Last day in Brisbane

This is our last day in Brisbane and we got up early to walk to the Botanical Gardens along the path on the north side of the river bank, on our map it is called the Riverside Bridleway. We had breakfast in the Gardens in the former Caretakers Cottage. It was hard to believe we were in the middle of a city surrounded as we were by Candlenut Trees, an ancient Dragon Tree, Bunya Pine, Queen Palms etc., exotic etc.

Refreshed we wandered on past Hibiscus, frangipani, and formal gardens full of dark purple salvias and white daisies with round mounded beds of white, lilac and purple sweet alyssum. Drought conditions exist here, reservoirs are down to 25% of their usual capacity. We saw a marker for the January 1974 floods, people dies, 6700 homes were ruined and the gardens were a part of vast areas of Brisbane that were under water. Hasrd to believe today.

We walked on down to the Old Custom House and then caught a City Cat ferry to the South Bank and Streets Beach. This is a beach with real sand created in the Southbank Parklands the beach runs down to a pool adjacent to the river. It also has a big screen - you could watch the cricket there while keeping cool in the pool! We walked further, on through the Cultural Centre which houses the Performinmg Arts complex and the Queensland Art Gallery and Museum, time for lunch and now we are in the cool, modern, State Library Here we can connect to the Internet for free, so I am grabbing the opportunity!

I've been posting from TinBilly's a backpackers in town for a small fee. I have to say the State Library facilities are somewhat more luxurious! It still doesn't stop the old chap from stalking about when he thinks I've been online too long though!

So we move onto Adelaide tomorrow morning. I don't think either of us will be particularly sad to leave Brisbane. It's time to move on, we've been here a week. Lets hope the cricket is better in Adelaide.

I'll put some photos up of our walk at some point. I have a new camera as my old one was lifted from my bag on a crowded ferry. Buying a new camera was a bit of an education, there are very few international warranties apparently, so if the new Canon I've bought goes wrong I have to send it back to Australia!! Oh well, that's life!

Tonk a Pom

Whatever next! Tonk A Pom indeed! Perhaps back in Old Blighty it is time to give Ford a wide!

If you really feel you want to have a go at Tonking a Pom you can do it here ....

The Gabba Day 3 - Saturday

It was so much easier to get to the Gabba today without work and school traffic to contend with. We had great shady low level seats at third man, so we could see all the pre match interviews taking place and we were close enough to see the shine on the players faces as they trotted out onto the field with England 53 for 3 at start of play.

We were soon on the edge of our seats though when Peterson was dropped at 12 by bowler Clark. A short while later he was out lbw. A bad call by the Umpires. Unlucky for him, unlucky for England. Freddie came in and went out for a duck, he can't do it all. We slump back in our seats to watch the rapid disintegration. Highlights of which were:

- Jones swept to square leg and poleaxed Umpire Billy Bowden. The crowd were very sympathetic and when he eventually was able to get to his feet he got a standing ovation.

- Ponting dropped Giles.

- Bell's 50 runs were his 35th half century, 8th in Test Marches. He's come on since last year when his average was 17. Since then he has got 3 consecutive 100s against Pakistan and his average is now 47.66.

- McGrath's 5 wickets at 9 - 154. This was his 10th five wicket haul v England and 29th 5 wickets in all Tests.

- They played Rolf Harris Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport during the Interval between the Innings.

- Lively 5 minutes as police tried to aprehend life sized blow up doll being tossed around by the crowd. Suggestions that she be given to Warnie went unheeded!

- Hayden was run out from throw by Anderson - 3rd Umpire was needed. The decision took ages and we were sure the batsman would be given the benefit of the doubt. The final decision didn't really affect the game but Hayden's pink handled bat signified he is a Bosom Buddy and is raising money for Breast Cancer Research. $1 a run. Pink topped water bottles are part of the same scheme.

- Ponting didn't make England follow on. There were several theories running for this; he needed to give his old bowlers a rest! McGrath's hip was troubling him! Favourite though was that the Aussie players get a bonus, a share of the gate receipts, from Cricket Australia so it is in their interests for the game to carry onto 4th Day and maybe 5th. Another attendance record was set today with 170,332 spectators over 3 days, the biggest 3 day crowd since the 30's Bodyline Series.

