Coolangatta, Brisbane, Caloundra, Bundaberg, onwards I go....
450yr old Fig tree
The trip from Coolangatta to Brisbane took me 8 hours, cycling 137km, arriving at 10pm at the house of John and Carolyn Lister. The people where I stayed in Coolangatta, Linda and Arie advised me to take the train from Surfers Paradise to Brisbane, but I wanted to cycle. I started out at 8am in the morning, the first 50km no problem, but then I lost the way, even with my Google navigation system; 8 times Google maps showed the wrong roads - it made Australia's tagline "Where the bloody hell are you?" truer than ever.
Around 6pm it was getting dark and I was just outside of Brisbane, so I called John to say I would be coming late. He asked where I was, and to cut a long story short, he cycled to me and found me somewhere in the suburbs of Brisbane. I thought it was maybe 7km to his house but it was more like 37km to his house! We finally arrived at 10pm, I would never have found his place cycling via roads, highways, footpaths, criss-crossing through Brisbane - I had forgotten that Brisbane is the third biggest city in Australia with a population of 3.8 million people, a little bit more than Golden Bay......
I stayed 2 nights at their lovely place, sorry but I forgot to take a photo - thanks guys for everything it was a really nice and refreshing stay.
Caboolture - wild camping nights
After Brisbane I headed off via Redcliff to Caboolture - time to start wild camping! 10pm in the evening after a good meal, I started to bike around Caboolture to find a spot to put my tent up. After an hour I found a nice hidden spot on the show ground park, looked around to see if it was safe, and put my tent up. I didn't sleep much that night, and 6:30am I was back on the bike. After 3 nights I finally slept well, I got used to it eventually. My last night was with other campers with a small fire, now we are talking the real Australia in the bush!
Garfield Cat Motel just outside of Bundaberg.
Again, the hospitality and friendliness of the people I am meeting is incredible. One couple even gave me a bible when I left in the morning, they had inscribed on the inside page - to help keep me safe along my travels. A fellow cyclist showed me the trick to protect myself from the magpies whilst cycling - so now my helmet is also "magpie proof".
In the land of wonder, the land down under, I have seen some amazing nature along the way - from the crazy "divebombing" magpies, to pelicans, iguanas and even 450yr old trees!
G'day mate, I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for ya!
The trip from Coolangatta to Brisbane took me 8 hours, cycling 137km, arriving at 10pm at the house of John and Carolyn Lister. The people where I stayed in Coolangatta, Linda and Arie advised me to take the train from Surfers Paradise to Brisbane, but I wanted to cycle. I started out at 8am in the morning, the first 50km no problem, but then I lost the way, even with my Google navigation system; 8 times Google maps showed the wrong roads - it made Australia's tagline "Where the bloody hell are you?" truer than ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment