And Then The Rain Came...

Travelling in a kombi can be squishy at the best of times but when things get a little wet and wild outside, suddenly instead of Luke and I feeling as snug as two bugs in a rug in our van, when the rain set in as we made our way into Brisbane, we began to feel more like a couple of elephants trying to move around in Barbie's toy convertible.

We've been so super lucky this whole trip in terms of weather - and that's just as well because as anyone who has survived camping in the rain will know -wet clothes, wet camping chairs and tables, wet bath towels, wet umbrellas, wet everything, all stuffed into a car with a couple of less than happy travellers is a sure-fire recipe for a one-way ticket home.

We flew through Brisbane at lightning speeds (okay, kombi speeds, which is around 100km an hour max) and didn't get a good chance to explore this riverside city because the heavens had conveniently opened up right on top of us. We did experience the seedy Saturday morning crowd at the Brunswick street markets in Fortitude Valley though - we saw a bunch of people who looked like they needed more than a morning coffee pick-me-up (maybe a quick stint in rehab would have been a better remedy) and a bloke who was obviously experiencing the after-effects of a night on the drugs, being man-handled into the back of a paddy wagon by about eight policemen. All this at 9am in the morning, in what we had been told was the 'trendy' part of Brissy. Hmmm.

Back on the highway, and the view of Surfers Paradise was just as ominous. Where had this rain come from? Doesn't the sky know that we only have days left of our kombi adventure and a little sunshine to help us deal with the fact that we will soon be leaving our lazy tourist days behind us would be greatly appreciated? Hello? Anyone?

So with the foul weather playing havoc with our holiday plans, there was little else for Luke and I to do than join the rest of the Queenslanders, in a kind of farewell to the state, for dinner at the ultra classy all-you-can-eat foodie joint, yes, you know what I'm talking about - Sizzler. Although somehow, eating cheese bread at this Queensland institution and hitting the salad and desert bar wasn't nearly as good as I remember as an eight-year-old.

Yours wet but very, very full,

Odette