Friday
Our “good nights sleep” never really materialised. The rain was rattling on the tin roofs outside and the thunder had an ominous growl to it that seemed to shake the foundations of the building. To add to that, the man checking into our room didn't turn up until about half past 1. He preceded to make an absolute racket, unpack what seemed like his entire bag and then just disappear out of the room. We got a few hours in the end though. Our alarm pulled us out of bed at about 6 in order for us to get some breakfast down, haul our bags and walk to the bus stop. The stop was down by the marina and as we were walking there the rain decided to give us another soaking. We found shelter under the bus stop though and were boarding at half past 7. Just before we got on an aboriginal man came up to a female passenger who was smoking just outside the stop. He was after a free cigarette from her but she refused. He then got slightly intimidating and confrontational, getting quite aggressive when she refused him. The lady moved around to where we were standing and when it became clear to the man he wouldn't be getting a cigarette, he hurled a few racist comments her way and was on his way. It was slightly shocking to see it and hear it up close but we had read about the animosity amongst Aboriginal people towards white people. It was nice to get to the safety of the bus. I would have liked to tell him to leave her alone but didn't want to run the risk of him carrying a weapon. The bus was half full as we set off into the rain. It had already been raining heavily all night and was still going. As we trundled down the east coast it was constant not ceasing until quite late in the evening. We sat and watched everyone come and go, leaving one beach, travelling a couple of hours down the road and then disembarking at another beach, clearly not satisfied by the sand at the previous one. It just didn't make sense to us bearing in mind you can't swim at any of them because of the crocodile risk. As the rain stopped late Friday evening, the coach filled up to the brim with just such people. We had the pleasure of having a British man 2 rows behind us air his entire phone conversation to the coach about how he was inundated by job offers from banks, he sounded like Del Boy. Anyway, we managed to get some much needed sleep when he shut up.
Saturday
We pulled into another beach, Torquay, at about 8 o'clock in the morning, marking our 24 consecutive hours on the bus. We had a nice long break here, so we hopped off to stretch our legs and found a place to buy a coffee, which went down a treat. Thankfully, it emptied out quite nicely here (I'm not sure why, we saw everything in the hour we had there) and the bus quietened down a bit. We were still taken aback by just how much it had rained while we were on the bus the day before. For at least 24 hours it had been pouring and we had covered about 800km in that time. We weren't surprised that it flooded in Queensland from time to time. It was a fairly easy ride for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Not far out of Brisbane, we stopped at a random roadhouse for a short break. To brighten the place up a bit they had installed the gigantic Kangaroo mascot from when Brisbane had hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1982. Her name was Matilda and apparently she used to wink. Charlotte claimed she saw her do it but I'm not convinced. After admiring Matilda for a while we hopped back on the bus for the final slog through to Brisbane. After the relatively small cities of Alice Springs, Darwin and Cairns it was a shock to be back in such a large, built up city. We made our way out of the slightly confusing Roma Street station and were a little bit disappointed to learn it was almost just as humid in Brisbane as it had been 1700km north in Cairns. We got slightly disorientated and lost trying to find our hostel. Brisbane seemed fairly hilly which meant roads tended to be higher or lower than flat on a map. We eventually found the right way and sweated profusely while lugging our bags up the hills. Some clever clogs had decided to book a hostel in the suburb of Spring Hill. As the name suggests, it was most certainly on a hill. When we arrived we were pretty wet and it was a huge relief to get the bags off. We did plan on heading out that afternoon to have a look round the town but we smelt pretty ripe and we were really tired after a long journey. Instead, we walked back down the hill to Woolworth’s and picked ourselves up some food for dinner. 2 for $5 on sauces, so we had a curry. The hostel we had chosen was a small, quiet one, made up of private rooms, so it was fairly quiet around and not too stressful to cook dinner for once.
