go into the water for a second quick dip. I cannot resist the call of the ocean, and dive in after him. The cold water washes over me and my arms feel like they are in ice. I swim hard out from shore trying to warm up. The waves are breaking too far out for me to go body surfing, so I swim and frolic in the water and then make my way back to shore. Murray is right behind me. We quickly dry off, pack up and go to the bathrooms to doff our wet swim suits. Even after putting dry clothes on and a sweater, I am chilly. A hot shower will solve that.

One view from M&D’s condo.

We relax and swim and see more of the Gold Coast today. A good day.