April 13th - Day 15
Gold Coast
It has been an energetic day for me. I hired a bike and rode up to Danger Point, which is about 3km south of here. The bike was a one-speed one that got very heavy on the slightest upgrade. I sat for a bit at Snapper Rocks and people-watched. So nice to be sitting in the sun. From there, it was uphill, to get over the first headland then up to Danger Point. I had a lovely fruit smoothie, really refreshing. It had berries and grapefruit in it, amongst other things.
I decided to cut inland on the way back, to avoid pushing up the headlands. I found a road called Little Hill. Its name was half right, in that it was a hill, but anything but little! I felt like I was going down the side of a roof (and not a flat Australian one!) Still, it got me down.
I had the bike for the morning, so I cycled past the unit, and rode to Tugun, just to enjoy the ride. It was getting warm by the time I got back, so a quick shower before lunch.
The plan for the afternoon was to drop me at the Pickled Pig Brewery. However, unlike the Sunshine Coast, this one was not designed as a social venue. They were able to sell me some bottles, but that was all.
So what to do with the afternoon? We decided to go to Surfers Paradise. I was expecting an Australian version of Blackpool - trashy, tawdry and cheap. What I found was a lovely beach, which was comparatively empty, bearing in mind the number of high-rises there are there. We walked the beach, then walked back.
Lane has just taken David to the airport for his flight south. He has an interview for a job in the Antarctic, and will be in Hobart Tasmania for 2 days. I hope he gets it, even though it will mean being away from Lane for 7 months. It will be strange being here with just Lane. He is due back at 9 on Friday, which means we gang round the Gold Coast until then. Fortunately, some of Lane's friends will be here, so we can have dinner with them and crash there until he lands.
For dinner, we drove along to the Rainbow Bay Surf Club. I wanted to try Australian cooking, so what could be more Australian than eating a steak an drinking a Toohey's whole sitting on the balcony of a surf club? I mean, you don't get that in Peel!
