Cycling through the Easter Holiday rush

So I had a short day today, even though I had a perfectly early start (7am) and the skies were blue and the wind was on my back. My enemy today was the Easter Holiday. Crowds everywhere means the campervan parks are full. I was hoping to get to Noosa today, but I got worried that the parks would be full, so I stopped here in Coolum at the Information Center on my way just to see what the story was. The woman told me what I’d feared – that all the campsites in Noosa were full and the one park between here and Noosa was also full. It was only 10:30am, but if I had to continue on it would be at least another 85 km and I just didn’t think it was worth the risk not knowing if I’d even get a site. So I went to the campervan park in Coolum, but nearly fell over when the girl told me it was $23.50 AUS for a site!! Whoa. To camp! (Holiday prices.) I just didn’t know what to do, but I knew I was screwed and it was the silly holiday that was screwing me. (This morning I stopped in Mooloolaba, one of the beach towns, to have a coffee, and they charged me an extra 15% holiday tax!) I can’t wait until Easter is over.

But I got lucky here at the campervan park when the owner found out I was cycling to Cairns. I guess he felt sorry for me and he gave me a campsite under a low tree for half price! Wow, that made my day.

I spent the afternoon relaxing in the shade of my tree reading a book. One thing I’ve realized after the last 2 nights especially is that I’ve got to get out of these campervan parks. It’s a different breed, the caravan camper, and I don’t like it. These people have so much STUFF – huge tents, tables (yes, plural), chairs, lanterns, portable stoves (using the word’portable’ very loosely), mattresses, radios, even tv’s sometimes, that I often wonder if they even save any money camping considering all the stuff they had to buy. If you didn’t know it, you’d think you were in a carnival walking around this place at night. It’s bizarre.

Anyway it probably didn’t turn out so bad for me that I din’t stay in Noosa after all. The Canadian couple (from Vancouver Island) camping next to me drove to Noosa this morning to go surfing and their car was robbed while they were in the water – passports, wallets, money – all gone. They spent the afternoon at the police station – no fun. I’m sure I wouldn’t feel too safe with my bicycle out at night there, even if it is locked up (yes, their car was locked). So tomorrow I think I’ll still cycle up to Noosa just to see it and then head inland and try to camp in some State Forest land, hoping it’s a bit cheaper too.

Distance: 45.16 km
Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Avg Speed: 16.4 km/hr

da beach

Yeah thats right!

Add comment April 19th, 2003

Easter Weekend

Cycling again! I guess it’s official now, I’m heading to Cairns. I’ve spent the last few days at Alan’s house, mainly helping him with a big tiling project on his front porch. In between sorting tiles and cleaning up cement, I worked on all of my own little projects, a lot of which really needed attention after 18 months with the same gear, like sharpening my pocket knife and repairing holes and zippers on various items. The porch isn’t finished yet, but I decided to leave today, mainly because I was anxious to get on the bicycle and start moving. And I was afraid that if I stayed too long I’d get comfortable and not want to leave, so off I went.

This morning I cycled from Alan’s house to the train station at Robina (19 km) and then hopped on the train for 2 hours to get to Brisbane and north of the city where I could comfortably start riding. It was certainly much different than riding the train in Thailand with the bike to get north of Bangkok. Here in Oz there was an elevator to take the bike down to the platform and then I just rolled it right inside the train. In Bangkok there were 4 STEEP steps to get into the train and the doorway was too narrow to carry the bike up and through with the bags on and the train barely stopped for 30 seconds and I remember how Cathy and I missed the train on our first attempt because we couldn’t get the bikes on fast enough. Very civilized and easy in Australia.

I got off the train in Caboulture, which I think is about 70 km north of Brisbane, and from there I started cycling north towards Glass House Mountains National Park. Today is Good Friday and EVERYTHING is closed, but there was a lot of traffic on the roads from everyone getting away for the Easter holiday. I managed to find one Information Center open along the way, and stopped to pick up some maps of the Sunshine Coast. I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go, but the ride was pretty easy with gentle rolling hills, so I just kept going and wound up here at Caloundra on the coast, some 50 km north of Caboulture. I’m camping in a campervan park tonight which is full of campervans and motorhomes (I think I have the only tent) and it’s way overpriced because of the holiday ($17.50 AUS), but I don’t care. I still had a great day, and I’m slowly feeling fitter on the bike, and I’m looking forward to the next 1700 km!

Distance: 68.70 km
Time: 3 hours 35 minutes
Avg Speed: 19.3 km/hr

The Glass House Mountains

It looked picture-worthy at the time OK?

Add comment April 18th, 2003