The Island

Nothing quite like a good nights sleep, only wish I could sleep in. As I check out the receptionist there asks me where I'm off to next. I tell her I'm going north as far as I can get today, she says “but then you must go to Magnetic Island” she exclaims. I look like I would if she had asked me the square root of Pi. It's roughly 1.772 but that's besides the point. She gets the hint and pulls out a brochure and a map and starts explaining. This actually looks very interesting, I should check this place out, and It seems I can bring my Motorbike on the boat.
I drive around a bit more to find the beach but give up quickly and head up to Townsville. I find the car ferry and just miss it by a few seconds. At least the wait is easy as thy have power outlets and tables, so I spend the hour of waiting, writing.

Finally the boat arrives and I drive on board. The stupid kickstand means I have to find something to lean the bike up against. I stay on car deck, mostly because I love being near the water, but also to keep an eye on the bike.
It takes about 40 minutes, and on the Island I start driving to the other side of it, to find the caravan/tent park. The roads here are incredibly fun to drive on. The island is basically a small mountain with some flat sports here and there, which makes for some windy hilly roads.
I find the place and gets checked in my rasta-surfer-Hawaiian-shirt dude for 24 bucks for two nights. By now it’s dark so I find a place that seems good and set up my tent, again in the dark. Good thing I have this goofy looking headlight. I unpack and bring my cooking gear to the kitchen. I'm not alone in here, a small army of tiny ants are having a feast in a pot that has been left on the table, uncleaned. I cook my food and eat, clean up and head for the bar. A bit of writing, or rather lack thereof, and a few beers later I go to sleep. At least I try to sleep, it is Friday and it seems that means party all night. People yelling and playing loud music. Sigh. When the party finally dies down its replaced my rather loud happy hardcore techno. at this point its 4.00 am. I get out of my tent and walk up to the guy, he takes one look at me and turns down the music right away. “What exactly do you think you are doing?” I say and he start a rant of apologies and asks where my tent is, I point my light at it, right in front of him and his speakers. In his defence its so dark you can't see the tent with the naked eye, but its for freaking o'clock in the morning so I’m not to  impressed and it seemed to come across. Finally silence, perhaps some I can get some sleep now. A few hours later the sun is converting my tent into an oven and I am literally showering in my own sweat. Time to get up I guess.

In the shower/bathroom stalls life is thriving. Multiple colonies of different species of ants are living on he walls and ceiling, and they are very busy. I'm standing in amazement as they carry up the walls what seems to be the entire insect population if the island. I'm happy to see they have taken a few March flies as well, those pesky bastards.

I take a five minute walk down to the local harbour/beach in Horseshoe Bay for a classic egg and bacon breakfast. While waiting for my food I have a conversation with some locals. It's an elderly couple, living in Townsville but frequent visitors to Magnetic Island. They tell me that I should not worry about stingers here, as in don't waist my money on a stinger suite, and also told me the low tide would be around 1 and 2 pm today. This is good information because the reef I want to see would be too far down in high tides.
I have plenty of time so I hang around and enjoy my coffee, stroll back and chill for a bit and get a little writing done.
As I sit here and write I catch my self having stopped everything I'm doing and just starring at the colourful trees right next to me. They have come alive. I estimate fifty or so birds having occupied the trees, and they are having quite the conversation. They look like small parrots with green bodies, red bellies and a purple head. They are eating something from the tree while they are loudly sharing the gossip of the day. One of them trips and nearly falls of the branch as it tries to reach the end of a thing branch. Suddenly they all take off at the same time in the same direction. I have no idea why but it looks spectacular.

Time to move, I pack the bike light, and head off. The beaches I’m going to are down a detour from the main road. BTW “main road” might be pushing it a bit, but the again it is an Island. The detour is even worse, and by worse I mean more fun. Narrow and full of holes, in fact so much full of holes it's more like dirt with a few splashes of tarmac here and there. A car is trying its luck, this is how tourists get down there, if not on foot. On my bike I shoot passed the car, avoiding the pot holes laughing all the way down to the unknown.


