The night before we left Brisbane, I had gone out for a few beers. I ended up returning to the caravan park at 7am. We left at 9am, and I had gotten an hour sleep. Christy woke me up and I was still quite drunk. Not a good start to a road trip.
Luckily, I slept for literally the whole trip down to Surfers Paradise. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the Q1 building. The whole place was full of skyscrapers, but he Q1 building is the tallest in Australia so stood out a bit more. My first impression of the place was that, even though the buildings were big, the streets were small. It was a very tight little town. We drove around a bit to get our bearings, and got separated as usual, and found each other again and then went to look for a caravan park. We found a nice little spot near to the water and checked in. We got a spot together, and funnily enough, right beside the german backpackers that we were beside in the Brisbane caravan park! We seem to keep meeting people again the further south we go.
We went exploring, once we checked in. The town itself was within walking distance, and was pretty small. The beach was really nice, as was the esplanade and beach front. Even though it seemed like a nice, affluent place, I still got the feeling that it was quite tacky. My sister describes it as "Ballymun in the sun", which is how she also describes the Canary Islands and Spains holiday resorts. I think its quite accurate.
After our first night there, the heavens opened and it rained for our remaining 2 days, with the exception of the time it took us to walk outside, get a taxi, and get to the nearest pub for the organised pub crawl we signed up for. As soon as we got indoors....rain again. Very heavy rain! Luckily it didn't last long, as the walks in between pubs would have been very unpleasant.
The pub crawl itself was nothing special. It was basically what it said on the tin. The organisers basically just brough us to about 5 or 6 different bars, and left us alone to ourselves, with the exception of one party game, which was pretty crap actually. Nothing like the old party games back in Scraggs Alley in Carlow during Rag Week!
So, after a few days in Surfers Paradise, after having not seen a single surfer the whole time I was there, we departed. I suppose its one of those places you have to see once. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to all the hype. Admittedly, all the hype coming from its name! :p
Nimbin, here we come...
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
More driving
So, we left Hervey Bay and Fraser Island behind, and continued our long journey south, and embarked on what would be our longest session of driving since we got the vans.
We drove through Proserpine and Mackay before it started to get dark, so we decided to stop off at the next place we came too. This seemed like a bad idea when we turned up at a place called Marlborough. This was basically a small little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" town, as I called it, whos population doubled when we strolled into town. In order to actually get to the place, we had to drive down a pitch black dirt track, passed signs of "bridge out - detour this way" signs and also a random set of trains tracks (which Christy decided to feckin stop the van slap bang in the middle of!!). These things combined with the fact that all 3 of us had gotten separated had started to send a chill through each of our spines. Imagine it, lost in the middle of an isolated town, that we haven't told anyone we were going to, since we didn't actually know the name of it until the following day when we were leaving, and also that we hadn't a clue of its geographical location, other than its in Queensland somewhere between Hervey Bay and Brisbane!
We broke through into the town from the detour along the backroads and felt like all 35 of the local eyeballs were staring at us. 3 camper vans emblazened with all sorts of funky lookin graffitti tend to stand out in tiny little towns. Basically, the "town" is literally one street, maybe 100 metres long. It had a pub and a few houses. That was it. We asked a local if there was a caravan park, not expecting much luck, and were told we can park up behind the pub. We had a look but it was too tight a space for 3 vans to fit so we drive up around the corner and asked in the petrol station and out of pure dumb luck, there was a really good caravan park literally right across the road...the road being the Bruce/Pacific Highway that we've been driving along all day! What we thought was a totally solated backward town, was in fact just off the bruce highway and surrounded by a pretty densely populated area! I we had've taken the next exit off the highway, we would have ended up where we were now!
We stayed there in the caravan park the night for roughly 9 dollars each, and headed off the next morning. I picked up the new Offspring album in that garage. Wasn't great...:p
So off we went again. Rockhampton, Bundaberg, stopping in Maryborough to pick up some tourist information brochures, and found out that Australia Zoo was just a few hours down the road, as was a big fish world amusement park. Myself, Christy, Dave and Nikki went to Waterworld, while Donna and Ciara went to Australia zoo. On the way down, we stopped off at a Toys R Us and picked up the biggest super soaker they sold, as back in Maryborough, Dave and Nikki had bought small little water guns in a newsagent to destroy us with water. This resulted in a full length water war (which stretched from Maryborough to Brisbane!) which actually started when I flung the contents of a 2 litre bottle of water out the campervan window at the girls, followed shortly by the bottle itself! When we purchased the super soaker, we did it as stealthily as possibe. We picked up a bit of speed and made some distance between us and "Pacman" (corresponding to the design on the side of Dae & Nikkis van). Just enough distance, in fact, for us to go into the nearest toy shop and buy a super soaker!!
So we returned to the van after the purchase, just as they pulled up beside us. I had to stash the gun up my jumper. We then headed on down the road again with them still unaware of our purchase. During our many pitstops/pullovers, Dave pulled up beside us to talk through our windows. This was when they found out about our new weapon in the form of litres of high pressure water in their respective eyes!! The look on their soaking wet faces was worth the 50 dollars I spent on the gun, but it also stepped up the stakes a bit. Water bombs were bought, and mid-motorway high-speed water fights ensued. Yes it ws dangerous, but hell it was fun! And sure isnt that the impotant thing!!
At the next garage stop, me and Christy cornered Dave in the toilets when he went in to use the facilities. Lucky for him, hes a lot quicker on his feet than he looks! When we got back to the van, we saw Nikki messing with it. As it turned out, she had placed some form of cream, like suncream or some woman sustance, in the handle of the van. Luckily I noticed this as Christy was about to open the van.
