Redcliffe and North of Bribane

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Next Instalment!!
We didnt get long enough in Byron Bay - Our last day there we spent at The Crystal Garden which was a beautiful garden created by a family (who must have been wealthy) in 1986. It was a lovely place with beautiful plantings, amazing crystals,and Eastern Stone statues and well worth visiting. There was a cafe that sold only organic food and a bookshop with all sorts of books for the soul.
The book shop also offered tarot card reading, fortunetelling crystal reading and all sorts of other alternative therapies! All of course, came again with the scent of patchouli and incense!
We came across an (empty) meditation tent with a CD playing. The room was comfortably furnished with drapes, cushions and sofas and Rob and I had a sofa each and we sat and listened to this very relaxing voice for about half an hour! We had a great day there and left feeling very relaxed.
-After Byron Bay we headed North again towards Brisbane and stopped at Redcliffe on Moreton Bay
I dont like to say this, as I know the weather at home has been miserable but here, the Australian sun is always warm and sometimes very hot. We have AC in our car and cant believe how much petrol it uses if the AC is on!
If we stop and leave the car for a little while, it is like an oven and we have to have AC on. We are sharing the driving as all the distances are huge and once I got used to an automatic car I was fine - Rob seemed to take to it faster than me - It must be a man thing!!
Im quite happy with it now and I dont understand why all cars are not automatic - it is much easier - no gears just one foot does everything. Im afraid that when we get the Campervan in NewZealand we will be back to gears!
The time changed when we came over the border between New South Wales and Queensland - The clock went back an hour! We werent expecting it so it was a surprise when we arrived at our motel in Redcliffe and the bedside clock informed us!!
The motel room we had was great with plug in Broand band so I was able to catch up with family on Skype which is such a wonderful invention- Great if you get the video going too but even using this wee laptop as a phone, is great, as it is so cheap and sometimes even free.
Redcliffe was interesting - a suburb of Bribane, with quite a large number of very expensive holiday houses, most with very fancy boats set on the canals which form a large part of redcliffe.- The town had been built on a grid so it was easy to find our way around - but a bit Stepford Wives - tidy houses and gardens and streets as clean as a whistle - not a piece of litter anywhere, certainly no dog dirt and everything seemed very ordered.
After a night in Redcliffe (and a delicious seafood meal butnot the extravaganza in the photo!!) we were on the road again and are now in Noosa.
We smile at some of the names on the signposts here as we travel along- Humpybong, Gordons Knob, Bald Knob,Woolooomool and such like!!Some of them are aboriginal words and are unusual for us as they seem to use so many vowels but the English/Australian ones are just plain funny!!
We are in Noosa For 6 nights and we have a very nice town house apartment with a shared pool! It has everything we could want and we got quite excited about stocking up for the week in the supermarket (is that sad?)and doing the washing which was overdue - though I hadnt quite got to the stage that my art student niece suggested- She asked if I had turned my pants inside out yet? because thats what she did when she was travelling, before she gave up wearing underwear altogether, as she couldnt be bothered washing them!!Well No We havent got to that stage yet - We're Flashpacking not Backpacking!!!
Looking forward to exploring Noosa and its hinterland and spending a day at Australia Zoo - Steve Irwins Zoo - among lots of other things!

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Photos

Seafood platter for 2!
WE didnt have it - it cost about £50!

House on very expensive land -
Plots cost almost £1m

Comments

[andrew]

wow
... so good to read about your trip, you don't seem so far away. John and Nicky here for the weekend, we went to the rugby on Sunday but didn't stay in your house as .... well, long story to do with cars and paintings! Anyway good fun and a great supper at Cafe Andaluz in Byres Road, on the way home ... lots of love ... andrew

[anonymous]

HI Mary .. and Bob I've just logged in again and yes, it all sounds great. As before, I hope you can 'persuade' my Mary to do something similar once she retires. Our grown up kids and grand-children may help-or-hinder that! Look forward to seeing you both again and hearing (directly) from you. Frank [e-mail]