Here are some pictures from Brisbane and Mooloolaba. Australia is great – lots of sunshine, nice people and endless beaches. Also abundant restaurants and coffee shops. Lots of seafood – especially in Mooloolaba. Some amazingly fit people as well as a whole lot of overweight people. Looks a lot like the U.S. in that respect. Way too much good food around.
How did it get to be November already? We spent 8 days enjoying Brisbane – lots of great walks in that town. Now we have been in Mooloolaba for 4 days. We came up here to see our friends Intiaq.
They left New Caledonia a week after we did and we have not seen them since, although we have been in contact by e-mail. We knew they were planning to come to Mooloolaba at some point to leave their boat and fly home to Switzerland for a few months. We did not know, however, exactly when they would arrive in Mooloolaba. We decided to sail up and hopefully rendezvous with them for a few days. It turned out to be a great plan as we sailed into the here within 1/2 an hour of each other just by coincidence. It was a very nice reunion as they are always the most hospitable people. Karin immediately prepared us one of her beautiful gourmet meals and we have spent a fair bit off time with them. They are quite busy, however, getting ready for their departure which is going to be this Friday (tomorrow).
Mooloolaba is a great little place with a beautiful beach and lots of restaurants and a great boardwalk. Yesterday the beach was filled with dozens of iron-men and women – all doing the most extreme exercise at the beach. Whole groups of incredibly fit men and women were doing a routine where they would first run into the raging surf and swim to a buoy and back, then run around a marked off section of the beach, then grab their surf-board and paddle out to an even farther buoy and ride the waves back, then run around the poles on the beach again, and finally grab a sea kayak and paddle like crazy out to an even farther buoy. After seeing one round of this Mark and I were sure they would all collapse on the beach, but they just rested for about 60 seconds and then set off and did the whole thing over and over again. I have never seen such extreme physical fitness. Boy did we feel fat and old! We plan to leave here today and sail the boat down to Scarborough – at the marina where Sabbatical III will spend the season.
L.
