Training Camp

Brisbane

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We visited Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, just daily. We left the caravan to a remote railway station and took a train to the center (again very easy to use!). We highly recommend to visit the city, it’s the nicest city out of those which have millions of people living.

In Brisbane Botanical Garden we saw a man putting orienteering targets! We went to him to ask what was it about and found out “Ugly Gully Orienteers” (https://oq.asn.au/ugly-gully-club-page) are having little rehearsal sprint competition. Jukka had better shoes than Marja and was able to take part! It was only a short course, but in the middle of it a terrible thunder storm started and everybody were as wet as someone can be. Luckily we got a ride from a lovely orienteering couple to the central station! We were so wet than we needed to buy new shirts before continuing our trip.

Results

 

Eumundi Market and The Hinterland – getaway from the sea

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We visited a market in a village called Eumundi. We liked it a lot, there were local products, handicrafts, vegetables and fruits, clothes, fortune tellers, massagers… You name it. What was (luckily) missing were the “made in China” products, and that made the market really worth to visit! We had a lovely coffee (in a stall which played Above&Beyond) and delicious pizza (in a stall which played Nora en Pure). Great!

The Hinterlands are just on the other side of the motorway M1 than the coastline. The view to the Pacific is amazing and the villages are really pretty with their old buildings.

Tip! Be prepared to BBQ all the time! There are free and open BBQ places all over.

Frasier Island

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From Noosa (Sunshine Coast) it’s possible to reach the biggest sand island of the world, Unesco world heritage site, Fraser island. It’s definitely worth to visit! We took an organized day trip. It costs, but on the other hand you don’t have to drive yourself a bit the whole day, you get the food and probably some of the nicest views of your life.

To get there from Noosa Heads you first drive through Cooloola national park, (the Great Sandy National park) passing the Rainbow beach. It was lovely beach, just impossible beautiful. For us it was so strange you can actually drive on the sandy beach. The beach is isolated and empty, and suddenly the normal traffic rules apply (like max speed of 80 km/h). It was impossible!

The Fraser island is huge (125 km long) and on a day trip you can only see a bit of it. We were ten tourists in the bus, and we got really nice lunch in an old logging station. We had a break in a lake McKenzie, and that was the top of it all, it was crystal clear silica water, and in the middle of the rainforest! With the sand, you can polish your jewelry (Jukka did his watch, not thinking the sand will end up also inside the watch).

Pictures should tell more…

 

Next we will start driving south from here in Noosa. We should reach Sydney (about 950 km) in next 12 days’ time. To be continued!

 

 

 

 

 

Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast – Welcome to the paradise!

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We landed to Gold Coast airport in Coolangatta early morning. AirAsia is cheap, and it works out, but there are few things to keep in mind when taking it: remember water, own entertainment and extra clothes with you (the climate can be similar to fridge, and it costs to get a blanket).

Our hostel (Coolangatta YHA) is just around the corner from the airport and we liked it there, the service was excellent and it had everything you need. We walked to the beach right away. It was something we have never experienced before! Sand like powder as far as you can see! The sand is similar to potato powder and it makes funny noise when walking on it.

Gold Coast

It’s easy to investigate the whole Gold Coast by public transportation. The buses run often and the tram is really simple to use, all the information is clear. The hottest spot in Gold Coast is supposedly Surfer’s Paradise. Our impression of the Gold Coast was something we could compare to the big ski centers in Europe. There are expensive hotels, pubs, clubs, and skiing (surfing in this case).  All in all, we got really good impression of Australia when starting our trip from there. Everything was so clean and tidy, and extremely beautiful. It’s quite expensive, but hanging on the beaches is anyway free! What we also noticed, that there were no people on the beach trying to sell you something all the time like back in Europe.

We had a stop also in Burleigh head, there is a really wonderful little national park on a peninsula. The town has a lovely beach with pine trees. And yes, here we got our skins burned for the first time.

 

THE car!

Our trip really started when we took our rental car from Jucy agency. Their service was top class (https://www.jucy.com.au/). This car is the best! The old (driven 430k km) Toyota (yey!), with the back you can sleep in. There is a little kitchen (cooker and water) in behind also. This is something we don’t have at home! It was a bit challenging to organize the things in the car first, but having enough of plastic bags and you can divide clothes etc. so that the “5S” is working out.

 

Tip! Remember to check your credit card limits before the car rental office. We couldn’t pay the bond and ended up buying the highest insurance.

