Monday 17 November 2014

Riding a Scooter in Agnes Waters Town of 1770

Agnes Waters is a small town with barely anything to do. With a little history of captain cook second landing it was a tough sold tourist destination as it felt the place had more backpackers than local residence. The beach is beautiful, and the quiet nature around even more but if you were planning to come to see some history and culture like me you would be fully disappointed. History wise, Agnes Waters / Town of 1770 is where Captain Cook first landed in Queensland, but 2nd landing in Australia. The end.

Still good tourist is good business and tour agency always find you something to do. Two main thing or rather the only two things you can do in Agnes Waters/1770 …. Surfing and Scooteroo. For those who are learning to surf you could not find a cheaper place to learn surfing than Agnes Waters. For as low as AUD 17 one can get 3hrs of surfing lesson. The tour agency Joe was so damn proud of it when he told me that nowhere in east coast of Australia can anyone beat that price.  Sorry to break his bubble but I got it for AUD 10 in Yamba, board, wet suit and all.
Still it was a pretty good deal. Some even had an AUD 22 deal with GoPro Camera mounted on the surfboard to capture that magical moment just before you fall. It looks as if the person a first timer had manage to learn how to surf. Impressive but how else could you take a photo of that 2 second that you are standing on the surf board for the first time.
The second best activity to do and the most cheesy tour I had ever done is the Scooteroo tour.

Sooteroo Tours

Trust Australia to always make something simple into something adventurous, unique and of course one of a kind. That’s how you can sell tours. By not renting the scooter or normal bikes and instead making the rental into a tour by giving out fake tattoos and painting cheap bikes to look like Harley and some fancy jackets one can always overcharge dumb gullible tourist especially when there is no competition to boot. I guess I was one of those gullible tourist but who could you blame for I could not find any sort of self rental motorbikes in Agnes Waters
 
The tour itself is priced at AUD 75 for 3 hours which I was screaming expensive to boot since I know you can get rental in Thailand a ugly scooter for 30 a day and in Vietnam 10 a day. Still it’s the cheesy tour so once you pay up might as well get into the groove and tattoo up and look ‘born to be wild’ rider. The tats didin even last an hour but for still it was fun to just stick as much as you can and take cheesy photograph.
The ride was on a chopper bike, small engine that could go fastest 80 km/hr but nice modification to the handle bars, good big fat rear tyres and nice body works makes the bike looks like any antique classic. The ride was guided so there were point rider, the rear guard van, and a few riders that rides ups ahead to stop traffic or guide us when to stop and when to speed up. This makes it much safer although there was barely any cars in agnes waters.
In a way I could understand their precautions since they allow anyone to practically go on the tour. You only need a driving licence. Driving licence did not even have to be motorbike qualified i.e you could ride a bike with even an automatic car licence. Imagine some that have never ever ridden a bicycle but has a driving licence and suddenly you are riding a motorcycle. These group would need all the help they can get in junctions I guess.
 
The tour brought us to all the backwaters road which have country side house and woods and barely any people. There was though lots and lots of wild kangaroos that was just hopping away while we ride alongside them. It was a glimpse of the actual Australian lifestyle living where a kangaroo just roam around and skip hop across your garden. Imagine going outside with a shot gun and shooting your dinner ….
The tour also brings us to the Town of 1770 where Captain Cook second sail brought him to port for the first time in Queensland. But that was about it. There was a few boat a restaurant or tavern and lots and lots of trees. The guide just said … welcome to 1770 … 30 minute break guys and we will be heading back.

For the cheesy fun and wild kangaroos … I gladly part with AUD 75 with a smile ….
Town of 1770
 

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