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Published: January 7th 2011
We arrived as scheduled on Jan. 2 to Brisbane. Hailey greeted us at the airport and transported us to our new home base for this leg of our trip. Spent the first two days and nights exploring Brisbane. A really pretty city with a lot of public parks and nice river front walks. We headed over to Daisy Hill, a local park and Andrew had a chance to see his first wallabies and koalas. On our third day in Australia, Andrew and I took the truck, some provisions and a ton of maps and books and headed out for a couple days. First stop was to go out for a bush walk up Mount Greville. It was a gorgeous walk up a gorge filled with ferns, mosses, occasional flowers and a ton of spiders. The spiders ranged in size from tiny to bigger than the palm of an adult's hand. We camped that night at Spicer's Gap a nearby campground that is part of the Main Range National Park. On our drive up to the campground, we passed a couple of Grey Kangaroos having a snack in the grasses. The next day we headed over to the rain forest at Springbrook
National Park. We went on a couple of walks in Springbrook exploring the jungle like scenery and waterfalls. Saw some pretty cool reptiles. A couple of pretty good sized skinks and a 6 foot long Carpet Python (one of the few non-venomous snakes in Australia). After we had our fill of jungle we headed over to the Gold Coast and had our first dip in the South Pacific Ocean. Beautiful white sand beach and crystal clear water. Only problem was all the clouds in the sky meant a major storm front moving in. That night it poured in buckets and unlucky for us our tent leaked. We made it through the night and headed back to Brisbane the next morning. Now we are just relaxing, reading books and getting ready to head out on a big roadtrip tomorrow morning. It has been raining pretty much non stop, but the weather is warm and there are a lot of lizards everywhere so all is well. Andrew has taken well to driving on the wrong side of the car and road and I have become quite a navigator with all the messed up highways and roads that exist here in Australia.
Alyssa
Wow, what a long flight! After 14 hours of leg straining yoga positions, Alyssa and I made it to the land down under. This is my first trip to the southern hemisphere (me being Andrew), so of course I couldn't wait to use to toilet to see which way the water flushed. Brisbane is a really beautiful city, full of green parks and interesting bridges. We spent the first couple days exploring the city and recuperating from the drastic time change. Our first meal here was an authentic Aussie Barbie, complete with 'Roo' steaks and stubbies for drinks. As Alyssa mentioned above, I got to see my first Wallaby and had the pleasure of learning to drive on a test and see basis. So not only is the steering wheel on the right side of the car, the gear shift is used with your left hand, your signals and all basic functions are switched backwards (lights, signals, etc.), and you drive on the left side of the road. Oh yeah, add some round-a-bouts for added fun. I think I picked it up pretty well however, and was able to drive Alyssa and I over 200 kilometers to different parks
in the state. We got to experience a real 'bush-walk' in the Main Range National Park (read Alyssa and I with safari outfits scrambling up rock faces in the Aussie outback, then picture Alyssa and I with red faces walking up mild slopes and screaming at nearly every living thing in sight assuming it's out to kill us) and also saw two wild kangaroo later in the day. We camped that night and slept to the peaceful sounds of Kookaburras in the trees (there's a lot of sarcasm in the peaceful description). Next day we explored waterfalls and rain forest jungles before heading to the beaches of the Gold Coast. Ahh, first dip into the South Pacific - and not eaten by sharks - all good things. The rain has been pretty constant since we've been here, heavy at times, but always warm. Tomorrow we leave for a road trip down south. Hopefully more adventure ensues.
Have fun at work! Andrew
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Dad
non-member comment
Brisbane
It sounds like you are having a lot of fun and seeing a lot of things. Is it possible to get pictures of the animals and spiders and all the wild life? I'm glad you are having such a good time. And "Hi" Hailey!