Days 126 to 131 - Thursday 4th August to Tuesday 9th August
Enjoying ourselves at Southport - Week 1.

Day 126 - Thursday 4th August.

It's our little boy's 30th Birthday today
Happy Birthday Jay, love from Mum and Dad.
We miss you heaps.

• Weather: A milder night, it was 11.9° at 6:30am and it reached 22° at 11:23am. Very nice.
• Wind: 10 - 25kph SE.

I slept in until 7am, it was great that we didn't have to drive anywhere, so we laid in bed and watched Ch7's 'Sunrise'.About 8:30am, I finally dragged myself out of bed and got dressed into 'Cycleman' and off on my trusty treadley, I rode along the bikepaths and roads out to the end of the Gold Coast Spit and return. It was good to see that the renovations on the Broadwalk opposite Australia Fair, is now completed. It is a great place to cycle and I noticed that Mum and Dad osprey are back on their nest with at least 1 chick, because the parents were flying in fish and something up there was eating it. There was a very large motor yacht 'Family Day' moored at the Southport marina, it is only 65 meters long and bloody beautiful. See photo below.

After my ride, Marg and I drove over to Aussie Fair and did some shopping and also went to Telstra and discussed Marg's modem, it was intermittently terminating, a very frustrating thing. Telstra had to send it away to have it fixed. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and mid afternoon, I rode back to the marina and took some more photos as the sun was in a better position.

Day 127 - Friday 5th August.

• Weather: A milder night, it was 13.5° at 4:30am and it reached 22° at 1:30pm. Very nice.
• Wind: 15 - 25kph E.

Our normal day on the Gold Coast is taking shape, we wake around 7am and lay in bed, watching Ch7 'Sunrise', I get up about 8am and turn into Cycleman and rode off into the distance, well ride to the Gold Coast seaway, a ride of approx 21kms in total. Marg is usually up when I get home.
During today's ride, I visited the Marina Mirage wharf and took some closer photos of 'Family Day', this is one very nice ship, after checking the internet, I still don't know who the owner is, all I have found out is that the ship is not for charter, so I assume that the owner is on board. I rode out to the end of the seaway, checked out the 4 fisherman, one fisho had a large fish in his bucket, then it was back to camp. Did I tell you how nice the Broadwater is now after all the renovations. Well it is.

Back at camp and showered, Marg and I went over to Aussie Fair and then drove to Luke's house, where we had lunch with Luke and Jodi. Luke was having a working from home day. I managed to have a nanna nap during the afternoon.

Day 128 - Saturday 6th August.

• Weather: A milder night, it was 12.0° at 4:30am and it reached 22.7° at 12:00. Very nice.
• Wind: 10 - 25kph E.

Our normal day on the Gold Coast is taking shape, we wake around 7am and lay in bed, watching Ch7 'Sunrise', I get up about 8am, except today 1 woke Marg about 8am as we were visiting the Ipswich Gem show at the showgrounds run by the local lapidary club.

We left camp about 8:55 and drove the 91kms from the Gold Coast to the Ipswich Showgrounds. We arrived about 10:20am and paid our $2 each entry fee. The show was located in 2 sections (inside and outside) , one was inside the reception room, which appeared to be mainly dealers and the outside section which appeared to be smaller sellers was on the flat grassed section below the reception room. There would have to have been over 100 visitors walking around while we were there. We did 2 laps and checked out everything, I did buy a piece of Black Tourmaline. We were there for just under 2 hours and the weather was beautiful, no wind, no clouds and a beautiful blue sky, probably about 20 degrees.
We drove via the Logan Motorway, there and back. Spent the rest of the afternoon taking it easy, we are getting good at taking it easy.

We had previously arranged dinner with our boys and their girlfriends. So we left camp about 5pm and went to Jay and Bec's home, it was great. After a quick tour, we took 2 cars and went and picked up Luke and Jodi on our way to the Pacific Pines Tavern for dinner. All went extremely well, it was great to see Jay again as we haven't seen him for months, we saw Luke on Friday and it was great to see him again and also catch up with their girlfriends. Dinner was parmas, steaks and prawns, all very YUMMA. After dinner, we went our separate ways.

Tomorrow Marg, Jay and Bec are going to see the latest Harry Potter movie. I kindly declined, I have something more important to do, like empty the shitter.

No cycling today for me.

Day 129 - Sunday 7th August.

• Weather: A milder night, it was 14.1° at 6:30am and it reached 24.3° at 12:20pm. Very nice.
• Wind: 10 - 25kph N.

We woke about 7:30am and watched Ch7 'Weekend Sunrise', Marg was going to see Harry Potter with Jay and Bec.

Jay and Bec arrived at camp about 9:30am and after showing Bec our setup, the three of them headed off to Aussie Fair to see the latest Harry Potter, I was also invited to join them, but I was way too busy, I had to empty the 'shitter', it only took 3 trips to the dump point. Marg walked home after Harry Potter from Aussie Fair along the Broadwater parklands and arrived back at camp about 1pm. The rest of the day was spent relaxing around camp. At I said before, we have perfected this relaxation bit.
After a quiet day, we had dinner and watched some TV, then off to bed and that was another hectic day over.

No photos were taken today.

Day 130 - Monday 8th August.

• Weather: A milder night, it was 15.6° at 7am and it reached 23.7° at 2:30pm. Very nice.
• Wind: 10 - 40kph NW.

We woke about 7:30am and while Marg watched Ch7 'Sunrise', I turned into Cycleman and rode out to the seaway as usual. While listening to the radio, I heard that a baby humpback whale had beached itself at Surfers, so I rode down to check it out with the hundreds of other 'rubber necks'. The whale had been freed but immediately got caught in shark nets and was released after 15 minutes. The Seaworld staff did not think that it would survive because it hadn't found its mother, which it needs to survive, as it is believed to be ONLY 2 weeks old and weighing 1,500kgs. A bloody big baby.

Back at camp, after lunch, we went to look for a cache about 100 meters from our caravan park, but a guy was very close to where the cache should be and had set himself up and was fishing, so we couldn't look for the cache, as we try not to let other people see it. So back to camp.

About 4pm, I decided to walk over to the boat ramp and take photos of Georges (Pelicans), on the way, I called in to see Russell and Karen, who also have a 5th wheeler. Karen was very interested in where we had been on this trip and produced a map. As it was now getting dark, I missed the photo opportunity, as I had spent a good hour talking to Karen and Russell. A nice couple.

Day 131 - Tuesday 9th August.

• Weather: A cool night, it was 10° at 3:30am and it reached 21.9° at 1:08pm. Quite nice.
• Wind: 10 - 45kph NW.

I was cold at about 3:30am, so I got up and pulled my sleepingbag on me as a doona. We woke about 7:30am and while Marg watched Ch7 'Sunrise', I again turned into Cycleman and rode out to the seaway as usual. Today it was uneventful, the early radio reports said that the baby whale had found its mum, but later in the day, it was found to be incorrect, so the baby whale's future is not looking bright.

Back at camp, after I showered and we cleaned up, we had another look for the cache and we found it. Late morning, we drove over to Southport Park for a coffee at Michel's and a bit of shopping at Woollies. Early afternoon, Bob and Val called in and invited us over to their van for happy hour (Bob and Val camped next to us at Dicky Beach), so we just had to go. We also met another couple (Rod and Lyn), as it got cool we went back to our camp for dinner. A quiet night watching TV.

Tomorrow, is a big surprise.