Advertisement
Published: December 28th 2006
Edit Blog Post
G-day all,
left Hervey Bay to travel to Noosa a very fashionable area on the coast. Heard on the news that they had had a terrific storm the previous night and there was a tremendous amount of storm damage. Houses had lost their roofs and trees down,(see Pics) the major concern was the water supply was likely to be cut off as the power supply was down for the water treatment plants, this didn't auger well for me to stay in Noosa.anyway went on to Noosa Heads ,yes very trendy including the prices. A poky little room $120 Aus per night ($1Aus = Euro 0.61) there was a beach house for sale $6million Aus, for sale prices started from around 1/2 million dollars. With that in mind decided to give Noosa the the big “E” and carry on to Coloundra further down the coast some ½ hour drive (given up giving distances just driving time ,getting even more the Oz habit 1 hour is about 100-120 K's)
While in Caloundra discovered a new species of tree 'The Tea Bag Tree”, if you look carefully you can see them growing all ready to use (Pic) apart from that not much of
interest so moved on the following day to call in to see my uncle who I hadn't seen for some 30 odd years .He and his wife had recently moved, traded down his 6 bedroom 4 acre house in Flaxton with the model village (a Similar one in Beaconsfield England) to a little by Oz standards 4 bedroom bungalow with only an acre of land with a small lake in a quiet cul-de-sac.(pic)
decided then to go inland to a place called Kilcoy ,it has a great big lake 50k long wanted a change from the Pacific Ocean.3 hours later get to Kilcoy ,”where's the lake” no Lake to be seen,aparently this year is the worst drought for over 100 years ,the lake has been reduced to less than 20% of what it should be.( no pic couldn’t find it, i.e. The lake)
but as always there is something that does surprise one ,while staying at a motel in Kilcoy and with the strict smoking restrictions all over Oz one has to go outside .They supply plastic table and chairs so not too inconvenient, suddenly there is this croaking sound, one of the construction workers who was also staying long
term said “it's the frog in the table “in the table? “Yes in the hole that you put the umbrella “ “you are having me on “ no it's in the centre hole, that his home “
Well I brushed off as a typical wind up for the ”POMMIE”.
Just as it was getting dark I was sitting outside when all of a sudden up popped this little head out of the middle of the table, I watched fascinated .when it was completely dark he popped right out for all to see ,a Green Tree Frog. ( Pics )
Moved on then towards Brisbane just north of Caboolture you come to the “GLASS HOUSE MOUNTAINS” a dramatic visual start to the Sunshine coast they are a bizarre series of volcanic crags that rising abruptly out of the plain.(pic) to a height of 300metres .yet again they were discovered and named by that amazing man Capt Cook, the story goes that he noted the reflections of the glass smooth rock sides or he thought they looked like the glass furnaces in his native Yorkshire.
Motoring on then got stopped for the first time since being in Australia at a level crossing
Meleny home of my Uncle
Just a little home with small garden and pond ,train approaches ,some three mins later all’s clear we can go ,it was one of those famous freight trains 2 massive diesels pulling a kilometre of mixed freight(Pic)
Finally got to Brisbane and had already phoned ahead for accomadation, very central, but that in itself creates a problem, where to park? just like all major cities a nightmare and when I saw the room on offer I thought I was being sent to prison absolutely awful, wanted $89 Aus for the cell it was just a bed nothing else and then there was the parking hassle they had done a deal with a car park some 500 metres away for $14 a night so that meant that I was having to pay $103 per night for a cell and the car ½ kilometre away. Decided to try some a little further out and got a basic room with parking for $40 a night and they run a shuttle service into the city central every hour till 19-00 ($1 Aus = €0.61) so settled for that for the Christmas period .
I love people watching it gives one an insight into the lifestyle ,well I certainly was some what amused later
The Pond
No crocodiles on yesterday strolling down the street this “Herm”is coming towards me ,terrible wig, full makeup, earrings, frock and top must have been nearly 2metres tall big broad shoulders size ten feet with high heels.
I had a chuckle each to their own, later went into one of the many many café/bars that dominate Australia, low and behold there’s the Transvestite with a friend who was even more bizarre bad wig ,full makeup earrings but instead of a frock or dress he had shorts on ,no similar to what you get that allow you to remove the bottom section of the trouser and on the giant feet high heels !!
It doesn’t end there within 20mins there are 14 herms in all sorts of weird gear.
I have seen transvestites in Brazil and in Hong Kong all looked fantastic, difficult to tell but this lot, all between 40-60 they must be the ugliest transvestites I have ever seen.i have since discovered from my Lonely Planet book that there is a thriving Gay /lesbian /Herm community in Brisbane with there own clubs and pubs
So all in, all things going pretty well, well that’s apart from the potential nightmare of the
other Sunday night in Caloundra. I was low on cash so went ATM iserted the card requested the cash up comes please wait we are processing you request I wait and wait and wait and wait no response It had swallowed my card never to return!!
Now what Sunday night 20-30 chap waiting use the m/c all my money in the account for the adventure .Ring the help line ,get an English chap from Manchester on the other end explained my predicament first response is you need to contact Halifax PLC in UK and then Visa to get replacement card. I said that was not acceptable as politely as I could ,he then went and spoke to his Boss ,some 40 mins later on the mob he’s back .through some PC wizardry out spat the card !! What a relief. so you can get the cards back but you have to be persistent .
Some what nervous the following day to use the card ,checked first in the bank that they could recover the card incase it happened again .Fortunately all was well.
Tomorrow will explore more of Brisbane ,going to get the “Golden Mile Ferry” for a start,
then we shall see what adventure occurs
Phileas
Advertisement
Tot: 0.143s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0655s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Phileas
Roger Port
in respnse to you question
I am now in Tamworth 550k,s south west of brisbane I am waiting to get on to a decent PC to update the blog as it is getting too far behind but a lot of the internet cafes PC"s are ancient