Days 167 to 173 - Wednesday 14th September to Tuesday 20th September
Enjoying ourselves at Southport - Week 7.
- Weather: Another cold night with no rain, it was 11.5° at 3am and it reached 25.5° at 12:10pm.
- Wind: North Easterlies around 20kph with gusts upto 33kph.
Another cold night, but it was mild at bedtime, so I used my 2 blankets and had to pull on my sleepingbag around 4am and then slept very well. Woke up to a beautiful sunny morning with a gentle breeze, so I turned into Cycleman and rode off to the seaway. On the way, I had to go past where the Moscow Circus will be and great news, it is all hands on deck and it is a hive of activity. They were setting out the big top and were putting the tent pegs in. Strange, how I use a hammer and they use a mini pile driver to put their 'tent pegs' in.
I stopped at the osprey's nest, as mum osprey was having a fight with a bloody huge fish, Mum osprey was on the nest, trying to kill the fish with one talon, while the other talon was gripping the nest, it took about 2 minutes for the fish to stop moving, all the time that Mum was fighting with the fish, the 2 baby
opreys were yelling for their food, it was very noisy.
We had lunch at camp, then drove over to Aussie Fair, just as I had on my right blinker, my phone rang, it was the CP Office, saying that my mum and dad were at the office and we told them to wait, while I did a U turn and headed back to camp. It was great to see Mum and Dad, as they had left Melbourne last Friday and drove to the Gold Coast, they are staying at an apartment in Miami for a month or longer. It was great to catch up with them, Dad had already bought a bike this morning, so we will be going riding together for the next week and a half, before Marg and I head home.
Summer has arrived today, and it should be upto 29°s until next Wednesday. The camp is thinning out, in preparation for the school holidays, which start here on Friday(16th), then we should be inundated with families in camper trailers like last year. We will wait and see.
The Ticket Office is setup first.
Mum Osprey versus the Fish.
Oopps, Mum osprey nearly lost her footing.
- Weather: A mild night with no rain, it was 11.6° at 6am and it reached 25.1° at 12:20pm.
- Wind: Northerlies with gusts to 20kph.
Another mild night, I am still using 2 blankets, and only throwing off my blankets and pulling on my sleepingbag around dawn.
The morning was still sunny and with no breeze, so I rode out to the seaway again. On the way, I stopped off on the mound, overlooking where the Moscow Circus is being setup. It is all happening, the Big Top is up and the workers are everywhere doing the finishing touches. Out at the seaway, the surfers were there in force and the carparks were very busy.
We had lunch at camp and then walked upto Aussie Fair in beautiful sunshine, I forgot to say on this morning's ride, there was a film crew doing an advert or TV show or movie down where the houseboats are moored. They were still there as we walked past, so we stopped and I asked some guy what was happening. We had just walked past the making of the movie "Mental" with Rebecca Gibney and Toni Collette. I didn't take my camera, so that was a bit slack.
During the afternoon, I walked over to the camp's resident Bush Stone Curlews, they have a very eerie stare, one was sitting on their nest and the other one I photographed. I also helped Ken and Rosie, next door neighbours, to pack up their caravan, as they were leaving early tomorrow. For the rest of the afternoon, we relaxed under our awning and watched the world walk by. I had a few beers with John who is our 'new' neighbour at the back of us.
The forecast is for mid to high 20°s for the next week.
The circus is in town.
The Big Top is up.
Bush Stone Curlew has an eerie stare.
- Weather: A very mild night, it was 12.4° at 5am and it reached 26.0° at 1:30pm.
- Wind: Calm.
Another mild night, I only needed 2 blankets. We got up at 6:45am and said goodbye to Ken and Rosie, hopefully, we will meet them again next year, they are a lovely couple.