The unknown makes it self known, as an amazing vista of blue sky and ocean, white sand and tall palm trees emerge. It’s like one of those background images that comes with Windows, doesn't seem real.
I spend some time taking it in, but get interrupted b a bunch of guys driving on small scooters. These are rentals, and they are not supposed to drive down here, scooters can't handle it, but they either don't know or don't care. They ask me to take a photo of them and we have a chat, but it gets cut short by a woman in a small Kawasaki motorcycle. She does not look happy. She is the guide these boys where supposed to follow, from the look on her face I'd say they deviated slightly. She doesn't have to say much they ll know whats up and quietly drives back up the “road”. I can't help laugh, and that seemed to make her smile a little. either that or she farted.
I want to stay here, but I came down here for a reason, I'm getting my snorkel on. It's another beach a few minutes from here so I drive up about 500 metres and park the bike. The actually beach here is hidden behind a range of trees so can't drive all the way down to the water. While I unpack my stuff I get attacked by a hungry March fly, and it brought its friends. I hate these things with a vengeance. We do a little dance, called tastemythongyoufuckinginsect, a dance they don't seem to appreciate.
At the beach I first take off my thongs, but quickly regret as the sand is very hot. Run run run down to the water, ahhh.

I grab my gear and walk out in the water until I'm up to my waist, where I can put on my fins. OK all set, I take a deep breath. No I'm not going diving, but I am a bit scared of the water, aways have been. All the more reason to go meet it head on, but I must admit, it is a bit daunting. I'm not completely alone though, there are some boats out there anchored just off shore. I'm not sure where to go to find the reef so I just start swimming. Visibility is not great, I can see maybe one metre in front of me. No reef here, so I ask a dude on one of the boats out here. He tells me the reef is marked by buoys and points to the other side of the boat. He also points to the water and says there are some big batfish swimming near me. I can barely make out some shadows in the water, makes me a little uneasy. I swim over to the reef, a little tense I must admit. The reef stars to appear under me and I turn my underwater camera on to shoot some video. I'm not sure what I was expecting, perhaps a little colour, but this reef is just covered in green stuff. There are not many fish either but at least the few there are there, are colourful. I dive down a few times to get closer with the camera but its actually hard diving in ocean water, the salt keeps me up fairly well. I swim around for twenty-something minutes and decided I'm done. It has been fun trying out filming under water, but there is not much of interest to look at.
I swim to the beach and stand up when I far enough to take off my fins. Not two seconds have I been out of the water until I feel a pinch, like a needle in my shoulder. A freaking March fly is munching on my precious blood. SMACK!

I walk up and down the beach for a few minutes to dry off and walk back to the bike. Guess what, the fly called its friends and they are waiting for me at my bike. I teach them the thong dance for about five minutes and then drive off fast. They are not dangerous and the pain is not excruciating, they are just super aggressive and equally annoying. Did I mention just how much fun these roads are?

I spend the evening in the bar, thucking in on the bars pizza. Not really worth the money but it's not bad.
I have my laptop in front of me, getting ready to write on my blog, when these two Swedish girls complain in the bar, that they didn't have enough time to transfer pictures to a USB, on the computer the bar rents out. I offer my help but let me just but your mind at ease first. I know that any story that begins with “so these two Swedish girls…” is bound to end slightly more interesting that what actually happened, I just want to assure you that if that, is what you are after you can just stop reading now. nothing happened. “Missed oputunity” I hear you say? “Shut up” might be my response 'cause I got nothing better.
So anyway these girls join me at my table, the girl with the problem sits next to me and I go right to work on her… USB problem. See I know what you are thinking you dirty reader, knock it off.
I spend most of my time here alone so company is very welcome and since transferring all these pictures the stupid way, i.e. via the USB cable instead of using the much faster sd-card reader my lappy has, we have plenty of time for beers and talking and more beers. We try to speak in Danish/Swedish, but it's pretty challenging since they are not used to Danish and I am not that capable in the Stockholm accent. Small talk leads to long talk leads to tired girls going to bed. I hang around to get some of that writing done but my heavy eyelids quickly overpower me and I'm off to bed.

