Greeting from Down Under! I admit it has been rather a long time since my last update, so I figured it was time for another adventure. And what better than a wicked road trip through one of the most scenic and interesting countries in the world? So here we are, in Australia. I’ll do my best to start at the beginning and see if I can get you all updated on the past few days. This may end up being a few days old by the time I post it, because internet coverage is likely to get spotty in the caravan parks, but I’ll do my best to update when the rates for WiFi aren’t too bad.
We flew in on July 1,, or June 30 for those of you who were still in Canada at the time. Australia, you see, is a day ahead of Canada as it is on the other side of the international date line. It’s fun when you get to explain that very fact to your cell phone provider when you call to arrange for a plan while you’re travelling. We flew from Vancouver to Los Angeles on Alaska Airlines, then from there to Sydney on V Australia (part of Virgin Airlines). Then we transferred to Quantas and flew to Brisbane, where we picked up our sweet, sweet campervan and drove to Surfer’s Paradise (yes, that is actually the name of the town). V Australia was actually a very nice airline, and they have silly little stories on all their branded stuff, like the sugar packets and the boarding passes. It was quite amusing, and I amused Glen even more with how amused I was with it. All told, we spent about 40 consecutive hours getting from Vancouver to our final destination. Yes, you read that right, 40 hours. That’s a mere 8 hours shy of 2 straight days. That is a long time to go without an actual bed, shower, or any of the other comforts most of us are used to. Needless to say, when we finally got to Surfer’s Paradise, we were exhausted and disgusting. Waiting for our Quantas flight in Sydney, Glen was so tired he literally couldn’t keep his eyes open. I had to keep waking him up every few minutes because we were boarding soon.
Australians drive on the opposite side of the road to North America. This might not seem like a big deal, except that the driver sits on the opposite side as well. Both Glen and I can tell you that this screws with your head in a big way. For instance, turning left is turning left from the left side of the road to the left side of the road, while sitting on the right side of the car. It takes some concentration. Now try doing that when your rental vehicle is a campervan with manual transmission and the seats sitting on top of the engine, so far forward that the pivot point of the wheels is actually behind the driver. Now you get the picture. So far, though, neither of us had gotten into or caused any accidents. Though Glen has only driven for about an hour and a half so far.
We started our trip in Surfer’s Paradise because that’s where the Gold Coast Marathon is. Glen suggested we try to catch a race while we were here, and who was I to disagree? Somehow I even managed to finagle him into signing up for the half marathon too, though I think that’s a decision he might be regretting at the moment. When we got in on Friday, after 40 hours of planes, trains, and automobiles (or campervans, in our case), I suggested we go for a quick run. In my experience, running makes you feel better regardless of what you just came from, and it worked. It also felt really, really good after doing nothing but sitting for 40 straight hours. Saturday we picked up our race kits and wandered around town and walked down the beach quite a ways. It wasn’t too warm out because of the wind, but it was sunny.
This morning we were literally up at 4:30am for a 6:00am half marathon start. It’s not a good idea to start too late ‘cause it can get pretty hot when the sun comes up here. The first thing we noticed was the lack of restrooms at the race precinct. There were over 24,000 people registered for the various events this weekend, but in total I think there may have been around 20 women’s restrooms. The lines were so long that I didn’t have time to go before the race, and I was too impatient to wait in line after. I think if I had waited I might still be there, standing in line. The course itself was the flattest I’ve ever run. Not a hill in sight, and as such, it was fast. Really fast. Like, nearly personal best fast. I’d have to check my time again, but it was something like 1:56:58, which is less than a minute off the PB I set in May in Vancouver. Sweet. Glen ran a 2:28, which is pretty impressive considering he did very little training. Though to hear him whine the rest of the day, I’m not sure it was worth it. I would also like to point out that I ran this race “naked”, or without any electronic accoutrement. That’s right, I was iPod, watch, Garmin-free this morning. And you know what, it didn’t totally suck. This was especially surprising given that there was zero in the way of on course entertainment. Seriously, I’m not sure there was even one booth along the route playing music. Oranges and water. That was the post-race food. Oranges and water. Seriously? I just ran 21.1km! Couldn’t you at least throw out a bagel or two? Maybe a little tub of pudding? Honestly, if I’d done the full marathon I’d be seriously pissed about finding only water and oranges. As an international participant I paid $100 AUD to run this race, and they give me oranges and water. They also apparently thought it was adequate enough space to try and squeeze almost 20,000 people through one lane of a road and call it a race route. Uhh, no. Three lanes, perhaps, but not one. Not by a long shot. I do realize I’m complaining a lot, but there really were a lot of places where they could have improved this race. Overall, we didn’t have a totally bad experience, but it definitely could’ve been better with just a few simple tweaks.
After the race it was into the van, headed north. The van, by the way, is a 2-person campervan, set up with a sink and electric cooler in the back, a portable stove and stocked with cookware and sleeping linens. There are benches and a table behind the front seats that fold down to a double bed. To our dismay, it doesn’t have cruise control, but the CD player does work, and we’re slowly getting the hang of shifting with our left hands. If you’re dying to know more (or see a picture of the sweet, sweet paint job-which is fabulous) go to hippiecamper.com-and yes, that is really the name of the company that rents them, and those are real pictures on the website.
Tonight we find ourselves in Bargera, a little seaside town not far from Bundaberg. We can see the ocean from our campsite, and right now we’re currently listening to a huge flock of parrotlets screaming in a nearby palm tree. It’s our first night in the Hippie Camper, and I predict some serious fighting occurring over the covers tonight.
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