Botanic Brisbane

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As we cruise towards Brisbane I see a small pod of spinner dolphins from the balcony. (They spin around as they break water.) Just then Ian enters the cabin and we watch them for several minutes together. It would have been sad to have gone the entire cruise without seeing dolphins, other have been spotted many times but we always seemed to miss them.





In the morning on opening our curtains after mooring during the early hours at the brand new Brisbane International Cruise Terminal we have a pleasing vista of lush green woodland, reeds and a muddy beach. The effect is spoilt slightly when we go out onto the balcony look towards the city and see a series of car parks, an industrial area and the city airport. Ah well.

Some facts about Brisbane; Brisbane CBD streets are named after British Royalty. The north east facing streets are named after female royalty,Ann, Adelaide, Charlotte, Victoria etc and the streets perpendicular are name after male royalty including William, George and Edward.

Brisbane was the busiest submarine port in the world during WW2.

Brisbane has a low population density only 145 people per kilometre, Melbourne has 500 and Paris has a whopping 21498 per Km. Hong Kong has 6300 per Km and Brisbane is 15 times bigger yet only quarter the population.

We take the shuttle bus into the city centre. The driver piles the agony on by saying “Welcome to Brisbane, the only cruise terminal built by a sewage works.” I’d missed that amongst the other buildings.



The drive into the city is interesting. We have been here before and Brisbane gives the impression of ultra modernity. Shining glass towers in all directions. But then you see older buildings that have escaped demolition but are now entirely out of place. Parish type churches immediately adjacent to 40 - 50 storey Sky scrappers, and when I say immediately I mean within a few feet. Old hotels (The King George, The Empire, The New York etc) all two or three floors high entirely surrounded by the new edifices.



We are dropped at Anzac Square with it’s memorials and statues. They date back to the Boer Wars and include WWI, WWII, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam as well as a tree to commemorate Australian involvement as UN peace keepers in East Timor.



We need a few bits so go to the shopping area. In a pharmacy is a free health diagnosis machine. I want a go. You stand or hold sensors, answer questions and use a blood pressure cuff. I am apparently a little over weight, have a normal heart beat, have an intermediate risk of diabetes and have good blood pressure.



Ian hates these type of things. But he has a go. His weight is optimal, his heart rate is fine, has a high risk of diabetes (due to family history) and his blood pressure is very high. (He suffers white coat fright. His last unexpected blood pressure reading in October was 134/76 and he has done two 24hr tests both with fine results.) still as a hypochondriac it will spoil his day.



Once we have everything, we go to the historic Botanic Gardens. They date back to the mid 19th century and are both beautiful and wonderfully maintained. After about forty five minutes we join the free guided tour around the grounds. A very knowledgeable volunteer points out various trees, shrubs and plants. He explains details of their life cycles, how they have been used and other interesting facts of note. One of my favourites is the Bunya Pine, it’s fruiting cones weigh up to 10kg so the staff remove them before they come to ripeness to prevent them falling to the ground and potentially killing any visitors underneath.



There is a tropical rain forest area (we are only one degree beyond the tropics), mangrove areas which are encroaching into the river and naturally reclaiming land for the gardens, formal flower beds, children’s play areas as well as large shaded lawned areas on which people are taking picnics. The pools have both a selection of water lilies etc as well as some spectacular eels and turtles. This place is a perfect example of what a public garden should be like.



On returning to the ship Ian decides to go for a run on dry land. (Him with is high blood pressure as well.) He comes back drenched in sweat and exhausted complaining that he has only managed to run 3 miles. It is however hot and extremely humid and no one else is doing anything other than driving or walking short distances. I don’t worry about his blood pressure, just his sanity.



Twice is the last few days we have been disturbed by a tannoy message calling for a ship’s medical unit to attend a specific location to respond to a “medical emergency.” Shortly thereafter the Captain tannoys a message alerting us to the fact that they have had to ask for a helicopter rescue. It seems the emergencies were too severe for the ship’s medical unit to cope. In each case all exterior decks are out of bounds to passengers and a helicopter appears from Australia to take away the casualty. It is unsurprising given the age and health of many of the passengers that this happens. (Indeed statistically I would have thought it should be happening regularly, perhaps every few days!) We are never provided with any information, which is understandable. Ian likes to imagine what happened using his black view of the world. On the first occasion he suggested the casualty was the result of a knife fight in one of the of the restaurants using the knives and forks. As I said, I worry about his sanity.

Two more days at sea and then Sydney

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