coastal!

i will apologize right now for no pictures in this post. i think when i find these cafes that have super cheap internet, it usually means the computers are too old to recognize my camera when i plug it in. bummer, but i will take note for next time.

seems we are getting the hang of this "pointing on a map and going there" style of travelling. everything is quite open-ended to say the least. we are doing our best to just kind of do whatever pleases us that day. its funny though, the common answer to jsut about any question bryan and i ask each other about next destination usually gets answered like this:

1) lets just play it by ear
2) i dont really care
3) we'll see
4) we'll figure it out later

haha, i love it.

currently we are in airlie beach soaking up some sun. its a small little beach town, similar to byron bay. theres more commercial stuff here, it doesnt have the hippie mentality of byron. the box jellyfish have arrived here though and so there is to be no swimming in the beaches cause those buggers will kill you.

CHUG is moving like a champ. there has to be some sort of after-market suspension on that automo-boat. i will be writing in my journal while bryan is driving and the thing is so smooth it actually manages to improve my penmanship as we go along. driving over train tracks? go an extra 15 km per hour just cause its that smooth. lovely volvo. we also found out that there is liek an extra "hidden gear." all along when we thought we were flooring the thing, we could actually just apply more pressure to the accelerator and the thing jumps in to this mystery gear out of nowhere-- great for passing cars.

to kind of backtrack a bit..

when we were in brisbane, we saw this chick kate bradley play at a bar downtown. was pretty good. so we picked up a CD. listen to that occasionally in the car (yes, we have a SONY mf'ing CD player in the beast) and its alright.. funny how live always sounds better than album stuff though.

brisbane struck me as a tired city trying desperately to liven up. (sounds like our old friend detroit, doesnt it?) its got modern architecture, transport, amenities, etc but its still just a louzy "commute city" -- and by that i mean people work in the city and commute out to the burbs after work. so post 5pm, the place is DEAD.

the kebabs of brisbane, however, were absolutely flipping phenomenal. for those that thought i couldnt get a kebab down under, think again! im already on number 5! nice guy named kamiil expertly crafted the thing, and even threw in some extra sauce. what a champ!

on from brisbane we hit up a vineyard. norse winery was pretty small and run by two older danish folks. very different wine by my standards.. the reds were so light, translucent even as you looked through the glass. now, trsut me 100% when i say im no wine expert, but after my enquiry the woman got in to some interesting bits on the difference between norhtern australia grapes and american ones. so i will share some here.. the growing season in the extremely hot parts of northeastern australia forces the grapes to be picked in a MUCH shorter time than those that we are used to in america, italy, or otherwise. becasue the grape is picked much quicker, it doesnt have time to age and develop which creates a much lighter red wine as opposed to the deep dark colored red's that we are used to. so theres some wine verbiage for you.

the scenery as we drive is second to none.. seeing the sunset over endless green rolling hills with a good tune on the radio is pretty swell. we stop all the time for photos or if it gets dark we just sit on the top of CHUG and look at the crazy stars. the southern cross was absolutely brilliant last night. so that sort of flexibility is jsut excellent and suits both our needs well.

other than that, i am eating FAR too many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but that is the only thing that stays fresh (sort of) in the HOT car for extended periods of time. we pack a giant water jug in the back of CHUG for drinking along the way. we head in to the outback here pretty soon (which is about 1900 kilometers to get to ayers rock) so we will be heavily stocking on food and tons of water. we may get some jimmy cans with extra fuel just in case we run out on the road.

we have talked to many folks about making the drive in to the outback and the biggest thing people warn against is the heat. it gets up to 42 C which is about 114 F! we will start makign the trek westward to ayers rock tomorrow morning. should be good.

given the remote location, im not entirely sure if i will be blogging for the next few days or so. we plan on taking two days to make it to the rock, then about a day or two to get southbound in to adelaide. as soon as i can throw something new in, i will.

keep rocking, check back soon!