Sunday
We had no hope of a lie in. Since leaving home we had been trying to get to a few sporting events along the way but had so far only succeeded in seeing Khmer boxing in Siem Reap. It just so happened that this day was the 2nd day of a state cricket match between Queensland and Victoria. They were playing at The Gabba and entry was free, so we thought we would walk there and take in some action. We got ourselves an early breakfast, slapped on the sun cream and headed off. The stadium was a 50 minute walk away but we gave ourselves plenty of time and enjoyed the Sunday morning stroll. Along the way we crossed the very impressive Story Bridge that crosses the Brisbane river and took us over to Kangaroo Point. From there it was straight down to The Gabba. We arrived slightly early, so to kill some time popped over to the petrol station to pick up a cold drink for the morning session. When we got back, we entered through the only gate that was open and were surprised to see that play had already commenced. The day before had been interrupted by rain, so they started early to make up some time. Queensland had been bowled out the day before for a pretty low score of under 200. When we arrived Victoria were 27-1 (or 1-27 as the Aussies like to put it) but it just got worse from there. By lunch they had lost 8 wickets and despite the tail wagging a little bit were all out for about 150. As first class cricket goes, it was pretty slow and dull (I'm sure some would say all cricket is slow and dull) and I will admit there were time when the planes taking off overhead were more interesting than the action on the pitch. During the lunch break we tried some of the food on offer and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the fish and chips we purchased from food stall. It was also incredibly cheap. I'm pretty sure I've forked out £10 for a burger at Hampshire before and as much at Lords something I don't recall. I'm pretty sure we paid £10 for both portions of fish and chips, so it was a bargain. We finished our food just as the players returned to the pitch. The crowd for the morning session had been pretty small but people were coming in in dribs and drabs as the day went on. As it was free, people were walking in, finding a seat, watching a few overs and then leaving and carrying on their day, which is a nice way of doing it. Sitting their in the warmth was making us fairly tired so not long before tea we decided to call it a day. We wanted to have a look around Brisbane and get a pin badge before everything shut so we headed off in the direction of the city. One way of getting around Brisbane is by boat on the river. We decided to do this in order to reach the north bank from where we were. It was about a 10 minute walk to the dock from the Gabba and then a short wait for the next ferry to come along. The ferry line we had chosen was free which seemed like a great thing to have, good for tourists and locals alike. Unsurprisingly, because it was free it was busy and we were lucky to get in as the driver only had room for 6 people. The family of 4 in front of us 2 made up the 6 and the family of 3 behind had to miss out and wait for the next one to come along. We only went a couple of stops down but it was a good vantage point to see the city from. We disembarked at our jetty (as did everyone else) and headed off for a look around. We walked down Charlotte Street, which seemed to be a mix of the financial centre and the clubbing district. I'm sure bankers enjoy a drink though. At the end we took a right and found Victoria Square which had a very large statue of Queen Victoria looking out over it. After that we hit the shopping area, which like every other Australian city, was a pedestrianised road with clothes shops taking up most of the room. We wandered in and out of the few souvenir shops we found and picked up our pin badge for this stop. The day had almost gone by this point and the ‘characters’ were hitting the streets. Within 5 minutes, we saw 2 completely different people get arrested in exactly the same spot for what seemed like different reasons. So we decided to move along. After a quick visit to a nearby supermarket, we picked our route home up the hills as the sunset. It was second day of the sauces today and we had picked up a white mushroom one to go with the remainder of the chicken. I did check the cricket score after dinner and they were still playing. Annoying, I never looked up the result. I'd hazard a guess Queensland won though. It was Mothers Day today, so we got in contact with ours at home, to wish them a happy one.