- 9,000 Test runs for Ricky Ponting was reached in the 2nd Innings at 4.13pm when they were 91 -1. [Note Queensland are out of step with the rest of Australia in having a daylight saving of an hour. So it was 5.13pm in NSW when Ponting reached his 9,000]

We catch a free bus back into town that rockets down the busway.

We had a post match highlight when we met Dan and Mary-Jane, whose house we had stayed in at Noosa. They were lovely, she is originally from New Zealand and was a public servant in Brisbane, currently taking a sabbatical, and Dan is a consultant with an interest in National Parks and has worked closely with indigenous groups. We look forward to meeting up with them again when they visit UK.

I'm dipping out of going today (Sunday) so Keith has gone on his own as his brother didn't want to (What! I hear you cry and he's an Australian!!) I need enough energy for a bop at Elton John's Concert tonight. He's a keen cricket fan and according to the Telegraph he was due to see some of the Test action before his concert although we haven't seen him yet, maybe he was one of the many Monty lookalikes yesterday?

cricket piccie

I've been trying to change my header banner for ages and it doesn't seem to be happening so I'm putting cricket piccie up here anyway!! It was the opening ball of the Opening Day of the Ashes tour at the Gabba, Brisbane. Good Day!

The Gabba

We joined the throngs that have swarmed to Brisbane for the Opening Day of the Ashes. The Gabba is enormous by UK standards. It had a record crowd of 39,288 today. It was a good humoured affair with some tight policing, loads of bouncing balls, the odd kangaroo and even a centipede or two amongst the crowd. In the afternoon there was a three tiered Mexican waves. Loads of flags, ours, which was sent to us out here by our neighbours back home, Les and Leigh, went down well. We liked the England flag that said Dave and Zoe on honeymoon!! Fancy dress was good. The bowler hatted gents escaping the City looked snappy - they must have been hot with jackets on! Our seats were great, high, top layer but mostly in the shade, we just started to cook around 3.00.

Ponting won the toss and decided to bat. Round 1 to him! Langer under pressure looked set at 82 to get 100 but Freddie produced the magic and got him out 18 short of his 100. Ponting had a point to prove after loosing his cool last time the two teams met. He went on to make a century and is still there at close of play.

Englands bowling looked a bit thin with Harmison and Anderson out of sorts and minus Monty. Why isn't Monty playing? He could have been the second spinner the amount of runs both Anderson and Harmison were leaking.

Only Freddie shone like the star he is. Everyone in the crowd near us acknowledged his skill and sportsmanship.

Unfortunately Australia now appear to be in a position where they can't lose the match, but being the eternal optimists and stauch supporters we are there is always tomorrow. After all we did loose the first test at Lords last season and went on to win the series. It's early days .....

Time for us to jump in a cold shower and get a pot or 6 of wine and XXXX to you all. :-)

Marcia Hines - featuring daughter Demi - Stomp

Eumundi Market

My friend Julie and her Australian man Tim have been here this weekend. We had a very gossipy time, lovely to catch up with her news. Julie came to Australia about 10 years ago when her marriage broke down, her horrible ex ran off with her so called friend. She came out here to recover and for a holiday and didn't go home! Needless to say she hasn't regretted staying and has even taken on citizenship. Her daughter is out here now too, married to an Aussie bloke and is expecting her first baby any day.

We took time out from chatting to wander round Eumundi Market again. This time there was no rain to interrupt proceedings and we enjoyed all the weird and wonderful offerings. I had a tattoo done, a frangipani flower on my ankle - I would show you but my legs need a bit of a wax! Just take it from me it is very pretty!

We have had an amazing variety of food since we have been in Australia and here in Noosa is no exception. Apart from the fabulous seafood we've partaken of sushi from a sushi train and at Eumundi we had perhaps the most far flung food! Two guys from Tibet, I think, dish out thousands and thousands of their popular Momos, which are steamed or deep fried packets of shredded vegetables, a gorgeous alternative fast food.



