Advertisement
Published: December 30th 2016
Edit Blog Post
Days 67 to 74 of 165
Spent our first day in Brisbane actually in Brisbane. When we arrived in the city we found that the museum had an exhibition about the Large Hadron Collider. Paul was keen so had a ticket and spent an hour there. Pip had a coffee..... and used the museum's WiFi to catch up on some email replies. The exhibition was quite good, though unfortunately the volunteers were not actually physicists so q & a's were a bit lacking. The scene setting video at the start of the exhibition had a cameo role - Chief Scientist "Coffee boy, our orders are..... Boy...err, what's your name again?".
Boy turns to camera with an exasperated look on face "Brian. Brian Cox !" It appeared though that this was lost on many of those there. Maybe not as famous as he likes to think he is.
Then just a long meander along the river bank and some window shopping before settling to watch the nightly Xmas Parade. Fun enough whilst it lasted,
which was all of about 10 minutes - not a very big parade. Then to the river bank to watch Xmas fireworks, then back across to Brisbane's river side artificial beach lagoon whilst the crowds disappated . It was 9.30 pm, about 90 min after sunset, and the lagoon was heaving, especially as they were showing Elf on a large screen alongside. Very weird to see dozens of people on Dec 23rd in the water watching a film.
Day 68, Xmas Eve, and we went north to Moreton Bay. This was to a)get out of town, b)to track down some Moreton Bay Bugs, a strange crustacean looking something like a lobster minus its head and c)to have a sea swim.
Arriving on the bay at Redcliffe we find that this is the home of the Bee Gees. And so in the centre of town there is a walkway/alley dedicated to them with statues, photos, time lines etc and a large video screen that shows 30 min loops of them, though sadly only in the evening. All this curated in conjunction with Barry Gibb. Quite well done.
The Bugs were located in a marvellous fish market nearby and
so that just left the swim. Turned out Redcliffe also had a sea water artificial lagoon, again absolutely heaving, particularly with very large parties using the free BBQs and having picnics.
Around 30 mins in Paul, whilst in the pool, noted a couple using a poolside shower to wash through many pounds of raw chicken portions. As is the way with such showers not all the water was going to drain. A goodly amount was washing into the pool, presumably including raw chicken juices. Paul reported this to a lifeguard and returned to where we were encamped, opposite to the chicken couple. And.......nothing.
We were wondering whether any action was going to be taken; the couple had by now stopped washing the fowl and the lady was cutting the portions further at a poolside bench and table.
But, after about 5 minutes there was a tannoy announcement.
"Ladies and gentlemen - could everyone please leave the water. We have had an unforeseen hygiene incident and are closing the pool for 30 minutes!"
Shortly afterwards signs were placed at the water's edge, and someone did speak to the couple. There was a lot of finger pointing
and angry gestures, but they weren't stopped from their food prep. Even the arrival of a couple of police didn't stop them. The woman continued to prep the chicken for around 2 hours, including making a fried chicken batter. As we left she was deep frying the pieces in a wok full of boiling oil, still next to the pool. Amazing!?
Day 69 - Xmas Day, and a lovely day to laze next to the lagoon in Brisbane. Except that it wasn't!
It rained constantly until late afternoon marooning us in the van, reading and listening to 60s and 70s classics on Spotify and eating Simon's chocolates. And a mince pie.
The only evening Xmas meal Paul had been able to find and prebook was on a showboat paddle boat cruise. We went with high hopes. What we got was Berni Inn Carvery plus prawns and oysters!! Oh well, the night-time river cruise was fun.
Boxing Day - finally did get to swim in the Brisbane Lagoon, then took ourselves on spec to see a Cirque du Soleil show, and very good that was too.
But all this was tempered by the deaths of Rick
Parfitt and George Michael. Will 2016 not give up? We saw a day or two ago, after the deaths of Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, that somebody had set up a fund to protect Betty White (Golden Girls) til the end of 2016 ? and apparently there was also talk of wrapping David Attenborough up in bubble wrap.
The next couple of days we slowly went south along the Gold Coast, stopping a couple of times for a swim and, for Paul, some body boarding. But has turned out very hot again.
Finding somewhere to stay without a booking was nearly impossible, leading to our worse camp stay on the trip. So afterwards we instead headed inland and rocked up at the delightful city, Australia's highest, of Armidale, located in New England (though with the surrounding place names - Glenn Innes, Balmoral, Scone, Aberdeen and Armidale itself named after a place on the Isle of Skye - plus a local Highland Games, maybe New Scotland might have been more appropriate). The town is full of National Trust properties so we took ourselves on a free Heritage Bus Tour. There are indeed some mighty fine
old, for Australia, buildings. But the guide, a laid back - for which read almost comatose - octogenarian lady clearly needed a new set of batteries! Though with her many references to good drinking that might have been dangerous.
Day 74, just completed, and our final drive across Oz to our Sydney campsite. A delightful 500 kms up and down, left and fight (given the way a young maniac nearly drove us off the road.... twice, I do mean 'fight') through the mountains to the north of the Blue Mountains . This route took us through 'the horse capital of Australia' lined with stud farms including Godolphin and Emirates and the Hunter Valley wine region. And Tamworth, the Country Music capital of Oz, complete with its Giant Golden Guitar.
So we are now camped up in an official National Park campsite, with many hundred others, within Sydney but about 10km from the centre. All focus is on tomorrow's New Year's Eve fireworks, which was the main driver of our Oz trip timing. We have a ticketed place booked - Opera House to our right, bridge dead ahead, but will be in early. By all accounts the place will
be heaving.
We may even, possibly, post some photos on Facebook before you reach 2017 back home. A further, Sydney, pre-departure blog though is unlikely, so in the meantime, a Very Happy, and Healthy!, New Year to you all, til we greet you from New Zealand.
Written, sweating back in upper 30s temp again!!! in anticipation of future adventures.
PS As I sit to add photos and post this at around 9am New Year''s morning there is already a steady stream of people leaving site with bags, cool boxes, chairs etc!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.396s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0483s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
JAN ( BENGREE)
non-member comment
NEW YEAR GREETINGS FROM 2nd Cousins And 3rd Cousins In Chester.
Your trip is amazing! So many memories... images.... thoughts.... emotion....all there to store...AND when you're home in Devon, you'll feed off all this for years to come! GRAB IT ALL...and a HAPPY NEW YEAR from us all....Jan, Ray, Guy, Liz, George, Alice, Ric, Kristy, Oscar and Holly...no doubt including several future Intrepid Travellers To Be! XXX