Tuesday, February 12, 2008

DAY 130: Murwillumbah to Coolangatta




Tues 12th February 2008
31 km @ 16.3 km/hr
Distance to date 7783 km (4864 miles)
Rain all day, warmish

Today I entered a new state again - Queensland, although Coolangatta is only a km or so on the Queensland side. There is yet another tome change and from 11 previously there's now 10 hours time difference compared to the UK.


It was a dull morning when I woke around 0730 and rain threatened imminently. I enjoyed toast and some organic apricot jam I bought yesterday for breakfast for a change, said my goodbyes, and hit the road just as it started raining, lightly at first and not that uncomfortable. I’d phoned my next host, Linda, and she said she wouldn’t be riding out to meet me as arranged as it was raining where she was, which is fair enough, and we arranged to meet in Coolangatta where she would show me to her home. I was there within 2 hours by which time it was raining more heavily but still bearable. The road between these 2 places is flat as a fluke as it follows the Tweed River for most of the way, which was nice, and there was also a good-width, good quality surfaced shoulder. It gets a bit hairy as you approach Tweed Heads and Coolangatta as lots of motels and cafes appear, and there are quite a few sets of traffic lights, but I took my time and traffic was courteous.

Within minutes we were home; only a couple of minutes from the town centre and beaches - the latter will be better seen when the sun reappears!
After a quick shower I had dry things on again and was enjoying a hot cuppa with Linda and her friend and Linda’s 3 dogs. Linda and Arie, who works for a bicycle-manufacturing company are avid cyclists as well as keen cycle racing fans. Being an experienced cycling tourist Linda understands how hungry we can get and this was reflected in the very large (and welcome) lunch of cheese and tomato on toast that she rustled up for us. Later on I spent some time on the internet catching up with e-mails and stuff. This is getting pretty time-consuming as I am getting quite a lot of e-mail, but it’s very welcome guys, don't stop!

Still teeming down at 1800.
These are Linda's 3 dogs - the Bichon Friese is Fluffy, the Jack Russel is Jet, and the poor old blind and (I think) deaf 14-year-old is Marco. That's a view from the window looking east towards the Coolangatta beach. That bright light is not the sun but the camera flash!

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