On to Brisbane

OK, I left Byron Bay and it took a little self control to not rush to the next stop. I'm trying to learn to take my time and see some of the sights along the way. I'm usually like the horse who can smell the feed back at the home corral and am rushing to get there. So, I took a little time and went to the lighthouse on the top of Cape Byron. It's actually a pretty cool lighthouse. But it turns out that there are a lot of whales hanging around in the general area.

It's almost impossible to get a reasonable photo of the whales blowing. You never know when they'll pop up. But here's one just surfacing. Maybe you can believe there's something there!!

Been a bit of a challenge. I've always (or it seems like always) had this thing about keeping moving. One of the things I want to learn on this extended trip is to chill a little. Take a little time to check a few things out rather than rushing to the next place. Maybe spend time learning something new. So that's why it took a little effort to drive up and take pictures of the lighthouse. The next thing that I decided I wanted to do is to get a real Aussie hat. I thought a little about the Crocodile Dundee type but decided for something a little different. It ended up being a bigger pain in the ass than I expected. I'd decided to get one from a company whose "main" shop is in Currumbin, Will and Bear. On the map it looked straightforward. Currumbin is between Byron Bay and Brisbane so I'll just stop on the way. Well, Currumbin is a kind of beach town and they are having a sort of festival on the beach verge. Traffic coming into town and along the beach really sucked. Of course the store is right in the middle of everything.

I've gotten used to driving on the left and even pretty comfortable with the size of the Troopy on the road. But there is no way I was going to try to park along the beach. So I ended up parking back in a residential area and walking about 1 km to the store. It's worth it. I haven't been getting the exercise I need anyway and it was valuable to see the hats in person and try them on. There it is. Now I've got the problem of trying to figure out how to carry it without smashing the hell out of it. The headrests in the Troopy are too big to put it on the passenger seat like on someone's head.In the end, I also got a chance to check out some of the installation artwork along the beach. there were some clever sculptures but this one was intriguing.

I wish I'd gotten a clearer picture, showing the alien in the cockpit.

I'll give a quick summary of Brisbane or better, my experience there. I was trying to make all of the final preparations before heading out to much less populated areas. So, the first thing was to get the Troopy looked at by a mechanic and try to find any little things that should be repaired before heading to the tip of Cape York. Of course, they found something. Rear brakes needed new pads and there was a minor problem with the front end. I made an appointment for a few days later and they fixed it. I'm feeling a bit better about heading up the coast now. Maybe I'll write a more complete review of Brisbane in a couple of days. I feel like this one has kind of hit the end.