Monday
Somehow during planning and booking, we'd only given ourselves 2 full days in Brisbane, which after 7 days in both Darwin and Cairns seems like nothing. With hindsight we should have taken a couple of Darwin and given them to Brisbane but it's no use saying that now. We knew we had to make the most of our time here so we had a very full day ahead planned. After another early alarm call we shovelled down breakfast and darted down the hill to the bus stop. We wanted to get to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which is on the outskirts of Brisbane. After a slight struggle we found our bus, paid the slightly expensive fair and set off. Our stop was the final one, so it was pretty easy to know where to get off. Lone Pine is the oldest Koala Sanctuary in the world, having opened in 1927. It's not only about the cute, fluffy Koala Bears though. It's now a zoo containing a variety of animals only found in Australia. Just after entering we saw the cockatoos, kookaburras and brightly coloured parakeets that were making an absolute racket. After them we went for the Koala Bears. We were there pretty early so we though we'd beat the queues. Lone Pine is one of a few places in Australia that you can hold a Koala and have your photo snapped with one. The only catch is that to do so, you have to pay a fee on top of the entry price. To save paying twice for a photo each, we decided to just pay once and get a photo together. Charlotte was the one who got to hold the Koala and we got a great photo together with it. You could say I got away with not holding one. The first one Charlotte held wouldn't sit still and got so scared of a passing vehicle, it left a stinky mess on her tshirt, which she had to walk around with for the rest of the day. We were pretty happy and carried on round the park while our photo printed out. Our next stop was the open Kangaroo pen. On the way in we picked up some Kangaroo food, as they are tame ones that will eat out of your hand. On top of Kangaroos in the pen there were also a few Emus lounging around in the shade, that didn't mind a quick stroke. The Kangaroos were very docile and would gratefully accept the food when offered to them. If you held it right, they would go up on their hind legs and grip on to your hand with their sharp claws in order to get at the food. When they weren't eating, they were lounging around in the shade and were very happy to have their photos taken with the people milling around. As Kangaroos aren't exactly abundant at home and we've never really seen them, it was interesting to see how much they moved their tails to get around. They were very thick and strong and they would almost stand on them and use them to move around easily. We decided to leave the Roos to their food and moved in to take in the rest of the animals on display. The Dingos and Tasmanian Devils were both snoozing, as they are nocturnal but they were out in the open, the Platypuses were in a tank in a darkened room and were very much awake. Darting around and skimming across the water with ease. Across from the Platypuses were some hefty snakes such as the Inland Taipan, apparently the most venemous snake in the world. We had a coffee in the café while waiting for a bus and then took in the final few animals on our way out. The freshwater crocodiles were sunning themselves and the lizards were nowhere to be seen. It had been a good morning at Lone Pine and it was nice that it was small enough to be able to see all of it in just a few hours. We hopped back on the bus that was going back to Brisbane but got off about 10 minutes up the road. From where we got off we followed the gps on my phone through a park and an affluent suburb to a public footpath that led us up the side of Mount Coot-Tha. We got caught in the rain before we found the path and had to take shelter in a park but we passed the time by having a go on the swings. The pathway was fairly pedestrian to start off but quickly got steeper and steeper as it made its way straight up the side of the mountain. By the time we reached the summit we'd worked up a pretty good sweat and had hoped we'd be the only ones up there. We were slightly disappointed though. There were roads, a large café and even buses that would take you up there. We were pretty pleased with our effort of getting up there though and were pretty sure we had been the only ones to walk it. We treated ourselves to an ice cream each and a cold drink and admired the panoramic views of Brisbane from the top of the mountain. It was slightly cloudy up there, which hampered the views slightly. The photos weren't great but we did the best we could. After spending some time cooling off we decided to hitch a ride with the bus back in to the city. There were a couple of more squares in the centre of town we wanted to visit before heading back for the evening. One was King George square but when we got there, we realised we had already seen it when we got lost on the day we arrived. It had a pretty good statue of some Kangaroos that we had missed first time round though. Secondly, was ANZAC square which was just a few doors down from the first one. Turned out, we had seen this one from a distance too but we had another look around anyway. It had some rather wacky trees called bottle trees which looked like blobs with branches poking out of them. After what had been a tiring day we decided to start heading back but not before visiting the Roma Street Parklands. They are a large park area right in the centre of the city. We found an entrance and wandered through the gardens. They were fairly substantial and were located on a hill. There was a large lake at the bottom which was crowded with Australian white Ibis. After a circuit of that we wandered through the various gardens. Charlotte couldn't help but notice the huge spiders that were hanging patiently in their webs for a fly to get snagged in. They were easily the biggest we had seen in Australia and we didn't fancy getting nibbled by them. We found an exit route and were pleased to find out we were on the same level as our hostel. We found our way home and got our things together for our trip to Sydney the next day. We had an easy dinner lined up of just rice and veg in an attempt to lighten our load for our trip to Sydney the next day.
We had really enjoyed Brisbane and it had had a lot more to offer than we had anticipated. The girl we had met on the Great Barrier Reef trip had said there wasn't much going on, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out there was a lot to do. Next up was Sydney, and it was also someone's birthday.
James and Charlotte
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