May 30, Brisbane

It was sunny and beautiful at the caravan park, but when we made it into the city the rains started. We were in and out of the rain all day.

There were just a few things we wanted to see in Brisbane today. We walked to the Windmill. It was built by convicts in 1828 to grind flour. At the time there was no one who knew how to operate it. So they installed a treadmill to use to punish convicts who had broken the rules.

From there we took the train to Chinatown. The lions at the gate we turned around when a fang shui expert said the way they were facing was bad for business.

Our next goal was to walk across the Story Bridge. There are 3 bridges in the world that can be climbed. One is Sydney Bridge, the 2nd is a bridge in New Zealand, and the 3rd is Story Bridge. This one looked more intimidating, not as tall, but steeper.
Anyway, we walked across it to Kangaroo Point. We continued walking past Kangaroo Cliffs. By this time it was raining, but someone was climbing up the cliff wall. It looked like he was going up shear rock and he made some amazing moves. He almost made it to the top, but we heard him say it was too wet to keep going.

We were walking on a bike/walk trail that went all around the point and into the city proper. They seems to have these trails all over Brisbane. By the time we got to the South Bank the rain was really coming down, so we stopped for lunch. This is the area where the Expo was in 1988. There were lots of cafes and an area of shops. Soon after lunch the rain increased, so we stopped for coffee and a blueberry glen - braided sweet bread with blueberries.

We moved on and only made it to the Nepalese Peace Pavilion before the rain got heavier. The pavilion provided shelter, but we were working our way to the State Library, so we hurried and were thoroughly soaked when it reached it. It was a beautiful structure. There was an older library on the site and the new building was built around it. They merged beautifully. The library was open to the elements at the ends of some levels. And there were glass walls that gave a wide open feel to it all.

There was an exhibit called "Live! Queensland Band Culture". It covered marching bands, dance bands, rock bands, Aboriginal bands from early in the state's history to the present. Brisbane was home to 60,000 US soldiers in WWII and they had a major influence on music here. They brought swing, jazz and jitterbug here.

We decided to take a ferry ride on the Brisbane River. We bought a Go Card yesterday, a prepaid card for transportation and we can use it on bus, rail and ferry. We went downriver and upriver. It was lined with houses and apartment buildings. In the old warehouse district, wool storage warehouse had been converted to apartments. It was a really nice ride and the lady who made the announcements chatted with us for a long time. She had been to the States, bought a motorhome and traveled from California to Tennessee.

The city looked beautiful at night with the lights on in all the buildings, but we hadn't realized how long the ferry ride would take. It was dark when we got back to our stop and getting close to time for the last through bus to the caravan park. We hurried and made it with 5 minutes to spare.

Pictures - Chinatown gates, Carp sculpture, Brisbane, Jeanne on Story Bridge, Man climbing Kangaroo Cliffs, Walkway covered with bougainvillea, Nepalese Peace Pavilion, Queensland State Library, Interior, Ferris Wheel

May 29, Brisbane

There was a bus stop across the street from the caravan park, so we hopped on and were amazed with the bus system here. It was an express bus that stopped twice then got on a special 'buses only' road into the city. The bus station was underground and well designed with good signage. It took 30 minutes to get downtown, about 12km, and we could see the heavy car traffic going in.

A stop at the visitors center for a good map and suggestions and we were off. We walked to Anzac Park. They were having a ceremony to commemorate Aboriginal soldiers.

From there we walked to St John's Anglican Cathedral. It was a massive Gothic building, begun in 1901 and finished in 2009. It was built in stages, so some of the stained glass windows were traditional and some were more modern, but all were magnificent. The building was unusual also because it had a stone vaulted ceiling. There were scores of needlepoint cushions depicting Australian plants, animals and sea life. And they were serving coffee and cookies this morning. So we had some refreshments and chatted with the volunteers there.

We visited the Catholic Cathedral of St Stephan. It was opened in 1874, but the interior was a modern refurbishment. One chapel had a statue of Mary as a very young woman. The baptistry had a beautiful mother and child sculpture and a large shell baptismal font.

