One Last Stop and Back to the Boat

Trying to figure out where to stop after Sydney wasn't easy at first but we had been lugging Mark's Paragliding Kite around with us for three weeks so I insisted he find us a place to go. We stopped for a coffee and donut just north of Sydney and Mark did a little online research. We though we had hit the jackpot.

A paragliding site that does lessons but is open for flying and has cabins onsite to stay in for $40. Sounded good to us. Mark and I stayed in a few cabin type hostels in NZ last year that were pretty nice and reasonably priced as well so we were looking forward to it....that is until we arrived. These weren't nice little cabins - they were kinda dirty portables. Basically we had signed up to camp and didn't know it.


We weren't real pleased but we were too far from any town to do anything for the night so we decided we'd stay. It's funny because Mark and I did some serious hiking last year and camping wasn't a big deal the difference this time was that 1. we weren't expecting it so we weren't prepared and 2. with MM we want to stay in clean places and after Sydney we were ready for something nicer (this is what I get for saying it can't get any worse.)

We figured if Mark got to fly it didn't matter we'd buck up and stick it out so we stayed the night and then the we highly disappointed the next day when there was to much wind to fly. We looked for a hotel to stay in but there really wasn't anything close so we decided we'd give it one more night even though we didn't really want to since everyone said that the wind was supposed to get better the next afternoon.





You guessed it...it didn't (a few really experience guys flew but Mark just isn't to that level yet) so we had had enough of that place so we headed out highly disappointed. Hopefully Mark will get some flying in soon. They really make it hard here.

We headed for Brisbane and decided to stop and visit with some friends before getting back to the boat. We had a nice lunch and then since MM loved the Ferris Wheel in Sydney so much we thought we'd give it another go since Brisbane has one of the largest in the world. He was a little fussier this time but it was nice anyhow as the car was airconditioned and gave a talking tour of what we were seeing.

 

The next few days we spent in a hotel in Redcliffe and worked to get the boat back in the water. Mostly it was Mark spending time at the Marina while I tended to the baby at the hotel, doing laundry, and catching up on other things that had been neglected for a few weeks.