On the way to Gold Coast / Cesta na Gold Coast

From Airlie Beach we went to visit uncle Archie in Yeppoon just outside of Rockhampton. Even though we gave him some (not much) warning, he was surprised to see us. Apparently just after we left Airlie Beach lot of north coast got an absolute downpour and some roads were flooded. Airlie Beach was cut off and Archie assumed that we are stranded there. Well we just made it out and relaxed at Archie’s for couple of days before going out to Grandma’s for another couple of nights. After that we were off to Brisbane. Unfortunately the rain caught up with us and followed us around from then on. On way to Brisbane one of our bikes put a hole in our back window which shattered into million pieces. On the way we pulled into a rest stop for the night. Two caravans were already parked there but we could see nobody outside. We started unloading when suddenly we heard yelling from one of the vans. It sounded like a domestic but hey, we might be wrong. Well, it went on for a while, so we stopped unloading and listened to the loud but incomprehensible conversation. After some time yelling started from the van and then we could hear loud and clear - “Stan killed her!!!” We looked at each other. “Did you hear that?”, asked Gordie. “Yeah”, I said and started to load stuff back into the van. Before we managed to disappear a man run out of one of the vans with a mad expression, waving his hands furiously. We froze on the spot hoping he is not the Stan. Luckily for us it turned out that we are not sharing campsite with serial killer Stan but couple of St Kilda fans on the afternoon of the footy finals.
In Brisbane we caught up with Gordie’s friend John who let us stay at his place and showed us around his work. It’s surprising how small a watchmaker’s workshop can be  but then again, most of the time they look at it through magnifying glass which makes it look pretty huge.
Well after a night in Brisbane off we were again, next stop – Gold Coast.
Z Arlie beach jsme vyrazili na navstevu ke strejdovi Archiemu. Ackoliv jsme ho varovali predem, byl celkem prekvapeny, kdyz jsme mu zaparkovali pred domem. Airlie Beach byla totiz odriznuta zaplavami hned po nasem odjezdu stejne jako vetsina sevrniho pobrezi. Po par dnech u nej jsme zajeli na navstevu keGordieho babicce a pak hura do Brisbane. Bohuzel cestou jsme prejeli nejakej hup a kolo nam prorazilo diru do zadniho skla. To se nasledne rozsypalo na milion kousku. Cestou jsem zastavili na noc na odpocivadle. Uz tam byly dva obytnaky a my jsme zacli vykladat veci, kdyz se z jednoho ozval rev. Zacli jsme opet nakladat, nebot jsme nemeli v planu nocovat vedle manzelske hadky, kdyz se z oneho auta vyritil chlapik se silenym vyrazem zurive mavajici rukama. Nastesti se brzy vysvetlilo, ze neni silenec, ale fanousek americkeho fotbalu sledujici primy prenos finale.
V Brisbane jsme navstivili Gordieho kamarada Johna, ktery je hodinarem. Ukazal nam svoji dilnu, ktera se na prvni pohled zda malinka, ale je treba si uvedomit, ze hodinari vetsinu dne maji na ocich zvetsovaci skla. Pres ne to vypada celkem velky.
A z Brisbane uz hura na Gold Coast!

Airlie Beach

Airlie beach is the place for people wanting to see Whitsundays. So we pulled up in a caravan park and booked ourselves for a day sailing cruise on Camira. Here we took advice from couple of German backpackers that we ran into in Northern Territory and it paid off. We were picked up at accommodation at 7 am and at 8 am started the cruise with some tea and coffee on board. After couple of hours cruising among the islands we pulled up  in a bay for some snorkelling. So we hopped of the boat into the pretty damn cold water. As soon as I put my face under water I was glad I was wearing the goggles. My eyes would have fallen out otherwise I think. I found myself floating inside a National Geographic coral sea special. I didn’t even know where to look first. There was so much colour, corals and fish that at one point my jaw just dropped open with amazement. Trust me – opening you mouth when snorkelling is bad idea. At the end of the allocated snorkelling time they pretty much had to pull us and couple of Scots out of water as we couldn’t take our eyes of the world below us. After snorkelling we were exchanging out our experiences while stuffing our faces with cakes and hot tea. From there we were off to Whitehaven Beach, where we had couple of hours of swimming, lazing in the sun etc. After that was lunch buffet lunch and then slow sail back among the islands towards Airlie while we were enjoying complementary wine and beer. We got back at 7 pm so we had a great day out, amazing value and definitely recommend Camira to anybody who will be heading to Airlie.

