Cuddling Koala's in Brissie

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Day 199: Wednesday 14th January - Meeting up with another member of the ‘Cusco Posse’

I leave the hostel this morning before I need to. I’m keen to check if I left my sunglasses case in the post office in Surfers Paradise whilst I was emptying my bag of its contents posting stuff home yesterday. I end up having to wait around for the post office to open and when it eventually does they’ve not found it. Never mind, I’ll pick up a replacement case in Brisbane this afternoon. Need to dash for my bus now - it’s a shame it’s not half an hour later as there is a Oakley store which I pass on my way which is sure to have a replacement case but I have no time.

The journey north to Brisbane is short, only an hour and a half. On it, I get talking to an elderly lady I’m sat next to about Steve Irwin and Australia Zoo (where I’ll be off to next week) and the Northern Territory. She mentions another place which is worth going to which is a day trip from Darwin. My list is lengthening by the day for that part of my trip - I just need the weather now as it’ll be in the wet season when I get up there.

I spend the afternoon walking around the centre of Brisbane. There’s not a great deal to see despite it being Australia’s third city. It’s only when I venture across to the South bank that I find a part of the city centre that lifts itself out of the ordinary category. Even the shops are poor, lots of generic malls and the usual large chain stores. I’m after a few items in the shops and have mixed success. The funniest moment is when a shop assistant in Harvey Norman (think Australian equivalent of PC World) says it will cost me $99 to install Microsoft Office should I wish to use their services. When I reply that it only takes a couple of minutes her retort is ‘well time is money’. That it may be but even my time is not worth that much!! Having had my fill of Brisbane’s shops I cross the Brisbane river to the South bank. It’s much more pleasant over this side of the water - a mix of park lands, an artificial beach area and a modernist walkway.

Tonight I meet up with Beck, a Brisbanite who I met in Peru. She picks me up at the hostel and we go out for dinner in a steak restaurant. It’s the first time I’ve had steak in a restaurant since Argentina and despite the nice surroundings, the steak doesn’t quite measure up to Argentinian beef (nothing much does). After the meal we drive up to a lookout across the river from the city centre. Brisbane definitely looks better by night, it’s quite pretty when it’s all lit up. Beck then takes me up to Mount Coot-tha which is about 10km outside Brisbane and from here you can see the whole city. I think the view is better from our first stop of the night, a place I would never have found or known about without Beck’s local knowledge. I’ve had an enjoyable evening, it’s been good to catch up with Beck and it’s been nice to see Brisbane by night which I wouldn’t otherwise have had the opportunity to do.

Day 200: Thursday 15th January - Straddie

I couldn’t get into Brisbane’s YHA tonight so my proposed day trip to North Stradbroke Island is going to be an overnight stay instead. North Stradbroke Island or Straddie as it is known to locals lies just off the coast of Brisbane to the South-East of the city. It’s a good job I am staying overnight as what I expect to be a short trip ends up taking me 5 hours door to door. First it’s an hour on the train to Cleveland. When I get off the train I’ve just missed the connecting bus to the ferry terminal and there isn’t another ferry for two hours. Somehow you’d think they would co-ordinate their public transport better?? As I’ve now two hours to kill I walk down to the ferry terminal instead and hang about in a cafe. When I do eventually board the boat I end up getting on the wrong one! Two ferries, one crossing, similar names...it’s an easy mistake to make. Thankfully a local woman I’m sat next to gives me one of her tickets so I don’t have to pay twice, what a nice gesture. At the other end a bus is waiting to take us to the north of the island which is where people live - the southern half is devoted to sand mining.

