BRISBANE 2

So, this is the last of the Australia/Brisbane pictures. Hard to believe that it's really all over.

There was so much wonderful architecture, plant and animal life, even in a city that it's hard to see it as a big city. It was though. Too many cars stuffed into a small enough downtown area meant that it was noisy and smelly. Housing prices, from what I could see, were very high in price and demand. For a city with about 6 universities, this must have meant that the student population were hard pressed for decent accommodation.




We had lots of great ferry rides, train and bus rides too. Our adventures took us out to sea, for a gander at whales. We went to Victorian seaside resorts for a look and were looked at by parrots and residents alike.





Our hostel was on a highish hill, so we could have a great view of the downtown and surrounds. We walked all over the place as the city had wonderful walkways followinf the snaking river. We crisscrossed that river on the ferries and visitied areas of the city that were not tourist areas, enjoying urban coffee shops and restaurants.











We were amazed by the cultural way of life. Very like our own but with a pacific twist. Surfer's Paradise was Las Vegas with it's meter Maids in gold bikinis and spike heels.

































Flowering date palm.


We were able to visit great botanical gardens, enormous second hand book stores, parks and historical buildings. We took it all in and enjoyed it all.

Brisbane 1

This is part one of the pictures I took in Brisbane. We were there for about 19 days and enjoyed the city very much. We enjoyed the inexpensive day passes for the transportation system of this place. This included buses, trains and ferries up and down the river, train rides to quite far out of the city's limits and buses to all areas of the burbs. The trains were like the subway system and went everywhere.

The city was full of wonderful sculptures, Universities and lots of shopping.

The coffee was great and the food very gourmet.

We loved it!

Enjoy the pictures! My next posting will be the last set of Brisbane and the end of the trip. I'm sad it's two months since I have been back already!

The great train ride, Airlie Beach and Hervey Bay

The beginning of the GREAT TRAIN RIDE! The only rain we saw during our visit to Queensland. A bit of spitting and some wind and that was it. We were inside a train, so all was comfort. We had a rail pass which allowed us on and off privileges with transfers to the towns we were going to, all for one price. Really great!





















A banana plantation along the way. The bananas are wrapped both for protection from birds and for warmth and quick growth.









The general edge of outback forest. The train line follows the coast, more or less and we did not go inland, so this is the closest I got to seeing the bush.













Dry dry river beds. Water is a real problem for them. We saw hundreds of miles of sugar cane and a lot of this dry look too.
















Dawn in Airlie Beach. We stayed here for a week, to recuperate from our first whirlwind week's tour. This was a very nice resort Beach and we walked everywhere. We saw many birds I had never seen before including a bowerbird building his beautiful arch with sticks and blue and green collected stones.









There was a great market day on the beach and we wandered around getting organic food to eat in our hostel. These were camels that must have been native captures (there is a huge wild population in the Australian desert) and was amusing the visitors with rides.
This particular guy was not as happy a camper as I would have imagined.






































We went on a sunset tour on the ferry one evening and it was a wonderful ride around the Whitsunday Islands. We even got an education on what animals we might see. It was the beginning of whale watching season and I was hoping! I had seen some dolphins in the bay the day we had arrived in Airlie Beach.









After we had rested enough, we took a bus ride into Proserpine. This was a small town on the train line and we enjoyed it very much. I had a sugar refinery that would run from July to November during the harvest time. The whole place smelt of burnt sugar. We also visited a pioneer museum and had a lovely lunch in a little cafe.






















Another day, another long walk. This time, we walked out of town to a small shopping mall and just relaxed with coffee and a newspaper. We weren't getting much access to TV news in the hostel as the kids preferred to watch the Simpsons pretty much 24/7.










The train ride from Airlie Beach to Hervey Bay was done during the night. We got a berth in a sleeper car and sat for the first two hours in the dark, just looking at the most incredible night sky. I have never seen the Milky Way to this degree before. It was amazing. We arrived in Maryborough the next morning and were tranferred by bus to Hervey Bay. Hervey Bay is near the Fraser Island area. We stayed there for three days and walked the beaches for kilometers! 16 to be exact! But we also had some great food and some great tours.
























We went into Maryborough one day to see the town that didn't get to be the capital of Queensland. We took a ferry tour up and down the river to see homes along the water.










We also visited an old general store that had materials in it from the 1800's.

































This is a pied crow. Very bright, not shy and noisy too!



















Classic Queenslander butterfly staircase. We were both charmed by the houses.
















Sharks and whales are a deep fascination to everyone. I was more fascinated with giant styatues of things.






We visited a great pioneer museum in Hervey Bay that I will never forget. What a life of hardship just to survive.




















Walking the beach was very beautiful and almost restful if it wasn't for the shared bike/pedestrian pthway Yoiks! a few close calls there.
















Mr. Pelikan came out of the water just to pose for the camera.














Dead Jelly fish on the beach. They looked just like glass.