Airlie Beach je vstupni branou do oblasti posete ostruvky zname jako Whitsundays. Odtud vyrazi spousta lodi na denni exkurze mezi ostrovy a plazemi. Na radu cestovatelu z Nemecka, ktere jsme potkali v Severnim Teritoriu, jsme si zamluvili vylet na plachetnici Camira a velmi se nam to vyplatilo. V sedum rano nas vyzvedli z kempu a v osm jsme uz vyplouvali z pristavu a srkali kafe a caj. Po par hodinach krouzeni mezi ostrovy jsme zastavili v zatoce na snorchlovani. Trochu neochotne jsme naskakali do studeneho oceanu, nicmene na teplotni stiznosti jsem zapomnela okamzite hned, co jsem ponorila oblicej pod vodu. Jesteze jsem mela ty bryle, jinak by mi asi vypadly oci. Pode mnou bylo neskutecne barev, koralu vsech moznych tvaru a velikosti a stovky ryb. V jednu chvili jsem samym uzasem otevrela pusu dokoran, coz pod hladinou neni nejlepsi napad. Kdyz vyprsel cas na snorchlovani, tak nas s Gordiem a dva Skoty museli vicemene vytahnout z vody, nebot jsme nemohli odtrhnout oci od toho sveta pod nami. Zpatky na palube jsme si vymenovali dojmy, zatimco jsme se ladovali kolacema a cokoladovym dortem a zahrivali se cajem. Odtud jsem pokracovali mezi ostrovy k plazi Whitehaven, mistni nejznamejsi, kde jsme meli nekolik hodin na plavani, valeni se atd. Kdyz jsme se vratili na lod, cekal nas obed v podobe bufetu. Odpoledne jsme se nacpani slunili na palube a uzivali piva a vina zdrarma. V Airlie jsme pristali v sedm vecer a cekal nas autubus do kempu, takze jsme meli krasny den a vyborne jsme si ho uzili.

 

Unfortunately we don’t have underwater camera (broke it in Grampians) but our neighbour from the campsite kindly offered to give us photos from his camera.

My bohuzel podvodni fotak nemame (rozbili jsme ho v Grampians), nicmene nas soused v kempu nam nabidl svoje fotky.

    

Fins everywhere you look / Ploutve kam se podivas

    

Mt Isa

Well just to explain my long absence from blogging - I do have a few posts to catch up on but haven't had a chance lately. We are in Mt Isa, which is a mining town in the middle of nowhere on Queensland, working to make money to get us back to Tassie. It didn't take long to find jobs here but they are neither glamorous nor exciting, so we are pretty much just going there for the money to get back home. The town as such is not too interesting either - has all the neccesities and that's pretty much it. We have one more week to go so hopefully I should be back shortly with something exciting to report.

Abych vysvetlila moji odmlku z blogu - momentalne jsme uvizli v Mt Isa, coz je mesto uprostred niceho v Queenslandu. Potrebujeme vydelat nejaky dolary na cesty zpatky do Tasmanie. Praci jsme tady sice sehnali celkem rychle, nicmene to neni zadna slava, takze posledni tri tydny byly trosku nuda. Mt Isa ma sice vsechny zakladni potreby, ale tim to tak nejak hasne, takze tu neni vubec co delat. No ale mame pred sebou uz jen tyden a pak zas frcime, takze snad budu mit zase brzo neco zajimaveho na psani.