4th, Dec, The deep fried Smiths, Noosa

We're moving on today, not going too far, only a couple hundred kilometres. So its up at a decent time to pack up. Strange ain't it, we've been here a few days now, but its only as we pack up people want to come over and have a chat. Some strange guy by the name of Wayne is trying to give Lin advice on how to get cheap flights to Phuket and telling us he can hook us up with a bloke who can sort out cheap transport when we come back to Oz...... (All we bloody need). Seems we're getting lots of chat done and not too much packing and it ain't till gone ten that we finaly get on the road.

Well we've had a really nice week here, so we are all packed up and ready to hit the road... as you can see the Pilot is waiting for his passenger...lol..

Yes, you will see these all over the roads in Australia....there is a definite need to keep you awake...

The sun's well up by now and its starting to get more than a little warm. First stop, tank up and a bottle of water, its now more than warm, its sodding hot. On through the roadworks for another forty odd minutes and we pull into a garage. Its now really hot so we take a bit of a break and more water. When we get back on the road, we can really feel the heat and these roadworks ain't helping. At least when we're moving theres a breeze, when we stop..... we just cook.

After a while Lin tells me to find a garage and I can feel her starting to wobble and I ain't feeling to good me self, Kentucky??? that'll do and in we go. Lin takes off her helmet and shes red as a beetroot, no messing, straight in the loo to dunk her head under the cold tap, leaving me to wander round the counter looking like I'm waiting for me mum. When she comes out again, she sounds much better and after a bottle of water we decide to eat. Since we've been away, we've had two pi** poor meals, this was the second and both were Kentucky so unless we need more water, I don't think we'll be back. We only have another sixty k to go and no point in diddling about, so its back on the road. It didn't take to long before we were pulling into the information centre at Noosa, but believe me, the heat made it feel much longer.

We pulled up opposite a children's splash park and Lin took one look and her helmet was off and she was in there, much to the surprise of the mums, dads and me. I used a little more decorum and just stuck me head under the pre swimming shower, everyone looks, no one says a thing. Now we've got the body temperature down to just under simmer, its off to the information office. The people in there were really helpful and didn't even mention the pair of us dripping all over the place, so with lots of finger pointing and a free street map we head for the door. We open the door to leave when theres a crash from behind the counter, me and Lin both rush over to see whats going on and theres the woman that just helped us, lying on her back, legs in the air and arms all over the place. Through all this, she's managed to keep the phone to her ear and is apologising to the person on the other end that she didn't hear the last bit cos she just fell off the chair....this woman was a real pro. Lin took one look, did a quick bye, turned and shot out the door, just in time too, cos from the back it looked like she was doing a Ted Heath impression, must admit I wasn't far behind, mean I know, but so bloody funny.

We clam down, get back on the bike, find the site and start putting up the tent. Christ its hot and we find we're doing a bit, sticking our heads under the tap, doing a bit more, back to the tap and so on. Finally the tents up and it really seemed like hard work. Ain't gonna cook tonight, its too hot and we both cant be bothered, so after showers we take a walk down the road and into a backpackers hostel.  Now I don't normally drink, but I had two beers and they didn't touch the sides. Lin stuck to her usual lemonade and with her rallying cry of "I'm hungry" ordered up wedges. After chatting to the locals, it seems the temp, has touched forty four today, no wonder the hairs on me legs have gone all crispy, the've been fryed from the heat coming off the road, (and I thought me legs caught fire). Lin and me are both drained, so its off to bed for an early night and we'll see what tomorrow brings..


We pass through so much dried land on our way to Noosa, which is no surprise...considering the heat..

And here we are at Noosa River Caravan Park... all set up.

Yepppp.... our site was on the end of a row and did look like a little piece of forgotten land... but it was better than setting up in amongst 40 other backpacker tents all ready in place...(no disrespect to back packers...)....this bit of land is costing us £33 ($41) a night though !!! so John is not impressed...