December 11th -12th

Surfer's Paradise - Miami

We decided to take the train out of Brisbane down to the Gold Coast mostly due to south of the city being very industrial and built up. 30 plus miles of stop start traffic and dual carriageway didn't seem much of a choice against a $15 train ticket. When we arrived at the hosts house in a beach town called Miami we were met by two guys from Manchester who were renting the flat after cycling from their front doors in the UK two years ago. They are Jacob and Russell. Their journey took them through Europe, the Balkans, parts of the former USSR, into China, down through South East Asia and into the Pacific Rim Countries. They have some amazing stories and cycled with some awesome people. Along the way they met an English guy on a tandem who rode through towns giving children lifts on the spare seat. He told the lads he was going to cycle into Afghanistan. They found out off him quite a while later that he ended up being taken and kept in a lock up where he was held and questioned over a long period of time as a suspected spy for the Taliban. In the end after it was all sorted out he was released and ended up staying with the chief of police as a guest at his home. It has been fantastic to swap travel stories and see how situations happen all over the world. They are looking at cycling from Alaska down through the US and then down South America in a couple of years. They have my details as South America would be great to cycle as a team. 

The weather for the last 2 days have been raining. It's still warm but just wet. Shame really as I was hoping to do some beach chilling. On Saturday night we went out to the local indoor market for food and live music. The band were called The Twine and they put on a great show. It had a barn dance feel to it but without the straw and horse muck. 

We head for Newcastle over the next few days and may take the inland road for a while as the area has some amazing mountains and waterfalls.