At the newly renovated City Hall there was an auditorium with a domed ceiling that
changed color. City Hall also housed the Museum of Brisbane which had a display about the Brisbane River. It also had an exhibit on Brisbane's world fair, held in the 1980s, with the emphasis on the parades and floats. We took a short tour into the clock tower. The elevator took us inside the area of the clocks, so we were in the middle of them. Then we went further up to the bell tower and were there when they struck the quarter hour. Not too terribly loud.

Our next stop was Parliament House. Our tour guide explained how it came to have just one house. Originally it had 2, but in 1922 the upper house had stopped all laws from being passed. During a period between governors, a member of the lower house had himself appointed to the upper house. He managed to get other lower house members appointed too and they voted to abolish the upper house. It's the only state legislature in Australia with only one house.

I think it's the only one with an official didgeridoo. The black circle represents the Aborigines and the footprints show that they lived alone in Australia for a long time. Then Europeans came ( white circle and footprints) and they existed in parallel societies. Now they are working closer together.

Pictures - Samson with unusual tree, St John's, Interior, American stained glass window, New stained glass windows, St Stephan, Baptismal font, Ceiling of Town Hall, Queensland's official didgeridoo

May 28, Mt Beerburrum, Newstead House

Feeling like a little hike this morning, we drove to Mt Beerburrum, one of the Glass House Mts. The brochure said a steep trail led to a fire tower lookout. 'Steep' was a gross understatement. The trail was paved, but it went straight up, ending in a few switchbacks to the summit. We were traveling up along with four women, sort of leap frogging - rest and walk, rest and walk. It felt like quite an accomplishment to reach the top. The view was good. We could see the other mountains, but in places farmers were burning their fields and the smoke blurred the view a bit. Coming down was hard on the knees.

In Caboolture we stopped at the Warplane Museum. They were moving planes around in the hangar that served as the museum. So we walked around a display of model airplanes and went outside to see a few old planes, then we moved on.

Then we drove south to Newstead House, the oldest house in Brisbane. There was a little lady manning the entrance and she made sure that we didn't miss the spoon warmer in the dining room and a pump teapot in the drawing room. The spoon warmer was a silver vessel that held hot water. A spoon would be placed in it to keep it warm and thus keep the food warm. The teapot didn't work for her, maybe no water in it. The lid was the top of a large cylinder and when it was pushed down, the tea was supposed to come out of the spout.

The rest of the house was beautifully restored to its 1846 beginnings. Capt Wickham, one of the owners had been captain of the HMS Beagle, Darwin's exploration ship. It had the lovely wide verandas of Queensland houses and sat on the banks of the Brisbane River.

We had booked a campsite south of Brisbane, so we headed there. Our GPS took us right through downtown. At 1:30 in the afternoon, it wasn't very busy and the streets were fairly wide, so we made it without too much hassle.

Now, it's mid afternoon and raining hard.

Pictures - Samson and Glass House Mts; WWII Navy Trainer, North American SNJ-Texan; Newstead House; Drawing Room; Silver spoon warmer; Interesting tree; Memorial to Americans who served in Australia in WWII; Jeanne playing around in fun house mirror

May 27, Australia Zoo, Glass House Mountains

We spent most of the day at the Australia Zoo, famous because it belonged to Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. It was one of the nicest zoos we've visited. The centerpiece was a large collection of saltwater crocodiles. They're the dangerous ones. Some were captured by Steve Irwin and relocated here. They also had a lot of freshwater crocodiles and American alligators.

There were Australian animals; kangaroos, wombats, Tasmanian devils, etc. There were snakes, including the deadly Fierce Snake, the most venomous snake in the world. There were birds; cassowaries, emus, cockatoos, Jabirus.

And there were nonnative animals; tigers, elephants, red pandas, a rhinoceros, zebras, cheetahs, monitors, and so on. There were camels, which are nonnative. But Australia is the only country where they are found in the wild. So they're exported to Saudi Arabia now.

