Day 109: Tugun - Brisbane

We have turned into trailer trash!

Our car is in the garage getting all the bits we have ordered, this will take two days.

We were very disorganised this morning and as a result we were late coming up from the Gold Coast. There was no time to set up the tent and unload the Prado, so in our haste we rented a cabin.

I have often wondered what these cabins were like...

I need not wonder any more...

The cabin slept 5, there was the double bed and 3 vinyl bunk beds. The first thing that hit me was the smell of cheap aftershave. It was as if the place was doused in it. The beds looked like they had seen better days, lots of them and there was a tiny shower tray with a curtain that gave the cabin en-suite status.

I may have to sleep fully clothed and levitate.

One small bonus, there is a TV and we haven't seen one of them for a long time. We may even find out what is going on in the real world.

Em

Day 107: Tugun

It is very nice here. Beautiful beaches and none of the commercialisation of Surfers Paradise. Not that Surfers Paradise is a bad place, there is a need for that kind of escapism as well as the idyllic, quiet, remote beach type. We all need a bit of bright neon lights and skyscrapers every once in a while.

We drove south for about 5 minutes looking for a supermarket and ended up crossing the border to New South Wales. That wasn't part of the plan, we shouldn't be there for a long time yet!

Em

Day 105: Surfers Paradise - Tugun

We are off down to Tugun which is just above Coolangatta.

A friend of a friend has an apartment down there that we have rented for as a treat.

We are going to spend four days enjoying the view, our own bathroom, a real bed, curtains, TV... I bet it doesn't rain either!

Em

Day 103: Surfers Paradise

Oly woke up with a crook neck and I was feeling a little under the weather this morning. However, the sun was shinning so we decided to cycle to Sea World. Having one person who had to move their whole body to check for traffic and one not wanting to be that far from a toilet makes for very interesting bicycling.

One hundred and twenty eight extortionate dollars later (I am not afraid to use blinking to emphasise my text!) Ol and I were faced with water, lots of it, and not just the water in the aquariums.

During the five hours we were there we managed to see some cute sea lions performing and wonderful, clever dolphins doing amazing things for their "best friend" trainers. It was fabulous.

That managed to fill an hour. The rest of the time we were dodging the rain that once again followed us. Did I mention we had cycled?

I think I have only been to one other Sea World before and Oly has been to two, in comparison this one was pretty lame. The didn't even have a killer whale! However, we did agree that for children it ticked all the boxes.

We did appreciated the good that Sea World does for orphaned and injured animals, they have lots of Pelicans they fed who had been injured by cars and boats and were unable to catch their own food. There was also a sea pig that was separated from its mother as a baby and had been hand reared at the centre. Things like that took the sting out of the high entrance fee. You don't mind paying a premium if you know it is going to a good cause.

We froze our butts off going back. It was really unpleasant. The tent was thrashing in the wind and we were very glad it was pegged firmly down. Just pegging it down had taken a good half hour on top of the hour it took us to erect it.

There are so many benefits to having a kombi.

Emelie

Day 102: Brisbane - Surfers Paradise

Viva Surfers Paradise!

We set off this morning, bright and early. Well not so bright and not so early. Why is it whenever we take a tent down it rains?

We waited for the rain to abate so we could speed pack the car. Check out of the camp site was 10AM, I think we managed to leave around 11AM with a decidedly damp smelly car interior, ahh we miss Henry!

It only took us 40 minutes to drive down to the Gold Coast. We were very surprised at the sight that greeted us when we arrived at Surfers Paradise.

Surfers Paradise is very built up, it has Q1 the worlds tallest residential building, skyscrapers of every shape and colour you can imagine. There is even a Versace hotel which we could only gaze at across the water from our very barren caravan site.

The weather was not great and it took us over an hour to pitch our tent because the wind kept interfering, no bugger offered to help us either. Some man kept on coming out and watching us struggle, it was really annoying me.

With that exhausting us, we spent the rest of the afternoon recovering.

Oh, and looking for the tent pole bag that has disappeared, more than likely blown away... it was there when we started, I am hoping it is under the tent.

It's bloody windy, I hope this tent stays up.

Emelie