The Infamous Bus Crash Junction

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A girl who had stayed at the hostel in Melbourne for a while had invited me back to Brisbane, so I decided to head up there as I didn't see much of it last time. I also wanted to meet up with a guy whom I had worked with in Brighton and had not been there last time I passed by.

He was not there this time either, but I met up with Amanda as planned. Her place was my first experience of the city suburbs (like the one in Neighbours) where most of the Australian population lives. They are basically huge great sprawls that contain little or nothing of any interest. The British might all be living on top of each other on our tiny little island, but at least it doesn't take 40 minutes to walk to the nearest shop. We don't all have swimming pools in our gardens, so actually we probably worse off.

We spent one of the days at a water park called Amazons. Slides, tubes, water rides all that sort of thing. A great day and not something that you are likely ever to see in England.

There had been a number of high profile bus crashes in Australia whilst I had been there, with a disproportionate amount at this infamous place between Brisbane and Sydney. The bus to Sydney was a huge double decker, which the driver had obviously not driven before. We had stopped at a roadhouse at that ominous location and while leaving, he drove though a filling station forecourt. That would have been fine for a single decker, but we ploughed straight through the forecourt canopy and there was an almighty crash as plastic, metal and fluorescent light tubes fell all around us. We all had to walk to the front of the bus whilst they let the tires down to lower it sufficiently to drive back out, taking more of the canopy with it.

Not in the league of some of the other crashes, thank God, but an experience none the less.

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Photos

Brisbane Waterfall
Chilling by a waterfall in Brisbane