Log Eighty Four – Conversations

1 August 2022

This trip has been a little different from our previous travels. This time we are staying in one place for at least a week. Whilst we may think this is slow we have met many fellow campers who are happy to stay at the same place for 6 weeks and longer. Many have been coming to the same camp ground for twenty years. This level of commitment is quite foreign to us, there are just too many places to see.

We have now been on the coast for the past three weeks and are more convinced winter is something to avoid. The birds had it worked out a long time ago. I have now completed the Parkrun alphabet challenge with runs at Urunga, Yamba and last weekend, Varsity Lakes. Now for a new challenge like Parkruns in all States.

Conversations

One of the great pleasures of travel is meeting new people; people you would otherwise never have a conversation with or have the opportunity to hear their story. Last year it was the truck drivers who told us all about hauling fuel out to Birdsville, the young guys driving road trains full of cattle headed to the feed lots and of course the women running the bakery with their 80 year old dad out the back in the kitchen.

So it was at a French restaurant a short walk from our camp. Our neighbouring table asked us about the crab spaghetti which they in turn ordered. After we had all finished our meals we kicked off a conversation about where we had grown up, high school friends and class reunions, travel and online dating. Our friends for the evening were about our age and had met through online dating. They were quick to point out, in hushed voices, that the people on the table on the other side of us were on a date, people also of our age. Our new friends had overheard some of the conversation of the couple on a date and were convinced by the nuances of the conversation of what was happening. We had a collective chuckle at the expense of the dating pair. The night came to an end, we said our goodbyes and walked off into the night. I am sure we will never see them again, just like Paul who pulled over to help me last year with my flat tyre, never to be seen again.

I came across a group of six people deeply in a very animated conversation on a surf beach. They were waving their arms about and were quite deliberate with their hand movements. I thought they were trying to make themselves understood in the wind and sound of the crashing waves. As I got closer I realised not a word was being said. They were signing to each other and with raised voices considering the energy behind the arm and hand gestures. Just another conversation on the beach.

New Vistas

Have you ever returned to place you haven’t visited for 50 years. You know the place has changed, you’ve seen the pictures. Then you arrive and see for yourself. You suddenly feel so out of place in a setting more like a beachfront in Sydney or Miami. So it was when we drove through towns of the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise in particular. Its now all motorways, McDonald’s, apartment buildings, and traffic. I think I need to get back to the outback towns with a population of just 100!

News from Home

Winter is in full swing at home and so we must look to new destinations north. Whilst there are many fellow travellers on the road there must still be that rare quiet beach camp that is free from the southern hordes. After a week in a city setting we have had our fill of people and traffic and are ready for the bush.