I drop my bag off at the hostel and set off on a walk along the beach. It is another seriously hot day, temperatures are once again in the 30’s, not ideal to be walking in. The beaches on straddie are the best I’ve seen yet in Australia - fine white sand, not too many people (that’s where most of the others fall down), turquoise waters and surf pounding the shoreline.....close to perfection. I walk along Home Beach, Cylinder Beach, Deadman’s beach and Frenchman’s beach before reaching Point Lookout, one of only three settlements on the island. I stop for refreshment, this sun is sapping and I must have walked for an hour along the beaches to reach here. From Point Lookout, the North Gorge Headlands is a must. To be honest this is the main reason I came to Straddie. The promise of being able to spot turtles, manta rays and dolphins off the rocky outcrop was too good to pass up. As it is I only spot turtles but still it was well worth it. At the end of the walk you look out over main beach which stretches as far as the eye can see. All that’s left now is to walk the 5km back to the hostel....I just need some cloud cover!

I had planned to go with some guys from the hostel to the pub but walking in the sun has taken all my energy. I opt for a quiet night with a good book and having a dorm to myself with no disturbances get an early night.

Day 201: Friday 16th January - Mount Coot-tha and the Botanic Gardens

I return to Brisbane after an all too short time spent on Straddie. This is the first place I’ve been to in Australia which hasn’t been swarming with people. Whilst the majority of my time to date has been spent in cities so it’s hardly surprising, when I have ventured out of the city it’s been swarming with local and overseas tourists. It would have been good to chill out here for a few days but it’s still too early to sunbathe after burning myself. On the way back to Brisbane I get talking to a Japanese guy who tells me to look him up when I get to Japan....who knows?

It’s lunchtime before I get back to my hostel in Brisbane. This still gives me the afternoon to go up to Mount Coot-tha and get the spectacular day time view across the city. At the foot of the mountain are the botanic gardens. It’s only a twenty minute walk down the road to reach them but the sun is really strong once again. By the time I get to the gardens my first thought is to find shade in the native forest. I spend an hour and a half chilling out in the gardens before catching a couple of buses back to the city.For the second successive day walking in the heat has taken it out of me so I stop in the hostel watching South Africa beat Australia in the first one day cricket match.

Day 202: Saturday 17th January - Cuddling a Koala

I catch a bus 10km south-west of the city to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. My reason for coming here is to realise an ambition and cuddle a Koala. I’d been told about this place from my friend Lou, who came here 8 years ago. In Queensland, unlike Victoria and New South Wales, the two other states in which Koala Bears are found in Australia it isn’t illegal to hold Koala’s. Before I get to the Koala’s I spend time walking around seeing the birds, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, Wombats and Emus. The Kangaroo reserve is almost as good as cuddling the Koala. You get chance to be right up among all the kangaroos in the reserve, stroking them and feeding them. It’s a great experience to get so close to nature and in an environment that the Kangaroos are clearly comfortable in. Having had the bonus of feeding Kangaroos I head to get my photo cuddling a Koala.

My fascination with Koala’s dates back to my childhood days when one of my soft toys was a Koala. I even recall asking my Mum one day if we could get a Koala bear for a pet! I remember her saying they needed special trees but that wasn’t a problem for a seven year old’s brain as we had plenty of trees at the back of the garden! So my moment of cuddling a Koala was realising an ambition. The $15 I had to pay for the photos was a small price to pay, and yes they’re still as cute as ever! About half the sanctuary is given over to Koalas, there are 130 of the cute, fuzzy creatures, although truth be told they spend most of their time sleeping so aren’t the most interesting of animals to watch. That said after they get their fresh Eucalyptus leaves they spring to life and entertain without realising it. The rest of my time at Lone Pine is spent wandering the remaining animal enclosures - freshwater crocs, snakes and lizards before I sit to listen and get educated in the demonstrations on Koalas and Snakes.

I’m in the mood to go out tonight but I’ve chosen the wrong hostel in that regard. It’s currently being renovated so it’s fairly quiet and of the people staying here I haven’t met any party goers. It’s a shame as I could quite have fancied seeing what Brisbane’s nightlife has to offer but I choose not to go out on my own to discover what it’s all about. Still, there will be plenty of other places to go out in. I’ve enjoyed Brisbane. The city itself suffers in comparison with Melbourne and Sydney, its more illustrious rivals down the coast but North Stradbroke Island and the Koala Sanctuary make it well worth a stop-over on the way up through Queensland.

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