We drove on again passed Rainbow Beach, Gympie, and Noosa heads, before we drive past Australia Zoo just before Beerwah. The girls had gone into there, but it was late by the time we got there so we headed on to the waterworld, which was open later, and was jsut a better option at that time of the afternoon.
We drove back up towards the zoo afterwards, where we met the girls again and parked about a kilometre down from Australia zoo. This was so we could get an early start and a full day in the zoo, which inceidentally was really cool. It had some huge crocs, and all sorts of weird creatures, including the super smelly koalas, and giant turtles. cassowaries, snakes, alligators, elephants, tigers, and pretty much everything else ya'd expect! I'd recommend it to anyone in the area. The croc shows are pretty cool too!
While we were in the zoo, the girls drove on, as they'd been there yesterday, and we followed them down at about 4pm. They had gotten to a place called Redcliffe. Last stop before Brisbane.
We found a nice little car park beside the surf club to park for the night. The gates were locked at 11pm, and didnt open til 7am, but that was fine by us, since we were staying the night, and wouldnt even be awake by 6am when they re-opened. We could see Brisbane across the water. One more night and we'd have some form of relative stability, accomodation-wise.
We drove through Proserpine and Mackay before it started to get dark, so we decided to stop off at the next place we came too. This seemed like a bad idea when we turned up at a place called Marlborough. This was basically a small little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" town, as I called it, whos population doubled when we strolled into town. In order to actually get to the place, we had to drive down a pitch black dirt track, passed signs of "bridge out - detour this way" signs and also a random set of trains tracks (which Christy decided to feckin stop the van slap bang in the middle of!!). These things combined with the fact that all 3 of us had gotten separated had started to send a chill through each of our spines. Imagine it, lost in the middle of an isolated town, that we haven't told anyone we were going to, since we didn't actually know the name of it until the following day when we were leaving, and also that we hadn't a clue of its geographical location, other than its in Queensland somewhere between Hervey Bay and Brisbane!
We broke through into the town from the detour along the backroads and felt like all 35 of the local eyeballs were staring at us. 3 camper vans emblazened with all sorts of funky lookin graffitti tend to stand out in tiny little towns. Basically, the "town" is literally one street, maybe 100 metres long. It had a pub and a few houses. That was it. We asked a local if there was a caravan park, not expecting much luck, and were told we can park up behind the pub. We had a look but it was too tight a space for 3 vans to fit so we drive up around the corner and asked in the petrol station and out of pure dumb luck, there was a really good caravan park literally right across the road...the road being the Bruce/Pacific Highway that we've been driving along all day! What we thought was a totally solated backward town, was in fact just off the bruce highway and surrounded by a pretty densely populated area! I we had've taken the next exit off the highway, we would have ended up where we were now!
We stayed there in the caravan park the night for roughly 9 dollars each, and headed off the next morning. I picked up the new Offspring album in that garage. Wasn't great...:p
So off we went again. Rockhampton, Bundaberg, stopping in Maryborough to pick up some tourist information brochures, and found out that Australia Zoo was just a few hours down the road, as was a big fish world amusement park. Myself, Christy, Dave and Nikki went to Waterworld, while Donna and Ciara went to Australia zoo. On the way down, we stopped off at a Toys R Us and picked up the biggest super soaker they sold, as back in Maryborough, Dave and Nikki had bought small little water guns in a newsagent to destroy us with water. This resulted in a full length water war (which stretched from Maryborough to Brisbane!) which actually started when I flung the contents of a 2 litre bottle of water out the campervan window at the girls, followed shortly by the bottle itself! When we purchased the super soaker, we did it as stealthily as possibe. We picked up a bit of speed and made some distance between us and "Pacman" (corresponding to the design on the side of Dae & Nikkis van). Just enough distance, in fact, for us to go into the nearest toy shop and buy a super soaker!!
So we returned to the van after the purchase, just as they pulled up beside us. I had to stash the gun up my jumper. We then headed on down the road again with them still unaware of our purchase. During our many pitstops/pullovers, Dave pulled up beside us to talk through our windows. This was when they found out about our new weapon in the form of litres of high pressure water in their respective eyes!! The look on their soaking wet faces was worth the 50 dollars I spent on the gun, but it also stepped up the stakes a bit. Water bombs were bought, and mid-motorway high-speed water fights ensued. Yes it ws dangerous, but hell it was fun! And sure isnt that the impotant thing!!
At the next garage stop, me and Christy cornered Dave in the toilets when he went in to use the facilities. Lucky for him, hes a lot quicker on his feet than he looks! When we got back to the van, we saw Nikki messing with it. As it turned out, she had placed some form of cream, like suncream or some woman sustance, in the handle of the van. Luckily I noticed this as Christy was about to open the van.
We drove on again passed Rainbow Beach, Gympie, and Noosa heads, before we drive past Australia Zoo just before Beerwah. The girls had gone into there, but it was late by the time we got there so we headed on to the waterworld, which was open later, and was jsut a better option at that time of the afternoon.
We drove back up towards the zoo afterwards, where we met the girls again and parked about a kilometre down from Australia zoo. This was so we could get an early start and a full day in the zoo, which inceidentally was really cool. It had some huge crocs, and all sorts of weird creatures, including the super smelly koalas, and giant turtles. cassowaries, snakes, alligators, elephants, tigers, and pretty much everything else ya'd expect! I'd recommend it to anyone in the area. The croc shows are pretty cool too!
While we were in the zoo, the girls drove on, as they'd been there yesterday, and we followed them down at about 4pm. They had gotten to a place called Redcliffe. Last stop before Brisbane.
We found a nice little car park beside the surf club to park for the night. The gates were locked at 11pm, and didnt open til 7am, but that was fine by us, since we were staying the night, and wouldnt even be awake by 6am when they re-opened. We could see Brisbane across the water. One more night and we'd have some form of relative stability, accomodation-wise.
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