We wandered around then went to the Wild Warriors Show. It was quite a performance with parrots, cockatoos, a Condor, a Jabiru. And there was a crocodile. It wasn't a trained crocodile show. It was designed to teach people how to be safe in crocodile infested waters. And they did a superb job of it. They did have the croc jump out of the water to get a fish, but that illustrated how high crocs can jump. The lesson, don't dangle over crocodile filled waters, or even waters that might have crocs. There are a lots of crocodiles in North Queensland, so the danger is real.

We had lunch and walked around the rest of the zoo, then watched the Crocodile LIVE! Show. It was in a small crocodile pond and one of the young men was just learning to feed the crocodile. One man talked and the other went around the pond. Crocs can sense movement by vibrations, so he would walk and the croc would follow his movements. He fed the croc carefully, drawing it out of the water because a person can run faster backwards that the croc can go forward on land. In water it's a different story. It was a really good day, good weather and a well designed zoo.

Nearby were the Glass House Mts. These mountains are the cores of extinct volcanoes, so they had distinctive shapes. We had a little trouble finding the place we wanted to take a hike, so we stopped early at a rest area.

Pictures - Jeanne with zoo sign, the Irwin family, Freshwater crocs, Roaming lizard on the sidewalk, Binturong, Cassowary, Samson with giant crocodile, Small kangaroo, Jabiru on its knees, Black cockatoo, Green pythons under heat lights, Wombat on a walk, Feeding a croc, Crocodile jumping, Giant tortoise, Feeding croc, Mt. Coonowrin

May 26, Maroochydore, Mooloolaba, Nambour, Mapleton, Montvale

We stopped at the visitors information center in Maroochydore. The feisty little Englishwoman that worked there told us about going to Canada and the US. She was quite a talker, but we got good information. In our reading we came across the mention of a replica of the Endeavour, Capt Cooks ship. It wasn't here any longer. There was a tourist place called Nostalgia Town, that also is no longer here. That's why we stop at visitors centers.

This area of Australia is called the Sunshine Coast - sunshine, good beaches, lots of hotels and lots of people. We drove through Maroochydore to Mooloolaba, a continuous line of hotels and cafes on one side and beach on the other.

At Mooloolaba we went to Underwater World. It was a a great aquarium. They had divided their exhibits into zones; Weird & Wonderful, Billabongs & Backyards, Fresh & Freaky and Crawly Creatures. There was a huge underwater tunnel that was set up with different displays; Sharks, Manta Rays, Turtles and Coral Cove. They did something we hadn't come across before - music to go with the exhibits. That added so much to the experience. In the the Weird & Wonderful part, the music was slow and classical and the sea horses and octopus and little fish just seemed to move with it. In Crawly Creatures, the music was scary. It was well done and fun.

We drove away from the coast in search of the Big Pineapple and we found it. By the road was a giant pineapple big enough to go into and climb inside. It was a big attraction for years, but had fallen on hard times. New owners recently took over and it's coming back now. We had expected a pineapple plantation, but the pineapple had only been planted 2 months. There was a little train pulled by a cane train engine and it took us around the park. There were unusual fruit trees on the route; jack fruit that grew right on the tree branches, chocolate pudding fruit, star fruit, and so on. The train stopped to let people off to go to the petting zoo, but we continued back to the station. It was a little disappointing, but I'm glad they're trying to revive it.

We toured around the Blackall Mountain Range to see a few waterfalls. The road was steep, up to 12degrees in places, and went high on the mountain ridges and the views were fantastic. We could see all the way back to the ocean across green mountains and valleys. The towns we went through were busy with people having a Sunday drive to stop at the shops and cafes. The waterfalls were also busy - small car parks were crowded and lots of people on the trails.

We had trouble finding the campground tonight. We put the address in the GPS, but there was just woods there. We stopped at a park and the man we asked said we had gone right past it. He was kind enough to lead us back. It turned out we had driven right past it. It was a Boy Scout Camp that takes in campers. It was pretty casual. We were told to park anywhere and the manager would find us. To get electricity we parked close to a building and plugged into an outlet on the outside of it. There isn't a water faucet close by, but they have showers. Should be fine.

Pictures - Octopus, Picasso fish, Sea dragon, Otter, Sawfish, Samson & the Big Pineapple, Mountain view, Kondalilla Falls,