The morning is absolutely beautiful, blue skies, sunny and no breeze. Dad is driving over here and bringing his bike with him about 9:30am. We will go riding somewhere. Well, Dad arrived closer to 10am and we headed off to the Nerang River bridge along the shared path, with numerous views over the Broadwater. We rode past where the movie 'Mental' was being filmed yesterday, but no one was around today. Continued on towards the Moscow Circus area past the children's water playground area, there were plenty of kids with their parents enjoying the water. Past the Moscow Circus, it looks like they have finished setting it up, down towards the bridge, I showed Dad the osprey's nest and the 2 babies are now visible. Dad was feeling ok, so we rode over the Nerang River bridge and followed the shared path towards the Southport yacht club, where we stopped and admired all the boats and yachts. Continued on to Fisherman's wharf, where I pointed out the Jet Boat that we went on last year, further out along the pier, I showed Dad the Blue and White Cruise restaurant boat that used to be moored down at Shed 9 Docklands opposite NAB in Mebourne, it is now operating out of Southport ($153 per couple for a 3 course dinner cruise around the Broadwater), finally we rode past Palazzo Versace Hotel, where there was a 98ft Motor Yacht for sale, for a cool $6 million, believe it or not, it looked rather nice. We then rode back to camp, it was great riding with Dad again, as it has been 18 months since we last rode together, that was when he fell and broke his hip and had a hip replacement. Back at camp, he put his bike in the boot and drove back to their apartment in Miami, where Mum should be up by now. They are up here for a month or two, enjoying life.
In the meantime, Marg had walked up to our 'club' to pay the pokies, I hope she wins. I am sitting on my lounge, outside under the awning with a gentle warm Northerly in 27°. This is paradise.
The forecast is for mid to high 20°s for the next week.
- Weather: A very mild night, it was 13.5° at 5am and it reached 30.2° at 12:05pm.
- Wind: Northerlies gusting to 28kph.
Another mild night, I only needed 2 blankets.
The morning is absolutely beautiful, blue skies, sunny and with a slight building breeze. I turned into Cycleman and rode out to the seaway, as usual it was a lovely ride. At the end of the seaway, I was talking to a lady whose son is sailing the 2 masted ketch to Brisbane and then onto Cairns, because he can. His yacht is the 'Full Moon' that I photographed while it was moored at the Marina Mirage jetty, it's about 45 feet long.
Back at camp, the school holidays are in force, with all of families arriving at the CP, there are kids everywhere with scooters and bikes, you have to be so
careful driving.
We drove over to Aussie Fair for some food shopping, and the traffic was just under grid lock, as we turned out of camp onto the Gold Coast hwy, it was stop start the whole way to Aussie Fair. Everyone is coming to the Gold Coast.
Marg and Jodi and family had tickets for the 4pm show at the Moscow Circus, which is about 2 kms from camp, too far for the child to walk, so I offered to drive them as I was not going. Not my thing.
Usually it would take less than 5 minutes to get there on a 'normal' day. Today it took me over 40 minutes return trip, after I dropped the girls off, I couldn't do a U turn, due to the heavy traffic, I had to drive over the Nerang Bridge towards Surfers before I could duck down a side street and do a U turn, then just sit in the stop-start traffic, ohh, it was such great fun. The girls loved the Circus, it didn't have any animals but had plenty of performers, the only compliant was that the sound was too loud. They must be getting old. At the end of the show they rang me to pick them up and the traffic had disappeared,
so it was a 'normal' drive there and back. While the girls were away, Luke had ridden his motorbike over to camp, so we watched the Phillip Island V8s qualifying.
I hope Lowndesy and Skaifey win tomorrow. The weather today reached over 30° and was very hazy. It turns out that the haze was caused by numerous grass fires.
The forecast is for mid to high 20°s for the next week.
'Full Moon' - a 2 masted Ketch that was moored at Marina Mirage.
it is heading upto Brisbane.
then will sail through the Whitsundays on his way to Cairns.
- Weather: A very mild night, it was 15.2° at 1:30am and it reached 31.7° at 1:30pm.
- Wind: Northerlies gusting to 33kph.
Another mild night, I only needed 2 blankets.
This is getting boring BUT every morning is absolutely beautiful, blue skies, sunny and today it was hazy after yesterday's haze. I turned into Cycleman and rode out to the seaway. Today as it was hot, every dog on the Gold Coast was heading for the seaway with their owner, because the beach just south of the seaway
is a dog allowed beach. Well it was chockers, dogs everywhere. I rode out to the end of the seaway and the haze was very thick, you could just make out the
Surfer highrises in the distance and couldn't see any of the Hinterland. The weather bureau said we need a few days of South Easterlies to disperse the smoky haze, by Wednesday it should be gone. We will have to wait and see. Anyway, enough of the smoky haze, as I left the seaway and headed past the park, there was some guy flying something, I thought it was a helicopter, but after talking to him, it is call a Drone with 6 rotors, it was one unreal looking machine, he even had a video camera mounted to it. In the little bay, where there maybe 20 boast moored it was like Bourke St, there were probably close to 100 boats. again they were everywhere, you could nearly walk across boats from one side to the other. Riding back to camp, I noticed every picnic table was full and it was only 9:30am, because it was going to be a hot day, the beach was very popular, very early.
