Surfers - Noosa

the big boys
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Okey Dokey! So it was a little sad to leave Byron Bay. We had such a good time there and the weather was perfect. But the show must go on! And we packed up Jelly Belly and headed north. Surfers Paradise is not too far, after a few hours we had arrived and started to look for a hostel. Surfers and the gold coast part of the East is very much like the Costa Del Sol. Built up flats and hotels just off the beach, a bit of a yobbish culture with lots of cheesy clubs and bars.

It was much bigger than I thought. I presumed it would be the size of byron bay, or perhaps a little bigger but nothing on this scale. It was basically a city on the beach with skyscrapers and everything. It was quite an impressive skyline.

he had been addicted to most things

daan donna and me
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We booked into a Hostel called ‘Sleeping Inn Surfers’. Very nice with a pool and spa, only let down was that it had no aircon, but we survived (JUST!). We decided not to camp here as the sites we a few kilometers out of the city and we were after central location so we didn’t have the hassle of trying to get back to the van. We always new we would be splitting up the journey with the odd hostel here and there.

We checked out the beach, which was nice, had the odd body surf and then retired to the hostel for some food and to get ready to go out. We hit the town and hit it hard! A good night had by all! The next morning we were told that there was a international surf competition happening down the road. So we headed off there to check out the action. Ok, so it was the only ‘rest’ day that the contestants had, so no action to be seen! But we checked out the shops and entertainment they had set up and did some more beach bumming! Lovely! That night we went out with guys from the hostel. They had organised some club deal, met some cool people and had a boogie! So that was surfers - sort of a tacky place but had a really good time, I guess its all down to the people you meet and not so much the place.

surf comp leaders board
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Next morning we headed to Brisbane. A girl we met in the hostel was going that way too, and being true gents we offered her a lift. So the happy family headed off - having a Dutch lesson on route! First we had to take our van to a ‘wicked’ workshop to have a compulsory check over. Passed with flying colours and even given a bottle of cheap champagne for being such good customers! Then we checked into a hostel. Again all the camp sites were a bit out of town, or that’s what we assumed anyway! Plus the thought of aircon was too tempting! As Brisbane is only an hour north of surfers we had the rest of the day to check out the city. I think it’s a nice city - it has a good looking skyline and an impressive lagoon just by the river for the residents of Brisbane to frolic in!

surf comp beach
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We enjoyed a drink by the river, took a water taxi back to the CBD and went for some dinner. Donna (the girl we gave a lift to) was keen to watch the Man Utd and Liverpool match and so were the other guys in our room. We left the dutchies to it and went for some premiership action. Then we went to 'The Valley', a trendy part of town with bars and clubs. We had a boogie, i impressed everyone with my moonwalk (ask me to show you next time) and ate pizza (again) at 3 in the morning!Top Night!

me and my mate
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The next morning we were up early and had an exciting day ahead! We were going to Australia Zoo! WHOOP! we said our emotional goodbyes and headed off. My turn in the back to catch up on some ZZZZzzz's!

Those that don't know - Australia zoo was owned and run by the late and great steve irwin. We had heard it was pretty special because of the interaction with the animals. I was impressed with the midday show. They had birds flying round the crocseum, a lengthly snake display and a pretty good croc show (the best bit). it all lasted about an hour with lots of crowd participation (not from me though)! Good on ya! i fed an elephant for the first time, chatted to a kangaroo and had an awful picture with the dutchies and a snake. Awful in the sense that i have my hand in a very weird position that makes me look a little strange. i have had it ripped out of me ever since! i am looking forward to meeting new people that don't get to see the picture! oh... and its not going on the blog!!

just chilling and chatting
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the days was quite long and super hot, so i think we were glad to get on the road again. Next stop Noosa.

We arrive about 5pm, it was starting to get a little dark. We wanted to camp to keep costs down. One of the lads in the hostel in Brisbane had recommended a camp site about 15 K out of Noosa, that had its own character and was in the middle of nowhere so could do whatever you wanted? (not sure what that meant!) and there could be up to 60 people there! sounded good!..... ERRRR NO! it was the worst night of all our lives!

us and steve
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It all started when we couldn't find it. We were miles away from civilisation when we spotted two kids playing in the road! We stopped and asked if they could help us. They screamed "DAD!!!DAD!!".... literally 10 long minutes later, a guy stumbled out of his gate, looking like he had just woken up. We appoligised if we had woken him, but he said he was just really stoned!!(O...K...!) he said he knew where it was, but had just got a mental block, and was struggling to remember!!(O....K...!) a lot of ummms and errrrrs later, it all came flooding back! Few! its was only down the road!! he gave us very hard direction to follow, but at least we were on the right track! We should have taken this as a sign and gone back to the town, but we were silly and carried on! after about 5k we came to the end of the road - well it turned into a dirt track! 'it couldn't be down here could it?' still we persevered! another 2k down the track that was really only meant for a 4x4 we came across a blue gate with a small hand written sign saying to ask the guy in the house to open it! Daan was brave and disturbed the family during dinner to lift the latch for us! (its dark by now by the way). We had come this far so we had to see this place, again - we soldiered on! after another 1k or so, we started to hear gun fire and screaming!(O....K...!) we looked at each other a few times for confirmation that we had all heard it. the look on our faces told us we had! We kept on moving!!... we started to see lights, and a couple of shacks/houses deep in the wood. We came to an area that had 1 tent... could this be it?. A guy with no shoes came towards the vehicle (i could see he wasn't carrying a gun, so safe for now at least!). He was actually pretty friendly and asked us if we wanted to stay - $10 each. erm...... yes...... we said for some reason! he told us to go and see that guy in the hut. As we approached we worked out where the gun fire and screaming was coming from. The guy in the hut was playing on a computer game which he had hooked up to pretty big speakers that send the sound rebounding around the forest (how nice of him!). It settle us a little and we paid him the cash ($10 too much, but we would get that back he said). we were showed to the DVD room! kitchen, pool table and told to enjoy. So, after that we thought - 'ahh this is alright, bit out of the way, but its got character!' we cooked some noodles, played a game of darts and went to the DVD room.

croc!
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there was a total of 6 people - including us! one of them put on a horror film (good choice!) and another decided to talk to us about all his addictions! (O....K...!) he had been addicted to most things but was now on the mend. He like to surf and after 20 year was now able to stand up! he didn't like to drive in the day because the signs would pass to quickly to read and he would often get lost and he had been staying here for 2 years! TWO YEARS!! crazy!! after the film, we decided to get to sleep as fast as we could and get out at first light! Daan (poor bugger) was in the tent! we wished him good luck and settled down. The others decided to put on another horror film and turn it up really loud. It didn't help us sleep put it that way. renz and I got the giggles about how we ended up in this situation and whether we would ever see daylight! i haven't laughed that hard for a while!

feeding the elephant
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The heat was unbearable - it was a long night! We woke at first light, packed the car at record speed and got the hell out of there. We didn't even get our $10 back - we didn't care.... we were alive! later Daan told us how some guy was walking around his tent in the middle of the night having coughing fits and hopping over the puddles!! Daan was hugging the torch ready to pounce! we laugh about it now! but... what a night!!

i know i waffled a bit there, but i wanted to get it all down, so when i come back to read it - i have all the details, it makes a funny story!

Right then - smelling pretty bad and damp from the thunderstorm in the night (forgot to mention that - Daan woke up in a lake!!) we put our foot down and headed to a normal camp site at rainbow beach.... which is where the next section will start.

TRA for now xx