Had my first trip out of Brisbane this weekend. Rhiannon kindly drove me and Ben up to Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast where we met up with 7 or 8 others (mostly from Tilly’s work) in a hostel (which had an awesome dog called Nelson who’s picture can be seen here). Maroochydore was also home to some peculiar looking trees (see here and here). We spent the evening having a few beers and having very deep conversation until half 2 in the morning. Luckily we got a lie in Saturday before a short drive to Mooloolaba beach. It’s pretty awesome there, the beach goes for miles and the sea is so warm. We met up with a couple of guys who gave us an hour-long lesson in surfing. Hilarity ensued. After embarassing ourselves publicly, we messed around on the beach a bit more, drove back to the hostel for a BBQ and more drinks before doing the whole thing again Sunday! After our 2nd lesson we had some awesome fish and chips in Mooloolaba (a must try if anyone visits there) then drove back to Brissy.
Excellent fun anyway. I am officially not fit enough to surf but would like to give it another try after i’ve worked out a bit or something. I almost managed to get right up on my feet, best attempt still had a few fingers on the board. I am however fit enough to have an excellent time with a body board or just body surfing (surf man). Hopefully there will be some some pics to come of us on the beach but I didn’t take my camera so I need to nab them off the others first. Only down side is that I am now aching all over from trying to “pop-up” on to my feet repeatedly. Am also a little sore as i was lax with my suncream on Sunday and appear to have singed myself just a tad.
Also was pleased to meet up briefly with Ed (friend from Oxford) who’s in the middle of a 5 month round-the-world trip and flew out of Brisbane at 9 this morning. He crashed here last night so was good to catch up with him. Shame he couldn’t have come into the lab before he flew out just to give the supervisor a bit of a shock! Haha.