Burleigh Heads, Billinga, Coolangatta

After leaving busy Brisbane, we thought we should seek the tranquility of a relaxed, laid back beach town to relax a bit before we’d continue further south. Friends of us had recommended Burleigh Heads as a town to chill out and get complete our beach gear. Most importantly we required a light beach-tent to get some shade for our little one. Second most important we needed thongs – the Australian version, in case you just started to think about the US meaning of the word.

Heading out of Brisbane on the wrong i.e. left side of the road didn’t help to make this drive a very relaxed one. At every other turn, where I had to use the blinkers, all of a sudden the wipers came on. The place, where I usually find the rear mirror is simply the right window now – and oh my goodness, why is there still so much car on the left side of me, whereas my right arm is unconsciously wincing whenever an oncoming car is passing by to what feels too close.  Somehow, the car managed to get out of the city together with the driver and off we went southbound.

Surfers Paradise and Burleigh Heads were a bit too busy for us. Their high-rise buildings somehow reminded me of Miami Beach. So we headed further down towards Coolangatta, where we found a tiny, picturesque motel in Bilinga, featuring a cosy surfer-style beach home atmosphere of the 70s. We made this our home for three nights before we headed off to Byron Bay and Ballina.

Resolving the Europcar challenge

Now is good time to catch up on some things. First and foremost, we need to fix the challenge with Europcar. To keep it quick and simple: we sent back a mail to our travel agent, who checked with FTI in Germany, who relayed it to FTI Oceania, who cross-checked with the supervisor of Europcar Australia. We were right. Unsealed roads are covered. The response said: “I apologize – it looks like there was a communication error at the counter. I will follow this up with the branch.” – All good to go then, finally!