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Up at 6 with the light and a wild turkey outside making noise. Got packed up and had a lovely bike ride through the mountains to . I tried to get to see the dam but there were road works. Enjoying listening to audio books on my Ipod. Biked into Nerang for about 9.30 and then caught the train to the airport to meet Kim at at 10.40. It took a while to get sorted as we needed a bigger car and so we went for a coffee and I got changed into some sensible (i.e. non lycra) clothes.
I drove us into Brisbane and parked and did part of the walking tour suggested in the Lonely Planet. Had lunch at a Chinese at the shopping center. A good wander round.Drove to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary for 2ish. It was amazing! Cuddled a Koala, stroked a few Kangaroos and an Emu. So many animals. Cost a lot in comparison to what I have been spending recently ($16 for picture with Koala - $25 for entry). Well worth a visit.
Left at closing time and drove to stay with Steve couch surfing - only a few km from the Sanctuary. It was more like hostel than someone's home. It was very nice of Steve to give us a bed for the night but it was not why we were couch surfing. The house as full of 5 guys (2 of which were teenagers). They were not that bothered about talking to us - not surprising really as they have so many couch surfers visiting. The profile on the net had said that there was a private bedroom for us to use but all of the rooms were full and so we ended up on blow-up mattresses in the living room. It was great to have accommodation for the night though.
We went to the local supermarket for pizza for dinner. Watched some tv while also spending some time on the net. I was quite tired having been up early for the last couple of days.
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28th Oct - Brisbane to Tin Can Bay
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Did not sleep fantastically as people in and out in the morning. Got up at 7.30 and there was no one in the house and Steve had just left us. Very trusting. We spent some time on the internet trying to get accommodation on couch surfing and also organise and upload photos. We left about 11ish to get up north after porridge and coffee.
Stopped off at Dicky Beach (had to because of the name ;-)) and had lunch on the beach. We then went swimming. It was so much fun! We must hire body boards some time soon. I looked at the map and suggested that we stay in Tin Can Bay rather than Marlyborgh so that we could see the Dolphins tomorrow morning.
Took some good pics of the beach in Tin Can Bay at sunset. I am really enjoying playing with my camera :-)
We drove round town for an hour checking our different motels and also exploring the town and harbor. Decided to stay in the local motel/backpacker place. I saw my first drive through booze shop! Had to take a picture of that!Went for a meal at the dodgy looking restaurant attached to the motel. They served the best fresh Calamari ever! One of the best meals so far in Aus.
We had many drinks and played darts at the local bar (also attached to the motel). There were 8 locals and us in there. It was awesome fun - real small town Australia - just what we wanted.
They shut the bar at 10! It was fine though as we went back to Jimmy's to play pool. It was so funny. In a bar in the middle of no-where we managed to meet 2 guys, one of whom was 2nd in Australia at squash (Russty) and the other was a regional boxing champion (Jimmy). He gave me a very drunken boxing lesson :-)
We were very well behaved (such to Jim's disappointment) and got a lift back with Russty's girl friend at 12ish. We were nicely tipsy.Great to spend time with the locals. We were called "Shila"!
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29th Oct - Tin Can Bay to Harvey Bay
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Up at 6 with the light and went to feed the dolphins at 7.30. It was really amazing. I put my had in the water and one of the dolphins came up to touch me. They were wild Dolphins and there was 2 of them. We just watched them for 1 hour.
We stopped off for a bit of a walk through the forest and to the beach and saw this fella. He was about 2m long! Loving the wildlife.
Drove from Tin Can Bay to Rainbow Bay for about 9.30. Walked along the beach and up the hill to go to the top of the sand dunes. Really impressive. They were about 100m high and very steep (Kim was not impressed). Great views.Drove from Rainbow Bay to Harvey Bay. Lunch by the harbor. Went on a Whale watching tour on a boat for the afternoon. The tour took us along the shores of Fraser Island - beautiful. We saw 3 pods of Whales. They were swimming right underneath our boat. We could see them up close - 2m away. All of the pods had a mother and a child and one of them had another single male chasing them. It was amazing. The tour took 4.5 hours, they served afternoon tea and cost $100. It was well worth it. At a different time of year the males will come up and check out the boat and say hello and pop their heads out 2m from the boat.
Went for a run along Harvey Bay. Beautiful sunset. Perfect running conditions on the wet sand.
Stayed the night at eccentric Jayesh's house (from couch surfing). He rents an ex-hotel. It is huge but he is not allowed to use most of the bed rooms. His living room over looks the Esplanade with the beach across the road. He has a bubble making machine and a massive sound system pumping out music on to the street. He sits and drinks and smokes our the window watching the world go by. His lounge, kitchen, bathroom, bathroom etc are all at the very back of the property down a massive corridor. I biked down it.
