Blogs from Mt Coot tha, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

On Monday, after being thwarted by the weather, instead of going to the Carrumbin animal sanctuary, we made a bee line for the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. So far, easily the highlight of Australia for me! They opened at 9 and we were there by 930. They are one of the top rated "zoos" here (so their website claims). I could believe it. They started as a koala sanctuary, but now have other animals. Partly like a regular zoo, but has other live encounters that, unlike the Steve Irwin zoo, are free! It's like the Bush Gardens animal thing from your car, but instead walking around. They have shows throughout the day with different animals -- mostly educational things. We started with the Lorikeet encounter. They are gorgeous birds, very colorful, and look like parrots (but ... read more

Almost exactly half way up the coast of Australia and marking halfway in our campercar journey, it was time to stop in at more relations, more distant ones this time. Just before we left, it was revealed to me that my Granda Jim would be in Brisbane at the same time we would be. So in order to take advantage of this good fortune, and to meet a section of my family I've never met before, we would drop in for a couple of days. Apparently certain people had doubts as to whether or not we would make it on time, it being something of a long shot to time it exactly right, and get to an address in an entirely unknown city, and survive Amelia's driving along the way. Well we made it, so there. ... read more

We had a bit of ground to make up so it was a long drive that took us into rainy Brisbane – when we arrived we were greeted by enormous downpours!! As we passed a sign for ‘Edinburgh Castle Road’ we were feeling a bit too much like we were back in Scotland! Before we had arrived in Brisbane we had been in touch with an Aussie mate we used to work with back home and we were lucky enough to have an invite to our first proper Aussie BBQ! When we arrived at James and Bee’s flat (after getting lost in the city plenty times) the food was already roasting and some beers were waiting – superb! It was great to catch up with James and Bee and they were kind enough to offer to ... read more

What’s Going On Brisbane seems to have a festival going on every week. And the good thing is it’s usually free. Since I’ve been here there has been the broad-ranging cultural Brisbane Festival, the 150th Brisbane City Anniversary, Brisbane Writer’s Festival and this weekend starts the Valley Fiesta. I managed to be around when the most spectacular festival of all climaxed occurred: the RiverFire spectacle, basically a massive fireworks display on the Brisbane River. I reckon a couple of hundred thousand people were camped up and having picnics along the river that night waiting for the massive show to begin. And boy what a fireworks display...probably one of the biggest I’ve ever seen with fireworks off barges in the river, off Story Bridge, even off the skyscrapers in the CBD. The river’s reflection complimenting all of ... read more

The arrival in Sydney was a culture shock after the sparsely populated wide expanse of the west coast. The train came to a halt after what seemed like ages, crawling through suburbia. The city was ‘tall’ and ‘noisy’. Hustles and bustles were mixed with sadness and goodbyes as the new friends we just made travelled on in various directions. After collecting the mountain of luggage…thank goodness for extra Lizzie hands! should take a leaf out of her book and cram our lives into one bag!! AS IF !! Our transfer from train to taxi went well, we had to wait for a large disabled taxi with a wheelchair bay in it, to fit us in!. the crazy singing woman rattled our cages as her friend pretended to be disabled…well…a walking stick suddenly appeared….no sight of one ... read more