Gold Coast, Australia

(My 100th blog post.)

As I mentioned before, what exactly "Gold Coast" means is unknown to me. I was in Coolangatta, which is in Queensland and has the twin city of Tweed Heads on the other side of the state line in New South Wales. It is a Kansas City thing going on. Getting to Cooly, as it is often called, was the first transport I have paid for in Australia other than flights and shared fuel costs driving from Melbourne to Brisbane; it was the first non-flight organized transport I took in the country. I was proud of this fact for no special reason. I probably could have hitch hiked from Brisbane to the Gold Coast but I decided it was not worth doing so with all my baggage making it harder to get picked up (at least so I guessed) and the risk of rain. Getting there was easy and not too expensive considering. I took the train and a connected to an inter-city bus. Most travellers in Australia that get around using transport use Greyhound or a competitor Premier, and both are crazy expensive. I was supposed to crash at Jusford's, of the sailing trip from Brisbane to Sydney, but he crapped out on me so I ended up spending the night in a backpackers. The backpackers was an unusual place. At times it seemed completely empty and other times it was happening. I could not figure it out but did not care much either.

I arrived at midday and just walked around town for a bit for the rest of the day. There is a lighthouse that supposedly has good views but the weather was not cooperating so I had mediocre views. The town, well, towns, really, is/are not much. Other than surfing, as far as I can tell and was told, there is nothing there to see or do. The first night some people went up the coast to Surfers Paradise, a party town, but I declined and just hung out in the backpackers talking with people and watching movies.

The following day I checked out of the backpackers. My flight was very early the next morning so my idea was to check out as I did, have the backpackers hold on to my stuff (a common service provided), spend the day doing whatever, hang out at the backpackers at night, sleep either inside if I could figure out a way to do so or outside (it was a little cold but not too bad), and then wake up early and head to the airport, which was only a 10 minite walk. I was sure this would not work out but the worst thing that could happen was that I would have to check back in and pay for the night. This is what I was trying to avoid but if I could not then it would just cost me some money.

So I checked out and went to take advantage of Cooly's surf, which is one of the best in Australia, if not the best, which puts it in the running among the top world-wide. Years ago (I am too lazy to look up when) the government did some work offshore on the sea floor that had the unintended effect of creating excellent surfing conditions. If I understand correctly, basically what the government did was create a bump on the sea floor to help with the water flow and currents to control the movement of sand (a big issue on this part of the coast). This pushes the water upward, exaggerating even small waves into bigger ones. Or I made all that up. Either way, I rented a board and went out.

Again I had poor luck and nobody was catching many good waves including me, still hampered by me limited surfing experience and skills. I caught a few good ones and it was fun. Upon returning to the backpackers and returning the board the real challenge of the day started: employing my plan to avoid paying AU$28 for the night. I had been chummy with a couple of the backpacker employees and did not expect any issue from them or any of the other younger ones. There was an older guy that worked at night that was my only real concern other than the logistics of having my bag accessible and getting outside (if I spent the night inside) in the morning. It turned out to work perfectly and much easier than I expected. There was not problems at all and the older guy even saw that I was sleeping on the couch in the lounge and did not say a word. Plan well executed on my behalf.

In the morning I woke up at 5 and walked to the airport to leave Australia for a brief stop in KL before going to India.