 

Airlie Beach. More Airlie, less beach

Marlborough is not a spectacular place, but I recommend the detour if you need a place to sleep. You feel welcome right away here and it's cheep.
I go through my routine packing the bike and get on my way.about 500 meters down the road something feels wrong. I put a hand on my right pocket and the square bump my phone makes is not there. Damn it!
I pull over and start searched all pockets and places my phone could be but no luck. I clearly remeber having it in my hand as I finished up packing, but what did I do with it. Perhaps I put it on the bike and forgot to put it in my pocket before I left. That phone is my only link to the rest of the world, I cannot afford to lose it.
I turn around and start slowing backtracking my path. I have to find it. I try to remain cool about it but my heartrate does go up and it becomes a bit too exciting. I track my way all the way back but find nothing. A car with a camping trailer comes driving by and as it passes I notice the phone. It's on the road and the car is drive over it just missing it with it's wheels. Phew!
Besides a few sctraches on the corner, the phone is fine, and I feel very reliaved. The chip in the plastic is a small price to pay to get my phone back. Road, here I come… again.

Today my aim is Airlie Beach. I know nothing about it, but have been advised by many to check it out. It's only 354 kilometres to Proserpine following Bruce Highway, and from there just 25 kilometres towards the coast, to Airlie Beach.
About 230 kilometres up I pass Mackay, and although it's not very far compared to what I have covered before, I already feel tired. I think the fact that I know I'm getting very close to my final destination of this mad trip, is making me anxious to get there, impatient almost. As I'm closing in on Proserpine I have to force my self to make a right turn towards the coast, because quite frankly I just want to keep going.

I pass through a few small towns and suddenly I'm in a forest. That's odd, should have been a beach along the road somewhere. I pull over and check my map. No I have definitely passed it, but there was no beach. I have been driving with the water at my left side for a while so where did the beach go. I turn back and go through the last town I passed, once again, turn around and drive through it again, slowly this time.
There is the sign I missed; “Welcome to Airlie Beach”. Ok so I'm here, but a beach is nowhere to be seen. Actually I don't much care anyway, I just want a place to stay for the night. I find a hotel up the road and get a room. Yes I know, what's up with the hotel rooms now, shouldn't I be using my tent? Yes I should, but I'm on vacation and I'm tired so shut up.
I'm joking around with the woman behind the counter and she ends up giving me a discount. Aussies eh!
As I carry my stuff up into the room I'm automatically looking for spiders. I really want a picture of something venomous that I found myself, but no luck, spidie is shy.

The rest of the evening I spend catching up on my blog, or trying to anyway. So many photos to sort through, and video to edit. My original plan before I came down here was to edit together five minutes of video every day. I'm happy I chose to write for the most part because the video thing takes ages. I don't want to go to sleep because I might miss how comfortable this bed is, but I'm pretty tired so sleep comes easy.

Not planning can lead to intersting places

Waking up in Rainbow Beach caravan park was hard, because I slept so good. People here generally respect the night silence, and I had a few beers in me before bedtime so sleeping was no problem.
I still manage to get up and out before eight. I know what you are thinking, that's not early, well it is for me so shut up and keep reading.
Right next to where I camped is a small harbour area, and about two minutes drive from there is the actual beach. And what a beudie. I don't go in the water, that will have to wait for some other time when I'm here with mates, but it does look amazing. Autobot guy said it was the best beach he had been to.
I take a look at my map to find something to aim for next. Oh yeah Airlie Beach, everybody tells me I have to go there. It's over 950 kilometres north, so won't make it today. I decide to just head up there and see how far I get.

About 500 kilometres I start looking for a place to stay for the night. I pull over and look at my map again. It's not terribly detailed but there is a tiny speck on it close to where I am, called Marlborough. Hmm, let's see what this is.
I take a right turn off the highway and drive for a few minutes. After passing by a few houses I start to wonder just how far it might be. I drive in a half circle back up to the main road and ask a random person there where it is. Turns out those houses I passed by, is it.