The traffic on the left is challenging, but we survived, just pay attention all the time! Especially take care when you start to feel smooth and nice with it! The traffic signs are mainly written (i.e. instead of an arrow there is a sign “stay left”). So, here we are, having a wannabe caravan, and being among those we have always cursed back at home…

Tip! To find accommodation when camping, upload “Australia WikiCamp” (thanks for the tip Anna / https://muuttolintu.com/)

By far we have only one overnight on a street, the rest nights we stayed in camping areas. The price for camping is 30-40 AUD per night, and with that you basically get the toilets, showers and cooking facilities to use. Staying on the street is not permitted, so it’s a little tricky to find a nice spot and take care the ranger won’t fine you.

Some general notes over camping and stuff:

  • Take a flashlight with you (head lamp would be the handy)
  • Darkness comes after 6 pm, and it will surprise, the day is over latest at 9 pm.
  • Yes, you wake up around 6 am as the sun heats up the van
  • Take the folding table and chairs if they offer these in the agency
  • Not a bad idea to have a “space blanket” (the one from the first aid kit) with you to put on the dash board as it gets HOT

Sunshine coast

We drove to Mooloolaba, one of the villages along Sunshine coast. It was such a beautiful village with perfect beach (seems to be the rule). We really recommend Mooloolaba to visit! It was just simply amazing! Sunshine coast is a little bit “not so touristic” as the Gold Coast, and we would evaluate that the price level might be a tiny bit cheaper.

Training camp?

We started our mornings with running at least some. It’s really hard in the heat and anyway this travelling is causing some general laziness. In every village on the Gold and Sunshine coasts there are really good paths alongside the beach. Besides the paths there are “adult playground”; some systems to do outdoor gym. We ran about 3 km (oh yeah) and then did some training and walked on top of that about 4 km. It took about 1,5 hours and was very good start for the day. After done that and taking the shower, it was always 10 am, and time to leave the camping behind.

Running on the beach is such euphoria! Dropping to the ocean is perfect, tho it’s not swimming, it’s hanging on the waves.

Tip! Buy one of those toy surf boards, it’s so much fun in the water (if you don’t surf in real)

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Noosa

Noosa is the northernmost village of Sunshine Coast. There are villas and restaurants, and (again) very beautiful beach. We shortly visited Noosa Heads national park, it was pretty, but we didn’t see koalas nor other animals (it might be also that we are blind). We were really thinking how they even can do orienteering in this country, as it looks so scary to leave the signed path. Aren’t there spiders and snakes and other friends? Hopefully Jarrah, our friend in Tasmania, will advise us on this… From Noosa it’s nice to visit the Frasier Island, and this is what we did! To be continued…

 

Kuala Lumpur

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Our first stop was the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. We flew with Qatar Airways, which has started its flights from Helsinki this autumn. We can highly recommend them, there was a lot of food and drinks offered, and excellent entertainment, for example you can listen to a book “Toyota and Lean manufacturing” to get the sleep.

There was a stopover in Doha, capital of Qatar. We saw in the tax free shop a whisky bottle worth of 15 000 USD. We should have dropped that and see what the insurance would think…

Tip! As a female, it’s more comfortable for yourself to wear long sleeve clothes, and to have a scarf  to put around your shoulders. It’s not necessary or required, but you feel so much more comfortable among the women who REALLY have covered themselves.

We stayed four nights in KL and our hotel was in Chinatown. It’s cheaper and we liked it there, every morning you can check from the door what is the “toy of the day” of the woman selling moving and beeping plastic stuff.

The city is in our opinion quite a mess, there are two rivers meeting, but even the river is somehow covered under the streets in many places, it’s not any sight. There are old mosques, modern shopping centers and offices, and poor and rich people, much to see for every taste.

Our general notices from the city:

  • There are less people and traffic than in other cities in Asia, you fit in!
  • The traffic is on left, keep in mind also when walking
  • Walking around is a bit challenging; there are really no signs, random road works cut your way and free maps are only to illustrate
  • Don’t take a taxi in rush hour! Otherwise highly recommended!
  • Basically everybody speaks English

Tip! Check the city with Monorail train!

Petronas twin towers

We took a taxi to Times Square and walked all way from there to Petronas towers, the main sight of the city. On the way there is so called Golden Triangle with lot of street food, and places offering massages. In front of the towers there is a really nice park with running track and children’s pool and playground.

Running?