Listened to music, drank wine, met some of his friends and some people off the street (attracted in by the bubbles and music), ate pizza at 11.30 and helped him out with techi stuff until 1. Very surreal evening.FB: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96892&id=1408960696&l=020e17078f
30th Oct - Harvey Bay to Airlie Bay (Whitsundays)
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Long days driving today.
Birds woke me up at 4.30 with birds really loud outside and back to sleep till 6. Having no daylight saving is really strange. By 6 the sun is really warn and high in the sky and it is dark by 7ish. We had breakfast and coffee with Jayesh and got on the road for 7. Kim drove while I sorted out my pictures and spent time on the laptop. Amazing bush countryside. The major highway has now gone down to 1 lane - this is the main road north from Brisbane to Cairns!
We arrived in Agnes at 10.30 and hired body boards and went surfing for a break from driving. It was about 100km round trip off the route but the beach is well known for surfing and is the last place on the coast. Awesome couple of hours in the water. Also took some great photos. The fibres on the fabric on the cheap board came off in tiny bits into my skin on my stomach. I now have a big rash and look like I have some terrible skin condition - attractive!Back on road for major drive North. I am missing biking now. I was really getting into the routine and enjoying it over the last couple of weeks. I am viewing the Aus and New Zealand trip as part holiday/preparation for bike ride from Southern tip of India back to the UK. I am increasing biking fitness and testing all equipment. I don't have to do every section by bike - but I am missing it now.
We saw loads of sugar plantations on the way. They have a cool train system where there is a railway right next to the fields that is only used to transport the sugar. The trains pull about 50 carriages full of sugar to the factories.
We found the cable for the ipod for the car. It felt like a proper road trip now :-) Fun tunes - apart from Kim's seriously bad eighties music!
Once we knew that we would be able to make Airlie Beach today rather than further south, I searched on the net and I phoned and booked accommodation in Airlie Beach at a Kipara Tropical Rain-forest Retreat. It was good to know that we had somewhere to stay even if we arrived late. The picture was take out of the car window at sunset.Stopped off for fish and chips for $5 (amazingly cheap in this country) in a tiny town and continued the long drive to get to Airlie Beach for 10.30. There were lots of drunk backpackers on the road. It is very much a backpackers/party town. It is the gate way to the Whitsundays though and in a beautiful area.
I feel more relaxed now we have got most of the miles north under our belts. We now have about 7-8 hours to get to Cairns and 4 full days to do it. We have fitted so much into the last few days.
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Sunday 31st Oct - Whitsundays tour - Airlie Bay
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Woke up naturally about 7 and got breakfast etc and on the road. Went to a tourist place in Airlie and looked at all of the possible things to do around the Whitsundays. If the sailing tours of the Whitsundays cost the same as a motor boat tour then I thought I would prefer to sail as I am missing sailing. All of the sailing boats had gone for the day as had the cheapest motor boat tour. We ended up going with Ocean Rafting at 10 for $115 for a day including lunch. I was a bit disappointed as it was expensive and not sailing - how wrong could I be. It turned out to be a really awesome day.
The motor boat was really fast and a bit like white water rafting. I sat on the side and held on to the ropes. It was great going so fast and the views were incredible. The day was well organised.
We got off at one end of White Haven Beach and walked up to the top of the hill to look over the island and beach and take pictures etc.
They then took us snorkeling for an hour on a reef. It was very shallow and so you could see load of fish. There were some parts of the coral which were dead but others that were very vibrant and colourful. They then stopped at the other end of White Haven beach for chilling and lunch. I went for a great run along the beach. I got about half way along the 10km before I had to turn round and get back for lunch. The lunch was good - the sea gulls seemed to enjoy stealing some of it as well.We met 2 guys on the trip, Alan and Andrew, who are traveling round Aus on Harleys. They are really interesting guys. They both have very different personalities and opinions on things but are obviously very good friends.
We got back to Airlie Beach at 4.30 and faffed for a bit looking at the different options for diving etc over the next few days. We had been out in the sun a lot today. I went for a nap for a couple of hours and we then went out into town to meet Alan and Andrew for diner. We met at a big back packing drinking place with a load of twenty somethings. I felt old. We had a drink there and then went up the road to a steak place for a $10 steak. The meal was nothing special but good. A bottle of wine and interesting chat till late.FB: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97002&id=1408960696&l=ca8e535289
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