The Golden Coast, hot and humid

Now...we only have 45 days in Australia and, being the country is almost as large as the US, we had to make some decisions so we could see as much as we could and meet as many locals as possible. So, we took a train 900km north to Brisbane to start our bicycling adventure south. We biked south along the Gold Coast of Queensland. It was gorgeous like we had heard and very touristy. We camped along the way and Ward tried his hand at fishing. We tried to take side roads as much as possible as sometimes the traffic (trucks) can make biking a little harry (Ward has seriously used 4 of his lives already). The temps were reaching highs of 108 degrees with very high humidity. Not very conducive for biking which really made the ocean water tempting. Remember, this is the Christmas season so it was a little hard to get into the spirit when you are drenched in sweat. Lawn bowling is really popular in Australia and they have special clubs for it with real members. We saw signs of kangaroo and koala crossings and had the opportunity of seeing a koala hanging on a tree on the side of the road. We returned to Sydney where we needed to pick up our Vietnam and China visas. We were fortunate to meet Susan Zbornik (from Decorah and a sister of Jacky's friend). We spent 2 nights with her and learned alot more about the Australian culture as she has lived here for 18 years. Thanks Susan.