I head back and get a closer look. there is actually a hotel there, or something with a Hotel sign anyway  I park the bike and look over on the opposite side. There is a classic Queensland style house, and on the veranda sits a few chaps. One of them waves at me, I wave back.
The reception to the Hotel is also their bar, and the barmaid in there looks rather busy. She does however manage to greet me welcome and book me in. I take a room for the night. I could have taken a camp site but I need a good nights sleep and don't want to deal with packing up the tent in the morning. Excuses excuses, all I really want is a bit of luxury.
The room is small, fits a bed and a sink. Nothing fancy but it does have A/C and a TV with nothing on, what more could I ask for.

I get comfortable in the bar with my laptop, orders some food and start writing. I probably write half the time, the other half I'm just looking at the guests here. I' seem to be the only one here just passing through, everyone else are locals. There is the local mechanic, the truckdrivers  the shop owner from next door, the local police officer, and a few families that live here. This place is the meeting point for everyone here, where everybody knows your name. Well nobody knew my name except for the girl in the bar, but still, it was a comfortable place to be.

I have a few beers while writing and eventually sign off. I am fast asleep.

Crickey, the Zoo

The next few days I just spend in Brisbane. Queen street is a bit like Strøjet, typical shopping street and quite nice and lively. Toowong is pretty central, 15 minutes is all it takes to get to the city centre. I have run out of earplugs, or at least I have run out of the good kind. I have these cheap once now that take ages to put it and break super fast. I end up getting some fancy looking once, five pairs in a box for 15 bucks. Let's see if they are any good.
Come time to leave Michael has taken the day off and rides with me to show me some nice scenic routes across the mountains. We cross both mount Coot-tha and mount Glorious. It is a bit of a detour but very beautiful view, and fun rode to drive. He goes with me all the way to the Australian Zoo in Beerwah. We say our goodbyes and he is off. Ok let's see what this zoo can offer.
Immediately I like this zoo because it has nice big enclosures and it looks clean and well maintained. I naturally go hunting with my trusty camera, and despite it being very difficult to get good shots of crocs without a fence in the way, I manage to get a few pictures of the other animals. I tend to stick to those I haven't seen here in Australia before at another zoo. Mostly anyways.

One enclosure in the African section

small note, the tree next to this bamboo is  about four meters tall.

Oh hello there mate

Yeah, I don't know

This is my I-will-eat-your-face face

After spending a good four hours in this fantastic looking zoo I get back on the bike and head north. I don't know where to, but something called Rainbow Beach on my map seems interesting, I might just check that out.
It's a little detour east of the highway, and as I get down there I see there are signs that if you wish to camp in the forest area you need a permit. The office where I can get such a permit is closed though, I'm here too late. I find a caravan park instead and pay a whopping 32 bucks for a night. What? That is too much, but then again this does seem to be the best caravan park I have been to so far, so maybe it's not so bad. Very big area, clean and tidy. I put my tent up in the dark, my new tent that is. I forgot to mention this but in the caravan park I stayed at before Brisbane, one of the tent poles broke in two places. I got a new tent in Brisbane and this is my first time putting it up. I use a head lamp and get started. It's very easy and fast. I stretch my back and look up and then I see it; Stars, so many stars. There is very little light pollution from the park making the sky, that by the way is clear of clouds and moon, quite a spectacular sight. I just stand there for a few minutes until my neck hurts. Right, food time. There is quite a racket coming from the kitchen area. I get my cooking gear and head over there.

Transformers dude

The place is packed with young people, early twenties they look like, and one guy in particular seems to be in charge in the food  project they got going on.  I noticed him soon because of the tattoos he has on his back upper arms, one Autobots and one Decepticons logo. I get his attention by saying out loud "Nice ink man, couldn't decide?". "Yeah you know, better both than none" he replies. And that's all it took, before I know it they invite me over to their camp for some beers, and I don't pass on an unpopularity like that. I did bring my laptop to the kitchen hoping to do some blog writing while eating, but blog has to wait, free beer and company awaits.

Some of these guys are musicians, some study foreign politics and interesting debates catch light over the fire they have going. At one point my phone gets a message, it's from back home, people want to know if I burned in the fires. Coincidentally they sound my phone makes when it gets a message is the Autobots sound when they transform, you can imagine who was impressed. They pass around a tequila and they all seem like they are drinking gasoline  It lands with me and I have a sip. This is good so I have another sip. Really good. I pass it on and notice they just stare at me. "Jesus you just drank that like it was water, not one facial expression". That made me laugh out loud and for the next while we talk about Vikings, snaps and other strangely unrelated things. I need to get to bed so I say thank you and goodnight. 32 bucks is too much for a camp-site but I ended up having a really good time so perhaps it all evens out. I don't know, too tired, goodnight.

