Tag 158 - together

05.10.19

- Alex

The alarm clock rings at 06:15 am. It's been a long time since we had to get up so early - surprisingly, it's not that difficult for us. We don't make breakfast, just a coffee for the road. We cruise along the highway towards the airport and along the skyline of Brisbane, which is bathed in red light by the rising sun. We reach the airport around 07:30 am and wait for Ines and Carsten to pick them up from the airport parking lot at 8:00 am due to some organizational reasons.

The reunion is warm and after a few moments it feels like we haven't been apart for more than a few days.

Jonna and I realize during the first few days that we need some more utensils for a trip for four in the car. So we go to the car rental again and get a second gas stove and another table - and we even get a few free gas cartridges with the gas stove!

Now that we are proud owners of TWO cooktops, we naturally need things to prepare on them, so we go directly to Aldi afterwards and stock up on barbecue food, pasta, eggs, and other stuff for the next few days. We leave our car in the Aldi parking lot and take a walk through the town. Along the way, we discover a small garage sale, which of course we can't resist visiting. We stroll across the drained bay and then make our way back.

At 10:00 am exactly, we stand in front of the beer, wine and spirits store (You can only get very limited amount of alcohol in supermarkets), which is practically just opening for us. We decide to test our livers with a canister of wine and pay 9€ for five liters of it - and no one can say that alcohol in Australia is unaffordable.

The weather is absolutely fantastic, so we decide to drive to the beach to start our four-week vacation together - we choose Bribie Island. Unfortunately, we don't quite make it to Bribie Island because the fact that it's still the school holidays makes it impossible for us to drive to the island - we're already stuck in traffic three kilometers before and then we simply turn onto an opposite beach section.

Absolutely amazed by some views, such as the Glass-House Mountains, we make a small stop and do what tourists do, we look at the upcoming attraction. This attracts a local, who also parks her car and eagerly rushes over to us, hoping that we would see something more exciting than this boring hill - unfortunately, we only see this boring hill that's always there.

We continue through the surprisingly hilly hinterland of Brisbane, which offers us one picturesque panorama after another. Our last stop is a small "rainforest park/walk" with an accompanying information center and gallery - of course, everything is free and, as expected, super interesting and worthwhile.

On the way to our first rest area, Ines and Carsten are forced to take a little nap due to jet lag. Jonna and I are reminded of New Zealand's landscape - only a bit drier.

The rest area turns out to be a stroke of luck and we park our van on the busy meadow under a tree. I put the barbecue food on the free public gas grills, Carsten takes a little dip in the adjacent creek, Jonna and Ines prepare salad and explore the area.

After dinner, we play another round, but then we're all so tired that we fall into bed around 8:00 pm.

- Alex