There were lots of pretty ladies around too, the balloon clown and the storytelling fairy give you a flavour of the slight unreality of the place, a sort of mix of magic and timewarp back to the 60's with the odd Didgeridoo man thrown in.

The Didgeridoo makes such a primeval oomph sort of noise, the chap playing them on his stall makes them and he maintains that he is saying Wackadoo into his Didgeridoo very fast to get his particular sound. There was other music throughout the market, none would be out of place at Womad, all added to the relaxed funky feel of the place. Even the camels were cool!






Oh and by the way my tattoo, like the Eumundi Market magic disappears after two weeks!

Schoolies

For all those mums in the UK struggling with Christmas Fairs and so on spare a thought for the Aussie mums who have to cope with the the cost and thought of Schoolies.

Schoolies is a week long end of exam/school party. 50,000 + kids descend onto the coast of Queensland for a week of unsupervised letting off steam. It is happening this week.

It is big business as they spend over $1 million all told. Don't know what the cost of the A & E Dept., Police etc. is though!

Hinterland

We went off into the hinterland one grey day. It was a refreshing change from the beach and river landscapes. It was very green, lush even, with several pointy mountain type pimples scattered around, all part of the Glasshouse Mountains.

We visited a number of small towns and villages which were based on timber or railways, presumably turning to agriculture when the land was cleared to support themselves.

Kin Kin was the most historic village in Noosashire, being settled in the 1890s. I was particularly impressed by the Chapel's dunny! It has a pretty old hotel, the Country Life Hotel, as has Boreen Point on Lake Cootharaba, where the Apollonian Hotel was first licensed in 1868 - we had a mediocre lunch there accompanied by a Kookaburra begging for scraps.




We were seduced by the promise of views over all Noosashire and took the 5.9 kilometer track off the main road outside Cooran up to the Tablelands Lookout. When we eventually got there the views were indeed stunning and we wished we had brought stuff to cook on the bbqs provided. You could see right across to Noosa Heads and up to Lake Cootharaba and beyond.

When we descended back down to earth we visited the Botanic Gardens and Ampitheatre at Cooroy, which is on the banks of Lake MacDonald - not a Big Mac in sight! The Gardens were incredibly fragrant and tranquil particularly when you realise they were planted on an unofficial rubbish dump in 1987. Most of the plants are native species and attract a wide variety of birdlife.

The rain started just as we got home, more great heavy drops to top up the swimming pool!

Poet for the Ashes

England have it all really, such style, such culture ...

A Derbyshire man has been appointed as the first official poet-in-residence for the Ashes tour.David Fine, from Bakewell, will write 25 poems, one for each day's play of the England v Australia cricket series which begins on 23 November.The majority of funding for the post has come from the Arts Council England.

BBC NEWS | England | Derbyshire | Ashes series to get official poet

Botham's Blast ...

Ex-England skipper Botham, 50, said: "The Aussies are a year and a half older than when the teams clashed last time and they were creaking then — especially in the bowling department.

News of the World - Online Edition

Hooray for Beefy! With one magnificent blast he has won the war of words which has been running in the press here since before our boys landed in Sydney.

It has been really strange experiencing the run up to the Opening Day from the other side, so to speak. The old chap thinks it is amusing but if you took it seriously it could undermine confidence in our sides ability to do well. However much of it is so outrageous it cannot be taken seriously. The English team have managed to remain detached from it, they have been quietly concentrating on the job in hand.

Botham's Dad's Army swipe at Australia has really hit the mark here. Australians know that their team is way too old, the oldest in international cricket - ever, with seven of their players over 35 years old.

Our boys have youth and stamina on their side. They are going to outplay, outwit and outshine the aging, creaking Aussies.

Noosa, nudists and koalas ...

