Austinville -- almost like going home again

Apparently police in this part of the world decided to "blitz" speeding and driving drunk this week with the long weekend coming up. The results would probably shock people in many parts of the world, but really won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows the Gold Coast. The speeding "blitz" netted several people travelling in excess of 200km/h. The "blitz" on driving drunk was even scarier -- around 50% of the people they tested were more than double the legal limit, and many of those were too drunk to even stand up. That might seem scary to some people, but as I said, after 10 years on the Gold Coast, it reveals nothing I didn't already know.

The number of idiots on the roads this evening seems to indicate that this "blitz" will have to be a lot longer than a week to have any serious effect, although I seriously believe that any effect of what has been done will largely be negated by the pussified legal system in place in Queensland, which doesn't seem to take offences like these seriously.

So it was with some relief that I made good of a promise of last week and returned to Austinville this evening, in a bid to escape the rat race for a while -- even if only for an hour or so. Tonight it was even better, the rainforest was dotted with little pockets of mist, which looked like ghosts under a headlight, then toward the end of the road the glow worms came out in a brilliant display of colour to welcome me. It almost felt like "coming home".