Our final day in Australia and we're still in Noosa. The weather since arriving has been fantastic but today it almost seems like Australia knows we're leaving. It's a little overcast and a little cooler than it has been (still about 20 degrees but cooler than the last week). At one point it even begins to rain. Only a little, and very light but rain nevertheless.
We drove around Noosa in the morning and went to the Markets at the Marina. Very small and very expensive but worth a look. Noosa is beautiful. It is basically the spectacular beach we've talked about before, but it is also a series of intricate waterways with little estates of housing interspersed with Shops and restaurants. There are little parks by the waterways and they all have the communal bar-b-ques. They are all over Australia. Great idea, you just turn up and if not in use, help yourself. They are spotlessly clean and are looked after, they even have sinks next to them to clean your food/plates etc. Amazing really, they would be vandalised in seconds in the UK!
Here are a couple of shots of the waterways near the Market:
Whilst the one young lad turned up with his girlfriend on his Jetski, after a while he dropped her off and headed back down the waterway. What a way to travel! A couple of other young lads turned up in their boat with a little outboard to get fishing supplies and then off they went to go fishing. A whole different way of life but what a way of life!
At the Marina, Calum found a skate park and was happy using his scooter whilst Jen and Les drank Latte's and absorbed the atmosphere:
To keep us entertained, we had Calum (who made friends with some other lads in the park) and the pelicans:
Which flew about us very close.
Early afternoon and we headed back to the hotel. On the way we discussed the flights coming up tomorrow. Three flights in all, the first being at 9.05am from Brisbane to Sydney, then onto LA, then on again to San Francisco.
Th first flight is the one bothering us the most because from our apartment to Brisbane it's a good 2 hour drive and on a Monday morning this could be getting busy. We also will need to set off in the dark and the roads are not lit.
We made a Decision to try and book a hotel near the airport for the night and lose the extra night at Noosa. A quick visit to an Internet cafe and we manage to book the Formule 1 hotel near the airport (before you say anything it really is spelt Formule and not Formula okay!).
3.30pm and we set off having first booked out of the hotel and said our sad goodbye to Noosa!
The drive down to Brisbane went without a hitch. As we turned off the Gold Coast highway we realised we were tantalisingly close to Surfers Paradise but no, we had to get to the hotel - which was on an industrial park!
Now, this is where we ask "Has anyone seen 'Psycho'?". As we booked into 'The Bates Motel' sorry 'Formule 1' the receptionist - a tall thin male called Norman - told us "I've booked you into room 108. Mother used to like room 108!". Thanks we said, taking the pass key-card and moving off to the room. "enjoy the shower" called Norman after us.
To say this room is not the best we've stayed in is something of an understatement:
As you can see Calum had to sleep above our heads on the 2ft wide and 5ft long bed above our heads. No tea or coffee in the room but you could grab a vending machine coffee for $2.50 or about £1.80.
Still the TV was good, lots of films streamed to the rooms, everything from Disney to Hardcore Pornography. Great fun for Calum flicking through the channels (we quickly took control of the remote!).
The shower did work fine - we put a guard on the door - only it did flood the bathroom floor. The picture above was the room without our cases and bags. There was no room at all after that! Remind me again, why did we leave our luxury apartment in Noosa to pay for a night here? Oh well, tomorrow we leave the most wonderful country on earth and this little setback will not spoil that impression of the country.
Thank you Australia for a great holiday. San Francisco next, it almost seems like a let down!
More to follow:
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