We wanted to have at least one morning for some sports. And that was some task! There is a Lake Garden park, which basically is the botanical garden with one little lake and some paths (http://www.klbotanicalgarden.gov.my/) . It was really hard to find there by feet, finally after one hour we reached it (maybe 2 km distance), it was already noon and the day getting its hottest. So, the running itself was quite demanding, but we made 4 km.  Also there were few outdoor gym systems to train some push-ups etc. There were really no others in the park and the paths were nice and the park itself very pretty.

Batu Caves

13 km from the center of Kuala Lumpur there are the Batu Caves. It was a really nice half a day trip there with a train (running only every 45 min!). It’s a temple for Hindi, and there are lot of Indian restaurants around. The long stairs take you to the temple, and it’s free to go there. Unfortunately the big statue in front of the cave was under construction. Next to the Hindi cave, there are the “Dark Caves” (http://www.darkcavemalaysia.com/next/). We took the “educational tour” and learned how the whole ecosystem in this darkness is based on the shit from the bats (guano). If you are afraid of the darks, don’t go, as the guide puts the lights of for some time, and that’s pretty scary. If you are around the caves, definitely take the tour, the guide was so sympathetic and had really nice humour.

Shopping

Many say KL is a shopping paradise. Well, we were surprised over the price level, as it’s not that cheap. We visited Midvalley’s Megamall, but preferred Berjaya Times Square (https://www.berjayatimessquarekl.com/)  shopping center better. Under the twin towers there is KLCC Mall, a very sophisticated and expensive shopping center. All the brand clothes and products anyway cost at least the same as back at home.

In China Town you can see which products are “hot” by being the most copied. Generally visiting the shops is very pleasant, personnel do notice the customer and help to search options, and are even just fine if you leave without buying! In China Town they are more pushing, but they don’t touch you and you don’t have to be afraid. Our favorite was Central Market, and old traditional market hall with many small shops. There were clothes, food and fortune teller too (didn’t try, even he promoted himself of creating the 10 richest Chinese and Australians…)! The massages and nail artists are really good and cheap.

All in all, 4-5 days in Kuala Lumpur is enough to get only a rough view over the city.

Our best points:

  • Happy and helpful people (they feel genuine!)
  • Cool, often tuned, cars (Proton, their own car brand!)
  • Easy communication and some kind of common humor
  • Lovely fruit juices
  • Good and clean hotels (even ours was quite cheap)
  • Many people knew “Kiitos” and “mitä kuuluu”, on the other hand some didn’t know Finland existing

Next, we take the AirAsia flight to Coolangatta on Cold Coast, Australia!

 

The planning

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Ursprungsland Biathlon Team is expanding their activities to “down under”! The dream of having a longer break has been back of Marja’s and Jukka’s heads already few years.  We’ve been inspired by our branch in Czech Republic, the family with two small boys is ready to leave for a longer holiday. So why not us as well? Meeting the cross country skiers from Australia and New Zealand has always been really nice, what they have told us about their home countries has been waking up our curiosity! Last June we had Jarrah from Tasmania in our place for some time, he was training for Junior World Orienteering Championships. What would it be to try orienteering in the jungle among koalas and snakes? Or is it purely surfing there? And aren’t they anyway upside down?

So, we will take a break of about three months to travel to Australia and New Zealand, starting in November 2016. We are aware the time is too short, and there would be things to see for years. However, we would like to be back in Finland for the real winter (it’s not possible to skip the whole skiing season!). The autumn is quite desperate in Finland, rainy and very dark, so the timing is perfect! The final decision wasn’t done too much before the departure, and it in the end came with simple thinking: “It’s now or never!”. It’s good that there is not too much time, as more time there is, the more nervous we would be with the practical issues.

When planning a longer trip, our tips:

  • Do you have the time? What is your time frame?
  • Do you have money? How much you can save (selling things is sometimes quite profitable!)? Are you ok with the fact that it will be all gone?
  • Do you have friends? To travel with? To meet there?
  • Are there some milestones on the way? Some happenings you want to join? Competitions?
  • What are your goals? And do you share this with your companion?

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Our trip starts in few days,  guess we can give real tips after the departure, now it all seems to be a mess… And instead of hard planning and packing, we’ve been just normally working and training during the weeks, and enjoying meeting friends during the weekends.

Oh yeah, the actual plan: Helsinki – Kuala Lumpur – Gold Coast – Brisbane – Coff’s Harbour – Sydney – Cairns – Tasmania – Melbourne – Auckland – ?. Stay tuned!