We've had a great weekend with Nick @ Noosa. We've done a lot of walking, eating and talking (as well as playing with gadgets!). Today for instance we walked to Hell's Gate again in Noosa National Park, this time via Alexandria Bay which is a bit of a nudist beach - honest we didn't know till we got there! We admired the view for a short while and then pressed on! We also saw a koala bear high in a tree, it was cute, its arms were bigger than I had realised, I guess they need to be for all that tree hugging! I think I preferred the koala - how sad is that! Anyway we are off out for dinner soon so some piccies for you ..........

Alexandria Bay, Noosa Heads

Nick on the rocks in Noosa National Park

Nick on Noosa Town beach. He's wearing a lycra top which all the kids are wearing to swim in so you don't get burnt on the beach. No nudism for us!

Nick and the old chap at our favourite Season restaurant.

Gadget Man

Usually I have to sit in the Backpackers Hostel having paid my $3 for half an hour wireless connection to the Internet. It's bedlam and very hard to think about what you are doing.

Today it's all different. I'm sat by pool at our house, white wine spritzer to hand using Gadget Man's gear. Nick has arrived at Noosa bearing goodies, new gadgets. So now I am connected to the Internet through a Next Generation pc data card, which allows you to use the Internet at broadband speed wirelessly through the mobile phone network. It's new, it was out on 8th November.

It's absolutely bloody amazing! Now you can connect anywhere you can get a mobile signal as the data card contains a 3G sim card. It looks like this under:
and it slots in like this (sorry its a bit blurry, must be the wine!

Darling

Kylie is everywhere.


She is on every magazine cover and is special guest editor at Vogue

She has resumed her Showgirl Homecoming Tour and has launched a perfume - Darling!

Fraser Island

Fraser Island is the fourth largest island off Australia, it is the largest sand island in the world, amazingly a third of the island is made up of freshwater. The whole of Fraser Island is a World Heritage Site. It is a special place.

We finally got to enjoy the sights of the island from the comfort of a 4WD 6 seater, with our kind driver Rick pointing out features of interest. Kind? I hear you say. Why yes! Not only to us, his precious cargo, but also to others. On the way home he stopped to help a tourist stuck deep in the sand. We dug him out, and gave him a push backwards to freedom.

Driving tip of the day for soft sand ...

- if you get stuck stop immediately or you will dig yourself in.
- reverse out
- get back to hard sand by the waterside.
- have a long run in on hard sand to get sufficient speed up to carry you over the soft spot.

Easy - when you know how!

We started our day driving around the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, of which Fraser Island is a part. Lovely farming hinterland, cattle; some fruit such as mangoes; pecan nuts looked to be doing well. No kangaroos spotted. We avoided the main track, Cooloola Way, travellling instead on tracks through some managed large pine stands. We skirted the mixed broadleaved woodland. Apparently brumbies, wild Australian horses can sometimes be found here, but we didn't see any. Rick told us Fraser Island had been cleared of brumbies some time back - they were a mix of Arab x Suffolk Punch and other heavy horses used in early timber production and it is said they were released here on the mainland. Perhaps a more likely story however is that they were just shot and left for the Dingoes to eat.

The ferry from Inskip Point, near Rainbow Beach, was waiting to take us to Hook Point on Fraser Island. We saw dolphins effortlessly looping through the water. The tide was pretty high so we went inland to get round Hook Point on Fraser Island then back onto the beach for some difficult driving through soft sand.

We stopped for champagne and orange juice (oh yes, very civilised!) on the beach where a freshwater creek discharges into the sea near Dilly Village. If we thought the flies back at Norah Head were a problem the ones on the beach were 5 times as big and they bit - but no flies on me, thank goodness!

We moved onto Eurong where there are shops and accommodation then took the main track inland across the island to Central Station passing through the various forests - Rick called it low and high skeletal forest. We saw loads of Australian flora amongst many others:

Epiphytes growing on trees.
Scribbly Gums, so called because of the scribble markings left on the trunk by a moth.
River Red Gums - nicknamed Widowmakers because of their habit of dropping large branches. Do not camp under these!
Blackbutts - which have a sooty black bark lower down and I'm pretty sure Rick said they could survive fire.
Satinays - a Turpentine a rot resistant wood, used after WW2 to reconstruct Tilbury Docks.

