News
Australia - Week 1
Posted November 25, 2008 11:38 PM
Our first week in Oz has been awesome. The 15.5 hour direct overnight flight from Vancouver to Sydney passed in the blink of an eye thanks to the aid of a sleeping pill! The cabin lights were dimmed for approx 11 hours of the flight and the passengers were very respectful - no talking or noisy babies for once. On our approach into Sydney airport we could see the harbour and Opera House as well as streets lined with Jacaranda trees. Instead of green foliage seen from above, we could see light purple blossoms/foliage. It was incredible.
We caught a connecting flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast about 1.5 hours away. From there we took a taxi to Surfer's Paradise where we were staying for 8 nights. All the towns/communities along the Gold Coast, and in particular Surfer's Paradise, are like any big tourist town (Miami, Waikiki, Cancun for example). Full of towering hotels and rental apartments, with tons of people wandering the streets/sidewalks at all hours. Not the type of location that Bob and I normally gravitate to, but we were kindly offered accomodation there owned by some friends so we eagerly accepted. As it turns out Surfer's Paradise and the next town over, Southport, is the exact location where next year's Age Group Oly distance World Championships will be taking place so we are now familiar with the area and the team hotel accomodation available. We'll be heading back next September to take part in that race.
Our time in Surfer's Paradise was notable in that there were 3 major storms that passed through the area while we were there. The first, just as we arrived, devastated parts of Brisbane about 95kms away. Fierce winds and rain/flooding tore apart many streets and houses. The first couple of days in SP were wet and wild and we avoided the worst of the storms. Then the weather finally improved but the combination of the heat and humidity set off a couple of nights of thunder and lightning storms. Mid-week there was one storm that lasted about 3 hours. Our 11th floor apartment had floor to ceiling windows so we had front row seating to spectate at the most amazing sheet lightning. The sheet lightning turned into fork lightning for the last hour with the most dramatic and terrifying thunder rolls we have ever heard. Over 3,000 lightning strikes in the 3 hours!!
On one of our training rides we got a little lost (the Gebbies - never!!) Luckily we flagged another cyclist heading by and he led us back into town. He also invited us to take part in a group ride he was leading on Saturday morning a couple of days later. So bright and early on Saturday morning we got up and cycled about an hour away to a little town called Robina where we met the fellow and his group that had come on the 6am train from Brisbane. Their "easy" ride in the hills turned out to be something that would have been more suitable for when I was training for Lanzarote last year. As I was seriously starting to overheat Bob and I decided to take a different route back and let the others continue on their way without me delaying them. This turned out to be a good decision as we received an e-mail the next day telling us how far they actually went which was about twice as far as was on our training schedule. Plus I did have a meltdown on the return leg of the trip and had to have a little "siesta" in the shade to bring my core temperature down before continuing...
The other crazy thing that was going on in SP while we were there was the annual "Schoolies" event (almost 2 weeks in duration) that began a couple of nights before we left (thankfully). This is basically like Spring Break in the States, but is a celebration event for the grade 12's from the State of Queensland. Approx 20,000 teenagers descent on the Gold Coast, primarily SP, sans chaperones and with the main goal seemingly to get as drunk or drugged up as possible and to wander the streets and beaches at all hours of the day, but mostly after midnight until 5am, shouting their lungs out at one another and attempting to see who can say the "F" word the most...The city braces itself with 24/7 police presence and extra security all over. Not the most relaxing or reassuring of sights...
The end of our first week had us repacking the bike boxes for our Monday morning flight back to Sydney. I have the best bike box in the world - the TriAll 3. It has a wide base with 4 wheels and "stands" about 3 feet tall. My bike doesn't have to be "broken down" as much as Bob's does to fit in his box. I basically just have to take off the wheels and loosen my handlebars so that they fit sideways in the box. A lot of my gear goes in the box too. Once the lid is on I can load up my suitcase and backpack on top of the box (which combined with the bike box probably total around 140 lbs), and just pull the box along behind me like a dog on a lead! It just rolls along obediently behind me and I just have to use one hand only - it's perfect.
After flying to Sydney we caught a connecting flight to Perth which took 5 hours. After a long and convoluted ride in special bus from the airport to Cottesloe Beach where we're staying for 10 days, we finally made it to our rental apartment at about 7pm. Our apartment is located right across from the loveliest beach. Cottesloe is a community of about 12,000 residents and it's so beautiful, clean and well maintained. There are a ton of parakeets and cockatiels everywhere and last night on a cycle around town we could smell "Vicks Vaporub" and then realized that we had just cycled under some eucalyptus trees!
More about our time in Cottesloe next week!