Setting sails for Brisbane

I think I spend the first half hour getting out of Sydney. I really hate that part but more or less I get it right and finally get to cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It's not a spectacular experience, it's just a bridge, and I didn't expect anything else, but it has been a dream of mine to do and it felt great.
I'm taking it easy from now on. It is about 900 and something kilometres to Brisbane and I plan to just drive until I don't want to any more, and camp wherever. Preferably in a Caravan park but not necessarily.

View at small detour on the way to Brisbane

The first day of driving to Brisbane is pretty uneventful, I just want to put some distance behind me so I go by the Highway as far as it will take me. As I have done so many times before I stop and take a break every 160 kilometre or so, and fuel up everything, my bike, my camelbag, my self. Every time I stop for a break I take out my earplugs, and then I spend eons putting them back in. I hate these earplugs, need to find some better ones.
It's getting hotter and hotter, and humid, I am so happy I didn't cheap out when I got the gear, these pants and the jacket are super great at letting the air pass through, just sucks the air tend to be hot as well. With the camelbag I can make sure I never really to get thirsty, and that makes all the difference, I'm sweating, but coping just fine. I guess I still remember the 50 degree Celsius in Egypt. My personal comfort limit I think.

At around six I am as far as Bellina. I have been pushing the limit this time for how far I can get on a tank full, 220 kilometres so far since last refuel and no lights as come on. Not bad, not bad at all.
I pass by a few caravan parks that are full, but finally find one that isn't. I pay the man his 26 bucks, a bit much I reckon  and drive on in. I make a round to find the tent area… there are none. All I see are crappy looking trailers. One after another they look like they should have been burned and buried long time ago. One has an umbrella on the roof because there is a hole in the ceiling. Plants are growing on them, and in them, and over them. Could people actually live in those things?
Turns out the answer is yes, people do live there. No tents anywhere, only those stationary trailers. I begin to realise what kind of place this is.

Didn't shoot man-face, but did see this frog on a rock

I find a spot of grass and go through the routine, tent apires in no time, and so does the mozzy bites, those little bloodsucking devils. I see a person leave on of the trailers for the bathroom. It's not particular dark but it looks just like a man in woman's closes. Skinny but the face looks manly. Odd. While roaming around in my tent I overhear some people talking down the road. Something about a bong bottle. Someone named Karen wants to borrow it. There is a dispute but eventually they give and this Karen person walks away with the bong. At least I guess she does, can't see, not that I really care to. Something very suspect about this place.

I charge my phone a bit in the laundry room, or the room that has some washing machines in it, because in all respect to the idea of clearing something, this room has not been since the war.
I notice the man-faced maybe-woman walk to her/his trailer. It's right next to where I set up camp. I walk in circles a bit, inside the room, outside the room, back in again, just waiting for the phone to get a bit of charge. Walking out of the room I happen to spot man-face walk towards my bike, see me, pause for a second, turnaround and walk back into the trailer. Right, the phone has changed enough, back to my tent.
It's still fairly early so I watch a movie on my laptop, write some blog stuff and finally go to bed. Can't really sleep though. It's warm and I can't help but keep an eye on my bike. This place gives me the creeps.

