Roadtrip with rain, surfers, invisible crystal castles, RAIN and random massive prawns!!

Well hellooooooo people from Brisbane Airport!! Here I sit, bashing out the blog before my flight to Adelaide to start the next leg of my trip.  Winston sits in the carpark before me, all tidy and ready to be returned and I am smiling reflecting on a long but fabulous day yesterday, the details of which I am about to share with you....so either close this down now or grab a coffee (or glass of plonk), sit back, relax and hopefully enjoy the ride as much as I did.

So after waking to warm humid rain once more It was time to say goodbye to the wonderful Solitary Islands a place I really would return to if I had the chance, and wished I'd had the time to stay longer.  But move on I must as I have places to go and very special people to see.  I bid farewell to Ann and Helen and with route all planned, I headed out ever hopeful that this rather long journey to Tweed Heads (still only 2 1/2 hours by Mavis' reckoning but I always add 3 to that due to my passion for stopping at every opportunity) would be better than the last couple.

Man alive, i wasn't disappointed.  The only was I can describe it was like riding a bike downhill fast, on a hot summers day, with your legs sticking out shouting 'wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo' for miles.  I loved every 8 hours or more of it!!!

Mavis had obviously taken the horn honking and shouting at roadworks hint and proceeded to show me the way on the roads I love, single carriageway, through forests and farmland, fields of kangeroos and interesting places, with views that no picture could do justice (which is good for two reasons - one: I didn't take many of the views as there was nowhere to stop and two: if I had I can't upload them yet! That's gonna be a job for the Heggies wifi and a bottle of plonk) and making me smile as the hot tropical wind blew through the windows and I sang along to the radio. Heaven. I spied a sign saying 'Sydney 639km' and when I looked at my speedo, I had travelled almost double that! I do love a detour.

The first real town I came across was Ballina and there, as I turned a corner in this lovely but ordinary town, in the carpark of a Bunnings (Bunnings = B&Q) was a prawn.  Not just any prawn.  A big one.  Very big.  And after amusing the workmen all lined up to buy their building materials for the day by taking several well placed selfies of said prawn with myself and Winston, I headed out still wondering what the hell it was there for.  As far as i know Bunnings don't sell prawns...

Then it was a quick stop at Shelley's beach where it was blowing an absolute hooley and it was obvious that a storm was coming, and come it did.  I had to stop as Winstons wipers were struggling to deal with it.  You could tell we were getting nearer to tropical Queensland.  It doesn't have shit loads of rainforests for nothing.

I was starting to get peckish so my next stop after I had meandered through the laid back little surf town of Lennox Head, was to be the iconic and internationally known Byron Bay.  And I can see why it is so popular.  Hip, trendy, full of beautiful surf people from around the world enjoying the funky atmosphere, and as I slipped Winston in beside an incredible VW camper and gracefully fell out onto the road, I knew we would fit right in.  The only choice for lunch was the Ginger Pig, run by a ginger bloke funnily enough but he was no pig, and as I settled into my armchair surrounded by beautiful people with my omelete, enough chips to feed the entire bar and a glass of bubbles I began soaking up the atmosphere.  A bit of shopping followed and then Winston and I were back on those wondrous roads once again.

Brunswick Heads was another lovely town but I cannot recall for the life of me if it was before or after Byron but I will mention it non the less.  Finding out would mean going back to the van and its raining so I'd rather stay here thank you very much!!  So lets move on...

This drive really was something, I took the Tweed Way as it apparently took me through a town called Mooball and anything Moo related I gotta see (I miss that big old lab). There is only one word to describe this drive - majestic! The views were incredible as I wound tight turns up through the mountains (detouring to find a crystal castle the turned out not to be but was a bloody good detour drive wise!) with drops either side and downs as good as the ups! What made it ever better was that it snaked alongside the soulless motorway that just carved its way through, almost wrapping itself around it and making me smile even more.  Then Mooball arrived with the announcement made on a massive motorbike proclaiming the Moo Moo cafe to have the best coffee around.  And it did.
 And motorbikes, lots of them.  And rare expensive ones too I have now been informed by my man when I sent him them all to get his reaction, which was (and I quote)....'OMG babe there is a Suzuki RE5 their like a legend, never seen one in the flesh its got a rotary engine, the Kawasaki is a GT750 two stroke triple, an original 916 and a Honda monkey!!!!! And a classic British AJS.  The Suzuki is a legend... did you touch it, does it run??!!' Bless. I do love my boy.

So after chatting to the girl in the store about living in Kensington (she did, I haven't) I carried on finally arriving at my site at Tweed head some 8 hours after leaving Solitary!  The site was great but I wanted to get out and find some danger. Point Danger to be precise which is actually where the boarder of NSW and Queensland is.  And I am glad I asked the receptionist how far it was because she gave me a very interesting piece of information - Queensland is one hour behind NSW!!  How mad is that?? So you can be on one side of the street at 5.30pm, cross over and its 4.30pm! And I found this out on much to my eventual annoyance on the 5 minute journey as my phone beeped every time I crossed from one to the other.

The view was breathtaking and after the obligatory half and half shots and finally working out which time zone I was in, I realised something else.  I was not only on the doorstep of Coolangata (in fact the caravan park was right under the flight path...) I was also only 30 mins from Surfers!  Had to be done!  So I drove all the way down the Gold Coast past all the little places I remember on my last visit (and finding a few more, good job I am good at 3 point turns in tight places) finally arriving at the madness that is Surfers at sunset.  What a day.  I wandered around, nommed an ice cream, took some snaps and soaked up the atmosphere before finally admitting defeat and needing to head back to get myself sorted for tomorrows departure.  Today really had been something else, not just tiring but exhilarating and wonderful and a great way to end this part of the trip.

Packing done and leaving last minute tidying till the morning, I headed for bed, listening to the traffic on the freeway and the planes overhead...I kid you not.

And then it was this morning, another wonderful sound accompanied my waking, the recycling lorry at 7am.  Thankfully I was up and ready and a 2 hour journey awaited me to the airport.  I bid farewell to the lovely but rather unfortunately positioned site, and joined the Aussie M25 to sit in rush hour traffic and torrential rain and humidity until I arrived here, the services just outside the airport where I am discharging my ramblings before I forget any more, and before I bid a fond farewell to Winston.  He has been a good companion (so had Mavis but I turned her off some time ago as she was starting to get annoying) and this 10 days has been amazing.  I've seen another part of this beautiful and every wonderful country and now I am waiting to head to a much more familiar one - Adelaide - where I will feel so at home and meet with good friends and be treated like one of the family.  Which I owe to my good friend Theresa who, if i hadn't come to visit in the first place all those years ago and in my first big fat Aussie adventure, I would not have met. So thank you.

And so now I must go take Winston to meet his owner at the airport and get ready for my next week of adventures!! I bet you can't wait....

So until another state entirely its TTFN xxxxx

Special Update!!  I'm blogging from the free airport wifi and Winston went back fine, there was a little tear in my ear but I was desperate for a wee and not to have to pay more than the free 30 min parking (which after that is $15 per nano second) so I headed off pretty sharpish.  I'm sure the exhaust wont conk out before he gets back to wherever he is going....bye bye big W.

And so I sit in the bar with an Aussie to my right and an obvious Brit to my left (he is drinking a pint not a schooner and he reeks of Old Spice) waiting for my flight to board.  Oh and I have a Subway, other than packet noodles they are also the staple of a traveller.   Oh and pps I travelled a total of 1600 km when all the books say its 950...no wonder Mavis was having a mare.

Bye bye Queensland, helloooooooo South Australia!

Mmmmmmwahhhh xxxx