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Published: November 25th 2008
Loads of Pineapples
Just one of many pineapple fieldsToday was a day we were looking forward to; we had to take the Hertz car back to Brisbane today, as we were picking up the Nissan Patrol late afternoon from Gary Crick Nissan in Nambour.
Nambour is where the Australian Prime minister Kevin Rudd comes from.
The first job we had to do was clean the skip out, ah, I mean the Hertz Hire Car affectionately known as “The Pea”, it took us no time to clean it out and stash our gear, and soon after breccy, we left for Brisbane at around 08.50. En Route we had to fill “The Pea” up with petrol, which cost $65.45 for 64.87 litres, $0.99Cents per litre or £0.43 p per litre in British money.
Shooting off down the Sunshine Highway (70) and South onto the M1, Caroline Navigating and me at the handlebars. Amazingly we saw a cyclist (Peddle Variety) on the M1 which is the main arterial motorway. A Freightliner truck overtook us at 110, and this beauty must have been just over a 100ft, from the front of the tractor unit to the rear of the trailer, the truck was (Twin Articulated) it had a 30 ft
Fresh Pineaple
Library Picture taken in January 2007. trailer from its tractor unit 5th wheel, then another 5th wheel at the end of the fist trailer, (Not a bogey) we are looking forwards to seeing the road trains in the about back, they pull something like 4x40ft trailers. On the route to Brisbane we saw a dead Kangaroo on the side of the road.
Caroline as usual got us in to the centre of Brisbane with ease, I’m sure she could thread a needle in the dark. We handed back the keys to the Holden Commodore “The Pea”, paid our dues, then headed on foot to the Department of Transport for Queensland, as we needed to change the address on our driving licences.
Whilst in Brisbane we topped up our mobile phone with Australian credit and I brought a couple of books, including one about a man who survived for 71 days in the Outback.
While Andy is catching up with some sleep late afternoon on this cloudy day on the Sunshine Coast, I have now hijacked the blog, about time too!
After lunch we headed up to Central Station, which was where we needed to catch the express train to Nambour.
Nambour
The Bloke, The Dog and The Mower
This picture is also from 2007 shows Karen talking to the bloke that we happened to see a few days ago. is roughly 90 kilometres north of Brisbane and is easily accessible by road, however we wanted to take the train as it would be an exciting part of our adventure.
Purchasing 2 Single Adult tickets at a cost of $27 for both of them, this works out to be roughly £5.86 per ticket. Not bad for a journey that lasts a little under 2 hours, in fact I think it is a real bargain. Stopping at most of the stations between Brisbane and Nambour, some stations are missed out giving the express part of the journey.
Waiting for the train at Brisbane Central was quite pleasant, thinking about Waterloo Station and the constant hustle and bustle, where if you stand still for more than a nano second to ponder you would be knocked over in the rush. I wonder what I would think if I was commuting to and from work from Brisbane. We will see.
At 12:48 the Nambour Express rolled onto platform 3 slightly late but that was no problem for us as we were not in a hurry. The train was fairly empty and there was plenty of room to sit. The condition inside
The Lookout
Another library picture showing the Lookout area in 2007. showed that the train had seen better days, it was clean and tidy, but the upholstery was showing signs of wear and the Perspex windows had been vandalised by people scratching their names or other insignificant graffiti into them. On the whole, very good for the cost. Most unlike the Fast train that goes from Southampton Airport Parkway to London in just over 1 hour at a cost of £70.00 (or more) and no room to sit down although the trains are (or were) in slightly better condition. I know which service I prefer.
Settling onto the train Andy and I plug in our ipods to while away the journey and soak up the Queensland countryside as it slides past us. Listening to my favourite movie soundtrack “Love Actually” I watch the clouds over Brisbane break up into blue skies. I am not sure why but the sky in Australia seems to be bigger than in England. Maybe because you can see so much more in the vast and often flat countryside stretching out ahead and to the sides of you.
The scenery is amazing, the colours are so bright, the green is luscious and the red of
Critters
Is this little critter a Possum? the bottlebrush stands out vividly.
Rolling onwards and into the Glasshouse Mountains the fields of pineapple stretch out across the landscape and my thoughts turn to freshly juiced pineapple, which makes me thirsty. We used to have a juicer until Andy sold it on Ebay. I regularly used to juice fruit and vegetables. Often the strangest of concoctions made some of the best flavoured juices. I love cucumber, pineapple and beetroot.
Ok, hands up who knew that pineapples grew in bushes? I always thought that they grew on trees. I have attached some library pictures for you to see (taken by me when we were in Australia in 2007)
The Mountains are stunning.
