Hello!
The past few days have been relaxing and I think I managed to improve my tan by at least 3 shades! I left you guys last at our first night in Byron’s Bay. We have now traveled about a sixth the way up the eastern shore of Australia! We are now in Brisbane, a beautiful inner city.
Byron’s bay definitely lived up to its reputation, a surfer’s haven! The beach was beautiful and definitely wavy. The sand was soft, so soft, in fact, that it squeaked when you walked on it. Yes, I said squeaked. Not like a little squeak, but a clearly audible and loud squeak. I do not know what causes the squeaking, but I have to say that it is mind boggling. Other than the squeaky sand, we did not do a whole lot other then sit on the beach.
The next morning we headed for Coolangatta (sp?). It’s on the gold coast. It is called the gold coast because it is an uninterrupted stretch of beach that spans over 70 km! It also happens to be the hottest tourist spot in all of Australia, and I can see why. Despite there being hundreds (our thousands) of people on the beach, it was not busy simply because the beach is soooooo massive and everyone can find their own spot. The ocean was even nicer here! The waves were huge but you had to be careful not to get swallowed up by the currents. The currents are so strong that they life guards only allow swimming in a 20 metre stretch of beach every 500m, where there was a lifeguard on duty. Despite the currents, swimming was a lot of fun.
We also went to the “David Fleay Nature Reserve” that day. It was amazing! It was not like a normal zoo, where all the animals are caged up. Instead, the animals are free to roam and come and go as they please (but they seem to prefer to stay seeing as how they get fed when they are there. We saw the gigantic salt water croc (the reason you do not go swimming in Darwin) and the smaller fresh water croc. All in all it was a great experience.
Today we arrived in Brisbane, where we will stay the night.
Sorry for the brief update, but you will hear more later.
PS, I uploaded a whole bunch more pictures to look at!
Cheers,
Jon