Next morning I wake up to the sound of a small argument. A woman knocking on man-face’s door and yells “KAREN! KAREN DO YOU HAVE THE BONG BOTTLE?”. Aha, Man-face is Karen, and so not a man.She also does not have the bong. I get up and start packing quickly. Man-fa.. I mean Karen sits outside her trailer and looks at me with red sacky eyes and a posture that has spared to expense in looking like it has completely given up on life. She asks me if I drive a motorcycle and points to the BMW. “Uhm… yees” I reply, for a moment considering just saying no for the laughs, but its too early for jokes. “Do you smoke the pipe?” she enquires. I have to think about this one for a second, and then replies “nah”. I continue packing but short after she asks “do you wanna buy a camera?”, “a what now?”, “a camera, you know, for pictures”. What on Earth is she on about at too-early-o-clock in the morning. “No thank you” I mutter and smile awkwardly. “Got any cigarettes?” she asks, “for the love of God please shut up” is what I want to say, but instead I just say “No sorry I don’t smoke”. “Just get this packing done with” I think to my self.
Finally I'm done and I saddle up and get out of there. On the way out I feel a little bad for being so judgemental towards these people. What if this is all they have, not something to joke about. That thought stays in my head, for exactly the 30 seconds it takes me to get on the road and feel the wind again. Freedom.

Steep hill in Toowong

Coming into Brisbane I get a bit confused with the motorways. There are so many of them here. It would also seem like I have come to my first Tool road, but how does it work? Will there be a toll booth or, but I don't need to complete that thought because signs along the road tells me the answer. It's all automatic based cameras, and there is a phone number I can use to pay within three days. Seems easy.
I find my way and locate Michael, my cousin in Toowong on a very steep hill. He comes out as he hears the bike and opens the garage gate. My bike will fit well in here, the place is full of motorcycles. Michael hands me a beer and welcomes me to Brisbane. I feel right at home.

New years eve at Sydney habour, random exploring, and the zoo

(No biking, lots of pictures)
In Copenhagen at new years eve, the sky is literally set on fire. Everybody have fireworks and more or less go nuts at midnight. It's usually a spectacular experience even if you are just a spectator, but in Australia fireworks are not allowed for the public, and with good reason too. Australia sometimes seems to be very flammable, and when it does catch fire it doesn't kid around.
Anyways Sydney supposedly do a mean show new years eve, but two million people know that and want a piece of the action so finding a nice spot in the centre would be tricky. As it turns out it wasn't. It might not have been the BEST EVER spot, but a good spot still. Could not see the Opera house but was up high, and could see the bridge. Now the anticipation and waiting begins, but the beauty of writing is I can just skip that part and go straight to the booms and the bangs.

It's not as crazy as Copenhagen, but it is very orchestrated and for that reason it takes the price. What a show they put on here and people love it, lots of wuhus and wows. I got us some bubbly for the big night, that quickly turned late. And get this, on the train station on the way home I ran into an English dude that also stayed at the backpackers place in Adelaide while I was there, I didn't mention him before, but we had a few beers together in Rad. What a small world.

As a tourist on foot the city is quite interesting. In the centre if the city is the harbours and train station called Circular Quay. There is a station called Central, but it's not really central, go figure. On one side of Circular Quay is the Opera House, and on the other is The Rocks. It's an area that today houses many small shops and restaurants, and is a popular tourist attraction. It has its name from the local sandstone most of the buildings where made with. For a long time it was a rough sailor and prostitution hangout, I have head enough, I like the place already.
Just over the Rocks is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I do want to walk over it, as in not just across but climbing over it, but when I was there it was literally rigged with explosives, for New Years eve, but I did get to go up in one of the pylons. Sometimes you just got to give in and be the tourist with the camera.

Just north east of the centre is Taronga Zoo, you can get there by boat from Circular Quay and for that reason alone I want to go there. The zoo is cool but nothing spectacular. I like zoos but have a problem with enclosures that seems small, and some of them did. Animals didn't seem to care much though.

The very rare primate Homo Turistas. Not know to be venomous but can get very aggressive when sunburned.

An actual golden goldfish

I get the change to see a spider show, no not dancing spiders, but a guy explaining how much more scare of us the spiders are, than we are of them. This is also the first time I see a Red back and a Funnel Web. I'm quite happy with them being in the glass, they didn't seem to trilled though.




The last night before I need to head out, I take a small trip to Bondi Beach. I have never been much of a beach person but I have been told this is something else. It is not that big really, but the mass of people that are there don't seem to know that. Here are all the kinds of beach goers you can imagine, from families with hyper kids to the big dudes who pretty much can do nothing but have muscles. Oh yeah, and girls in very small bikinis, but this is a family show so I'll leave it at that.