We've spent nearly two weeks on North Stradbroke Island and it's been a nice flashback destination. Residents here prioritize time on the beach over work (e.g., lots of businesses say they're open "10ish to 3ish" and they aren't kidding about the "-ish") and the basic necessary services are just barely doable for travelers on foot, like us. There's no rat race here. In the town we're staying in, Point Lookout, almost all shops shutter by 5pm (including restaurants!), it's about a mile walk to the only place that sells wine and beer, and the place we're staying in has an outdoor toilet, shower and no A/C. The locals are friendly and we've been to a few social gatherings in our short time here. We'd definitely come back. In our travels we've been to a handful of places where the locals will volunteer how lucky they feel to live there; pretty much everyone here seems to feel that way, and they mention it frequently. The other day, we had to walk around a road crew patching some asphalt and one of the crew members said to us that he's 'living the dream,' and he wasn't being sarcastic! He felt lucky to work on this lovely island. Who wouldn't?
We've seen a good variety of wildlife here: a koala, kangaroos, frogs, kookaburras and lots of other interesting birds, sea turtles, dolphins, humongous rays. And the cicadas here are some of the loudest we've ever heard! Maybe they have to compete with the crashing waves?
Aside from going to the beach for swims and walks, we've also been plotting next steps for the Big Trip. We aim to be back in Greece sometime in mid to late March (to hang out with friends on Greek Independence day) so we have about a month to play with. After a few days of pondering, we settled on going to a city that's been on our wish list for ages, Kuching, Malaysia, which is on the island of Borneo. We'll spend a few weeks there before heading to Singapore where we'll meet with some Singaporean and DC friends. Before we go to Kuching, we'll spend a long weekend in Brisbane to see what it's like.
New Australian slang word for the day: furphy, which is an absurd rumor. Seems like an apt word for these times.
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| Kangaroos on the Gorge Walk |
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| Kangaroo in foreground with surfers waiting for the perfect wave |
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| Coastal view |