Luke rang me while I was out riding to say that they were coming over for a picnic, I suggested that they should come to our camp and base themselves here, as the beach is less than 50 meters away, so they did. I drove the mighty Navara out into the public carpark and parked it there, so when Luke came, they would ring me and I would move the mighty Navara and Luke could have a parking spot. They arrived about 1pm and we had lunch under our awning and then walked down to the beach. There were lots of children playing, so another child and 4 adults wasn't a problem. I carried the brollly and as you see from the photo, Luke and I are an odd couple, believe it or not, I didn't care what I looked like, we were in the shade. After an hour or so, the beach was shaded by the trees, so it was very pleasant sitting on the sand, watching the world go by. Luke and his family left about 4pm, my Mum and Dad were picking us up at 5:45pm, so I could show them Luke and Jodi's home. They arrived and I drove the 4 of us over to Luke and Jodi, they were very happy to see their home and meet Jodi's Mum and Daughter.
The forecast is for mid to high 20°s for the next week and hopefuly the smoky haze should be cleared by Wednesday.
The lazy, hazy crazy days of Summer... sorry Spring.
The hinterland is NOT visible.
Busier than Bourke St.
The Drone.
The local beach bunnies. aka Father and Son.
It's a bit blurry.
- Weather: A very mild night, it was 15.7° at 6am and it reached 24.3° at 2pm.
- Wind: South Easterlies gusting to 32kph.
Another mild night, I only needed 2 blankets.
This is getting boring BUT every morning is absolutely beautiful, blue skies, sunny and today it was still hazy after yesterday's haze. I felt a bit buggered after yesterday's heat, so I had a quiet day, no riding. About mid morning, we drove over to Aussie fair to do a large food shop, as we were very light on food. Had lunch back at camp and just sat on our comfy chairs under the awning with a cooling breeze, watching the world go bye. It was very pleasant.
Mid afternoon, we took our bags of sapphire wash down to the beach and sieved the wash in salt water, then put the wash in tubs of fresh water.
At 3pm, a helicopter propped above us for 30 minutes, while it broadcasted the Sam Stosur and Sally Pearson presentation at the Broadwater parklands, the helicopter was bloody loud and annoying. It only annoyed us for 30 minutes.
We had nachos for dinner and they were YUMMA.
The forecast is for mid to high 20°s for the next week and hopefuly the smoky haze should be cleared by Wednesday.
- Weather: A very mild night, it was 15.1° at 2:15am and it reached 26.5° at 12:05pm.
- Wind: Northerlies gusting to 48kph.
It was a warm night, I only needed 1 blanket, but nearly went for the 2nd blanket near dawn.
This is getting boring BUT every morning is absolutely beautiful, blue skies, sunny and today it was still hazy after yesterday's haze. It was bingo day.
so we walked to the club, arriving about 9:25am for eyes down at 10am. We were not in the Function room today, as there was a function on, how dare they!
We were in a part of the lounge area, there were abut 40 players with only 5 males. We paid our $52 for a full set plus an extra set of jackpot tickets,
the last game has a $500 jackpot. Anyway, Marg won $5 then a little later $20, and in the $500 jackpot game I had one number to go
18 and I had at least 15 numbers drawn and do you think that
18
came up. NO BLOODY WAY, some old fart won and I was pissed off. So close yet so far. That was our bingo fun until next year. We walked back to camp in
the beautiful weather.
During the afternoon, we drove over to South Park for some shopping and a coffee at Michel's. The rest of the afternoon was spent back at camp just relaxing
on the lounges under the awning.
We had BBQ sausages and salad for dinner and they were YUMMA.
The forecast is for mid 20°s for the next week and hopefuly the smoky haze should be cleared by tomorrow.
