Brisbain to Byron Bay
Woke up this morning in Brisbane to a bright blue sky and a short
ride ahead. Decided to go to the gym to get a good workout in before heading
out. We started out towards Byron Bay, the eastern most point of Australia and were on the interstate, quite a
boring ride so we pulled off and went through the beach drives, lots of tourist
traffic and we ended up stopping for a bite in Surfers Paradise and do a little people watching. Not all that different from
Panama City or Myrtle Beach. The more I travel the smaller the world seems to
become.
Highlight of the
day though was the demise of my GPS unit that has done such a great job finding
our destinations. We're going down the interstate at about 120 kph (70 mph)
fast by Australian standards, but very slow for 285, Rick is leading and hits a
bump in the road and all of a sudden I've got a missile inbound, the unit hits
the road surface and bounces twice before falling into pieces on the side of
the road. We stopped (safely) about 1/2 mile further. After a discussion of are
we going back and if we can even find it, would it work? We decided it was a
futile effort and moved on. Well it took quite a bit of effort to locate the
Lord Byron, not only because we lost the GPS, but because Mardi Gras 2012 was going on and the city was
packed with both people and cars. After driving around Byron Bay in every
direction but the correct one we get some local advice and she told us it was
down from Woolies, well after figuring out
what a Woolies was, she was right and we found it with no problem. We checked
in and went out to see the town. Byron Bay has
a cool, laid back feel and with lots of big money intertwined with back
packers. We had a pretty relaxed evening with just some pizza and beer while
talking to two French backpackers. These guys have been here for 6 months
balancing seeing the country with working on farms to earn enough to stay a
little longer. The really unique thing about them was their entrepreneurial
streak; both are finishing up a dual Accounting / Pharmacy degree and want to develop
a biotech company to develop the next big drug. Rick and I talked about some of
the advantages in the US and business in general, never too far removed from
work, I suppose. Being Sunday night and surfing coming up tomorrow, we decided to call it an early night.
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