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Pete was out on his morning ride, and Kath had taken the dog to the beach for a walk, but they left us breakfast (and coffee!). We had a long day ahead of us if we hoped to make Brisbane — that was the plan, at least. Pete came back while we were on the porch enjoying the sun and view and we chatted more. He also showed us a copy of “The Simplicity Mobility Method” by Tom Morrison, a training guide for maintaining agility while aging. Going to get a copy when we get home. We said our good-byes to Pete, and Kath who had returned, too, and started towards the Gold Coast & Brisbane.
Another beautiful day for riding. We hugged the coast on bike paths (with lots of people) and the low traffic roads alongside them. We happened on to a Surf Rescue Club (almost every beach/beach town we went through had one) competition. The part we saw had the crews taking a boat from shore, over the waves to a marker, rounding it, and rowing back in to shore. Quite exciting and from the looks of the crews, very strenuous. There were other parts to the competition including beach runs, but we didn’t stick around for all the festivities.
Our next stop was in the Gold Coast. Dana’s niece had stayed there on a semester abroad program and we found the apartment building she lived in and got a few photos to send her. Outside the apartments, we met a couple of American women who were doing the same, minus the college part. It was a Saturday, and the beach town areas were really crowded with lots of folks of all ages, sizes, and nationalities. Through it all was a great seaside bike/ped path and we followed that as far north as it went.
At that point we only had 25 miles on the odometer and even though there was a 50 cent train that would take us into or closer to Brisbane, 25 was not enough for Dana and we continued on. Queensland, unlike New South Wales, does not allow bicycles on their highways. Instead, they have a really nice roadside cycling infrastructure, and where there wasn’t a path, a fairly load traffic road. We added another 27 miles to Beenleigh where I finally convinced Dana that the train was a good option. It was already 5:30, and late summer, and sunset was at 5:50. That was very new to us as we just made it to Queensland today and found out that they don’t do Daylight Savings Time, so we gained an hour, but lost daylight, too.
Trains in Queensland cost 50 cents to go anywhere in the network. It was a recent adoption by the train system to increase ridership and it was working. The train we boarded already had 3 cyclists on it — a commuter from Brisbane and two Italian guys with road bikes. We had quite a struggle getting the bikes on and no of them lifted a finger to help or even move their bikes a little bit. We spent the ride trying to keep the bikes from toppling over. Other than that, it was an hour ride to the Roma St station. Our plan was to get a hotel in Brisbane that night, then move to our Brisbane host (more about her tomorrow) on Sunday.
We found a good deal at the George Hotel which was just a short walk from the train. We got the bikes up to the room, showered and changed, and went to explore Brisbane. We had dinner at a Thai buffet, where all of the options were meat. Dana asked if they had anything vegetarian and they made her a special meal. After filling up the tanks, we continued walking around Brisbane. It’s a very welcoming and beautiful city with a mix of old and very avant garde architecture (and with LED light all over everything). We walked across the river and back and saw the preparations for a Sunday morning running race, something we’ll try to check out tomorrow. For now, it was a nice walk back to the hotel where we climbed in to bed for a good rest before more exploring tomorrow.
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