With only a short distance to go today there was no great rush to get started, so a cup of tea in bed was the order of the day. We had received an email from Ray & Lynda last night stating that they were not returning from their holiday until today, which was a bit of a shock as we thought they were coming back from Vietnam yesterday. We phoned before breakfast and fortunately they had just arrived in doors and insisted that we continue as planned, but left getting to their house until later this afternoon. So after a leisurely breakfast and packing everything up we set off to take some snapshots of Tweed Heads, where we had been lodging. I think I’m getting withdrawal symptoms from not using the communal toilets and showers as it’s getting harder to find things to write about. They were such a good source of material and it’s all dried up now.
Like many of the places that we have stopped in since leaving Sydney the beaches at Tweed Heads are just stunning and just go on forever. By the time we arrived at the beach things were in full swing and there were lots of surfers showing off their talent, or lack of it in some cases.
Whilst walking along a footpath we encountered this not so friendly character, but fortunately he scuttled off when some noisey skateboarders come trundling by.
From Tweed Heads we started to work our way towards Surfers Paradise, stopping off at various beaches along the way, each of which was made up of beautiful soft golden sand. The closer we got to Surfers Paradise the taller the buildings got until they all seemed to merge into one big concrete jungle and we had arrived.
We parked the car on the sea front and walked down the main street, then back towards the front to find somewhere for lunch, which was followed by an Italian ice cream. We sat for a good half an hour people watching as there were some interesting sights going by. Surfers Paradise is as its name implies – full of holiday makers, mostly younger people many of them Japanese and many of them wanting to try their hand at surfing. It’s a little bit like Blackpool in that it is a purpose built holiday destination and has a long sandy beach. I guess the main differences are that Blackpool has Kiss me quick hats and this place doesn’t, but then again it’s autumn here and its 28 degrees today, whereas Autumn in Blackpool is more like just 8 degrees!! Considering it’s only Friday the beaches were relatively busy and there were a good number of people in the surf. As we stood on the sea front a life guard picked up his surfboard, rushed into the sea and within a couple of minutes had reached a couple of struggling swimmers clutching onto a surfboard. Almost as quickly as he got out to them, he was depositing them back on the beach in one piece: most impressive.
From Surfers Paradise we headed back down the coast to Miami Beach and turned inland towards Varsity Lakes where Ray and Lynda live. We had a stroke of luck this morning as in the motel there was a local Yellow Pages directory and as I was reading it over breakfast (poor substitute for the Times) when I noticed a detailed street map of the area, which included Varsity Lakes. I only hope the next guest in room 37 doesn’t want to find anywhere on maps 8 or 9 of the Yellow pages as these proved useful navigation aids in finding Ray’s house.
We turned up just after 3.00pm to find Ray filling in the hole he had dug in order to repair a water pipe that had burst whilst they had been away on holiday. Probably not something that they really wanted upon their return. It was great to see them both again even though it was only last summer when they were in the UK and we were soon exchanging holiday experiences. Again we were treated to an Australian BBQ for dinner washed down with Australian Red wine. As Ray & Lynda have had a very long couple of days we all retired to bed early ready for a fresh start in the morning.
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