Day 72

Start:  Pottsville

Finish:  Tweed Heads

Distance:  15

Total:  1141

Today was the last day I will be walking in the countryside of Australia. I’ve reached Tweed Heads, a coastal city 64 miles south of Brisbane and the last town in New South Wales. From here on I’ll be walking in cities all day. 

I got out the door around 8:30 today and had a nice bike trail to walk on for my first 3-4 miles. I was walking from one little beach town to the next most of the morning and even though it’s a weekday, the traffic was heavy, probably because there’s only one road into and out of these beach towns and it’s a two lane road. At lunchtime I happened upon a Woolies (Woolworth) shopping center so I stopped to eat a bite, then pressed on. 

As usual, right after noon the showers started to form. When it rains it doesn’t amount to much but it is a hassle deciding whether to cover up or not. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been putting the rain cover on my pack before I leave the motel in the morning to keep from needing to do it later. With my pack covered it can rain a little harder before I need to cover up with the poncho. In other words, I don’t mind getting a little wet so long as everything inside my pack stays dry. But today when I was about four miles from my motel it rained hard enough that I had to get the poncho out. 

I made it to my motel about 3:00. Tomorrow I leave New South Wales and enter Queensland. I walk 15 miles through an area called the Gold Coast. It’s wall-to-wall high rise hotels and apartments, much like Miami Beach. It’s famous for its beaches and especially surfing beaches. Tomorrow night I stay in a city called Surfer’s Paradise which is part of the Gold Coast. 

That’s all for my Monday. I hope everyone had a great weekend. JB. 
* I posted a new video today. Watch it by selecting the “Video” tab at the top of the website.