Let it Snow, Let it Rain, Please Make it Stop Raining

14/12/2010 to 21/12/2010

So…where do I start?  It’s been a while since I wrote the last entry, mainly because of my hectic riding schedule between the 22nd and 29th of December.  I’ll do my best to patch together the highlights of the past few weeks in the following posts.

Of course, the ride from Byron Bay was a wet one again – truly not what I expected the Australian summer to be, but with the La Niña weather pattern battering Australia (it’s the worst since 1973) I shouldn’t really be surprised.  It was a long ride from Byron to Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane.  3 ½ hours according to Google Maps, but riding through Brisbane instead of taking the toll loop road around added about 45 minutes – which reminds me, riding in summer is miserable if you’re stuck in traffic.  You can wear all black (as I do) in the middle of scorching heat, and as long as you’re moving, you’re relatively OK; but once you get stuck in rush hour traffic, you’re sweating like a pig no matter what you’re wearing.  Needless to say, thanks to the heat (85°F +) and the rain/humidity, I was definitely the latter.  I eventually passed Brisbane, which I don’t really rate as an Australian city.  Mainly because it has no beach to itself, it’s in Queensland, and it’s where the headquarters of Virgin Blue (one of my arch-nemesis customers while at Gate Gourmet) is located.  Never have I had a good experience in this city, though admittedly this is largely due to the 6am flights from Sydney leading to protracted, utterly pointless business meetings.  Such is corporate life I guess. 

As I said, I eventually got past Brisbane and rode past the Australia Zoo (of Steve Irwin / Crocodile Hunter fame).  Early in the afternoon (thanks to gaining an hour since Queensland doesn’t practice DST) I got to the hostel, called Flashpackers Noosa.  I know I’ve said that I’ve stayed in nice hostels so far, but this once took the cake – free Internet, A/C in all rooms, free breakfast, a pool, and nice leather couches in a big common room with a huge big screen TV.  I settled in my room, blasted the A/C on arctic chill setting and then wandered into town to see what’s what.  While shopping for food for the upcoming week – and it being Christmas time – the most ill-fitting tune plays along the aisles: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.  I actually chuckled while it played, with the temperature outside a festive 85-90°F.  You’d think the Aussies, in their infinite creativity, would come up with some appropriate Christmas songs instead of your typical northern hemisphere white Christmas ones.  Something like, “Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain”…Or maybe it’s the Aussie sense of humor and sarcasm that keeps the classics going year after year.

The first night, I run into some Irish guys staying at the same hostel.  We strike up a conversation, talk about my ride around Australia etc.  They’ve got some family friends (or friends of friends) in the area, and they invite me out for dinner and drinks.  Apparently the family friends know the owner of some restaurant / bar, and we get good beers and some of the nicest pizzas I’ve had in a long time.  I can’t totally remember what they were, but one was a Peking duck pizza, reminding me of my childhood in Virginia Waters, eating at the big family table and the lazy Susan at Lux II.

One day during the week (all the days really blended into one another), I wandered a bit further than the set of shops discovered on the first day.  Another 20 minutes walk down the road was the main beach of Noosa, creatively called “Main Beach”.  Packed with summer vacationers, I wandered a bit further, knowing there was supposed to be a nice walk around the national park that takes up the peninsula east of Noosa.  Already an hour into my walk, I happen upon the national park; I figure since I’m already there, I might as well just hike around.  Of course, I’m totally unprepared for the three-hour hike, having had no water during the day, no sunscreen, and in flip flops.  The flip flop part wasn’t that bad for the most part, except the last mile was on sand the temperature of the surface of the sun.  Quite clearly I made my way back safely, and amazingly without sunburn; and though it was a nice walk (and probably camera-worthy), I decided I wouldn’t repeat the effort just for sake of some pictures.

Later in the evening (or maybe the next day, I can’t really remember), the entire Sunshine Coast area got hammered by some pretty violent thunderstorms.  We had some great lightening, rain mixed with hailstones, and near hurricane-force gusts.  Around 6pm (can’t really tell, but it was darker than the inside of a cow), the entire hostel loses power.  No TV, no internet, nothing.  Lucky for me, I know that some German girls (of course) that I had met earlier are staying in a hostel in town and had invited me to stop by to hang out.  Not being too late at night and there being a short respite in the downpour, I head into town and meet up with the girls.  Not much was going on that night – I get the feeling the last night was a long one for all of them – we just hung out, chatted, and had some late-night McDonalds.

Over the course of the next couple of days, there was more rain; so most of my time was spent watching movies and working on pictures and the blog (believe it or not).  I’m beginning to think I’m bringing the bad weather with me.  Since the start, there’s been plenty of rain – I’d say about 2/3 of the time.  Anyhow, that’s just about all I remember from Noosa…now on to the Christmas post.