Logging of these continued up to 1991 when the Island was handed over to the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS). World Heritage status was granted in 1993.

We arrived at Central Station, where in earlier times steam engines hauled logs down to the west coast to be taken to Hervey Bay on the mainland. There would have been machinery sheds and stables. Houses, tents, bark huts, vegetable gardens and a school for forestry workers and their families. Now in this clearing there is a car park and a toilet block.

We walked along the boardwalk from Central Station. This was constucted a couple of years ago to protect the Wanggoolba Creek and its gulley which provides a micro-climate for a wide variety of plants to flourish. This sheltered area has high humidity from the constant freshwater flow of the Creek, protection from wind by the steep sides of the gulley, and perhaps most importantly fire doesn't come down into it - some of the King Ferns we saw are reputed to be over 2,000 years old. Oh yes and we also saw a Kookaburra here glaring at us from his tree.


Then onto Lake McKenzie a large freshwater lake, one of a number of inland freshwater lakes. It was much bigger than I had imagined, and was fringed with fine white sand. Our guru Rick explained its formation as being like a saucer balanced on water, the saucer being formed by by impermeable soft stone formed over the years out of compressed vegetation and the lake we swam in being held in that saucer. The water in the aquifer below the lakes is hundreds of years old and finds its way to the sea via various creeks and gullies. Thousands of litres are pumped out each day into the sea.

After a relaxing swim in the lake we had a bbq lunch and then it was time to head back to the ferry. Our drive along the beach this time was on firm sand as the tide had dropped and we sped along. Back on the mainland the tidal conditions enabled us to drive along 40 Mile Beach, which is a designated highway with road speed signs, 80kph. This is where we helped out the bogged down tourist.

As we headed towards Noosa the sky blackened and reports of a severe weather warning were received from other drivers on the radio network they use. The lightning over Noosa was spectacular, the sky turned green and it started to hail - enormous hailstones hammered on the roof, our only cover was trees which were by now lashing around in the wind that had got up. One of the ferries had come off its cables and the other was not working until the storm died down so we sat it out.

The hail turned to rain, thunder filled the air. Of course we did eventually get home, not very late. When we drove past the park by the river we could see several fallen trees. A couple of branches were down on the tree by our drive and hail had
broken a small window. The glazier will get to us - eventually! We are about 2,000th on his list.

Now I can appreciate why Australians are so keen on keeping up with weather conditions. Everywhere we have been people are preoccupied with the weather. I thought this was just an English condition but not a bit of it. Everyone here with access to the Internet keeps a close check on the weather observation stations. It is not just concern about the current drought it is also because life is lived so outdoors here. Weather conditions can be extreme with flash floods and so on. You have to be aware.

What an adventure. A lovely day.

Fraser musings

You need to take care when booking a tour of Fraser Island. Our first attempt resulted in us being picked up from our house early in the morning by an old 42 seat coach. We were so gobsmacked we couldn't collect our thoughts initially except to utter 'this is not what we were expecting.' The driver was running late and threw his coach around the next couple of corners. We got off at the next pick up point and walked home. Life is too short to suffer that amount of discomfort! Coach travel is deffo not our thing!

Having now been round the island I wonder about the wisdom of allowing vehicles on there at all. Does a coach and its sheer bulk and weight, cause more environmental stress to a sensitive habitat than say 7 x Range Rover type things? Is 40 odd people pouring off at stopping points more damaging than the 4/6 at a time from 4WD vehicles? I don't know.

Should vehicles be allowed on a World Heritage site at all? I guess it is all about finding that fine balance, trying to accommodate all while keeping stewardship of a world treasure uppermost.

Who owns the various tour companies operating on Fraser Island? Who owns the ferries? How are the operators licenses dispensed? Who by? I don't know the answers to any of these questions that nag away while I try to get my thoughts in order.

Stonehenge in the UK is another World Heritage site that is having difficulty in coping with visitor pressures. Now they only allow restricted pedestrian access which I think is something Fraser Island is going to have to address at some point soon.

