A sunny day at the Gold Coast

(Brisbane, Australia, 7th of February 2017)

We had not planned exactly where we would drive with our car today, we only knew that because of the hot weather we need to have some other kind of transport, as we will not ride our bikes, in order to see some of the areas around Brisbane. We left Brisbane at 7 and headed to the Gold Coast, 80 km south of Brisbane. Burleigh Heights (just south of the Gold Coast) was our first stop where we had some coffee while we looked at the guys who surfed. Burleigh Heights is said to be one of the best places to surf along the coast. We had both expected super-high waves but they were actually not larger than those we saw in India and Sri Lanka and most surfers were lying still and swayed on their boards. But we still got several glimpses of some talented surfers but they are really hard to capture with a camera.

We then drove further south and stopped for lunch in Byron Bay. This is a place that we’ve heard a lot about from different people and we knew roughly what we could expect. A beach paradise with a very broad, incredibly beautiful beach with white sand and lots of tourist shops and lunch spots was what we thought we would get, and it was exactly what we got. The small lunch restaurant we sat in was full of people, and funny enough, many of the guests were Swedes! Byron Bay was fun to see and certainly a wonderful place to spend a holiday or two weeks in if you just want to relax with sun and sea, but we felt a little out of place and soon hit the road again.

Next stop was the Gold Coast – a jet-setting town full of towering skyscrapers and luxury houses. None of us have been in Florida but we expect that it would look like on the Gold Coast.
Also here is the beach, of course, wide and beautiful with white sand. However, what impressed us most were all the channels in the middle of the city. We googled it and learned that they were constructed in the 50’s and that they were built to make most of the house owners in the city center having a “sea view” and being able to have their boats right outside their house

We cooked fried fish and mashed potatoes for dinner and it was truly delicious. It’s so very nice to have your own apartment and stay in the same place for a long time. It really gets the feeling of having a home and the opportunity to cook healthy, tasty food will be considerably larger.

/Christel