Arriving at Eudlo the train reversed for about half mile and then started rolling forward again. It must have been on the wrong track. No other train came past us so it had not shifted for anything. Moving forwards back on the right track the train stopped at the platform and one person got off.
Awaiting at Nambour was Erin who sold us the Nissan Patrol. He drove us back to the garage where we were going to deal with all the paperwork and handover the bankers’ cheque so that we in turn would get the keys to our Nissan.
Whilst there we saw Ruth again, her husband Dave works at Australia Zoo, she was telling us a story about someone who pulled up at the zoo and instead of going to the car park this vehicle followed a bus into the bus park where passengers are dropped off. Dave politely said to them you cannot park here, but all the driver of the car did was to point to the roof of his vehicle, whilst his wife sat beside him looking frozen with fear. Curled up on the roof of this car was a snake.
This couple had camped out in Landsborough overnight and woke up this morning to this little visitor and did not know what to do with it. Not wanting to disturb it and knock it off the car, also not knowing if it was poisonous or not, decided to drive very carefully (they did not want to risk the snake falling off and being killed) and slowly to Australia Zoo where it could be dealt with by an expert. I don’t think it was poisonous, but I do have to say that I think I would have done the same. We also found out today that it is illegal to kill snakes in Australia.
So after a while the paperwork was done, Erin Lucas and Dan Hunt once again very helpful in sorting things out and making sure that we knew all of the necessary information and once again Andy continued to chat to them as if they had all the time in the world. Whilst finishing up on the paperwork Erin muttered ‘crazy poms’. Also reflecting on the snake that we came across the other evening Erin did mention that anything brown or black is probably poisonous, green colours are not poisonous. I will look that up but am not going to test that theory anytime soon.
Now armed with our Nissan Patrol Andy threw the keys in my direction so that I could have the pleasure of driving it off the forecourt and back to Alexandra Headland. Fabulous at last my very own Chelsea Tractor, as much as I loved driving low slung and sporty it was great to now feel that I had a view right above most of the traffic.
I am looking forward now to sorting our stuff out and kitting it out properly with the first aid kit and the rest of our outdoor gear, also a place that Lambchop can call ‘home’.
We are thinking up names for our Patrol as we like to give everything (well almost everything) a name e.g. back in UK Andy’s Mercedes was called the ‘Panza Wagon’ and several years ago I had a Mercedes C180 which we named the ‘pimp mobile’. We will keep you posted on developments we have a couple of good ones but we have to be sure.
While I was sitting here, on the balcony, listening to the sound of the crickets and typing up today’s blog I heard a noise and could see some movement in the palm trees by the balcony. Looking up I could see a small animal gingerly making its way across the centre spine of a palm. He stopped while I grabbed my camera and allowed me to take a photo before heading further into the palm trees and out of my sight. I am not certain if it is a bandicoot or a possum. I will have to do some research.
Well its 6.50 pm here, time for a quick shower and spray with mosquito repellent, those blighters are biting me to pieces. I must wake Andy too!
Actually Andy has just appeared on the balcony as if by magic and whilst we were talking we could hear more rustling in the trees, upon further investigation we see a bat out hunting. It is dark now and wildlife is hard to spot, but we will keep our eyes and ears open.
This evening we drive down to the centre to try to pick up a free wifi signal, hurrah, we manage to get 20 minutes, sitting in the truck which has very tinted window’s on the lap top checking our e-mails. We have a response from Australia zoo regarding the picture of our snake we sent them, (ITS NOT A SNAKE) it’s a legless Lizard, but from the photo’s it looks like a snake, and I am glad we were both cautious and did the right thing. (No laughing please)
We also have a response to the house sitting e-mails we have sent, a couple who live in Port Stevens has responded and asked us to give her a call re sitting the house and their Labradoodle puppy over Christmas. we have been to Port Stevens before with our friends, its gorgeous, being big animal lovers and home owners doesn’t really present us a problem.
We call the people, Port Stevens is in (NSW) New South Wales, it is 9.20 pm, Caroline thinks they are an hour behind, the lady answers (Faye) they are an hour in front, oops !
Port Stevens is just over 800 k’s away, I think we will stay here until 09/11/2008 then head south, getting there around 20th December
We get back to the apartment at just after 10.00pm and Caroline and myself sit of on the balcony, there is a rustling in the tree next to us, and I shine my head torch to see a large bat, just hanging there, with the prettiest face
Love and Kisses to all you happy bloggers.
Caroline & Andy
PS can anyone tell me what is happening in Corrie? (Caroline)
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Steve
non-member comment
Corrie, whats that?
Too busy to watch Corrie, but you'll be pleased to know that MFI and Woolworths have now gone bust.... no really!