Tuesday

Was up at 6:10am to drive to MacDonalds at Hope Island. There I met with John Vincent and 10 other members of the Gold Coast Masters Cycle Club for a 50km ride. It was another cold morning, but by the time we started at 7:40am my arm warmers and a short-sleeve thermal were enough to keep me comfortable. It was also fine and sunny with a light breeze.

We started heading along route 4 to Upper Coomera, then north parallel with the M1 motorway, then west to the cane fields. We returned south, again along a road parallel to the motorway. It was a harder ride than I had expected because the stronger riders in the group, including me, went hard on the hills and in the latter part of the ride. When we got well ahead of the slower riders we stopped and waited.

After the ride we all had coffees at Maccas and chatted for half an hour.

Back at the apartment Carolyne had been for a coffee at Elk Espresso, so we decided to head south for a little exploring. We started with another coffee at Piccolo Espresso (see photo) before heading down to Coolangatta and Point Danger. We looked for whales without luck, but a flock of gannets were diving into a school of fish a few hundred metres of the rocks which was great to see. The cycle made me too hungry to go exploring further so we headed home for lunch.

After a quiet afternoon we enjoyed a pleasant Carolyne-cooked meal of grilled salmon and stir-fried vegies.