I know Stonehenge is a 10 acre site and Fraser Island is much much larger - its 120km x 15kms. but both are World Heritage sites and both are under severe pressure. On Fraser Island's agenda must be either pedestrian access only, which although problematical, due to the islands size, and difficulty in walking on some of the soft sandy tracks, has to be seriously considered. Failing that some form of 'green' transport must be provided around the island.

Perhaps whoever dishes out the World Heritage Site awards should also be dishing out more stringent guidelines/requirements for visitor pressure management that arises from such an award being made.

Whatever, its a problem that isn't going to go away.

Melbourne Cup Day

Phew! What a day! A walk to Hell's Gates in Noosa National Park followed by Melbourne Cup fever at the very fine Noosa Surf Club.

Melbourne Cup Day is always the first Tuesday in November and it is big all over Australia, really big, everywhere stops! We got Noosa Surf Club early enough to secure a table in the shade, on the balcony overlooking the ocean at the Town Beach. What a brilliant setting, surf and turf!

Guess what I WON!!

Not my bet on the Cup race however. I had my $5 on Yates, who didn't have the finishing power required to beat the Japanese horse Delta Blues.

Instead I won the prestigious Surf Club raffle. My prize? A whopping big scrummy shellfish platter and a magnum of 2001 Brokenwood cricket pitch - I kid you not, that is what this particular white wine is called, so appropriate!

We are going to work our way through a dozen oysters, goodness knows how many enormous prawns, lobsters, a huge red shelled crab tonight.

The magnum of wine can wait for the weekend - we'll lead our nephew astray!

Noosa

Noosa is Queensland's upmarket resort. It's a bit like Marbella in Spain, but with bush turkeys running around the main street, Hastings Street.

We got to our house exchange after a short flight from Newcastle to Brisbane on Jet Star. We picked up our hire car and drove on up the Bruce Highway.

The house exchange is as the name implies a house exchange! Dan and Mary-Jane stay in ours and we use theirs. We found and arranged it all over the Internet. So here we are in Noosaville swanning around in a three bedroomed house with a swimming pool. Very nice.

We took a stroll down Hastings Street today. I bought a sun hat, we had lunch at Season, a fabulous lunch. We looked round a couple of galleries and a bookshop.

I think we'll hack three weeks here - no trouble!

Since then we've had one day of monsoon like rain which was welcome by all, us included. It was a Saturday and we spent a lovely lounging day surrounded by newspapers! Quite the home from home! Our swimming pool was topped up and it turned the water several degrees cooler.

We've spent time on the beach. We wandered round Eumundi Market, a left over from the hippie era, but big business now. We've caught a ferry upriver to Tewantin, which means 'the place of dead trees' for the Aborigine Murri people. We followed a short heritage walk round the sights of the 'old' town. A Commander Heath first surveyed Noosa River in 1865, a sawmill was established in 1879, the timber was sent by paddle steamer to Brisbane. Further development occured during the rush for gold in Queensland and continued as the resort became established with popular fishing and pleasure trips taking place, boarding houses and The Royal Mail Hotel providing holiday accommodation.

Noosa River - looking towards extinct volcano Mount Coonowrin part of Glasshouse Mountains.

I try and do half an hour in the pool each morning and evening - one hour a day! I'll be super fit by the time we get home, although the evening session is more of a cool down than exercise!

We are off to Fraser Island later this week. This is the largest sand island in the world. We are promised forest walks, sandblow viewing, swimming in freshwater lakes, a long drive in a four wheel vehicle along the beach, and a night of romance beneath the stars - as long as we can fight off the dingoes! All this of course depends if we can get up at 5.30am for collection at 6.00! We have no alarm clock as such but every day we awake at dawn to a racket of birds - chorus is not appropriate here, as it is more a squawking, screeching sort of racket! Knowing our luck they will decide to stay asleep the day we need to be awake.

Nick is flying in from Sydney this weekend and next weekend my friend Julie is joining us, so lots of catching up to do there as it is a year since we last saw her and she is just about to become a grannie!