BRISBANE

View of the Brisbane river, taken from Victoria Street Bridge. although it's hard to tell from the photo, the water under the victoria street bridge is the same colour as the Yarra, almost made us homesick (but not quite!)

We walked along Southbank (where the man made beach below is), from the city and then returned via the ferry. We wondered why no-one was waiting at the ferry terminal, but all standing on the concrete pathway above. Being green as the grass, we wandered down the gangplank and stood on the floating deck waiting for the ferry, sea sickness here we come! of course, as the other boats go by, the floating deck starts rocking, doesn't it. Hold on tight! The things you learn as you go along.

We took the bus into Brisbane city from Eight Mile Plains where we were staying. We had no idea what to do, of course, never using bus systems, so followed the lead of another couple who were staying at the caravan park, and bought return tickets, off peak. (we assumed they knew what they were doing as they had done it the day before!) At around 2.30 we decided we'd had enough of the city and headed back towards the bus station, we made it with two minutes to spare, as if we had missed the 2.40pm bus, we would not have been able to use the off peak return tickets until after 7.00pm. We're not just learning about caravanning you know!!!!!

The bus system in Brisbane is unbelievable. Alongside the freeway into town is a dual carriageway, just for buses, with stops like train stations all the way into an underground bus station in the city. The buses advertise the fact quite proudly that they run on natural gas, so there were no fumes getting into the bus from a black exhaust, but we won't mention all the other fumes that waft over from the freeway. And because there are only buses on this carriageway, sit down and hold on - they fairly fly along and seem to have no trouble manipulating their way around the tightest corners. i kept my eyes shut most of the time, it was safer.

This 'beach' is in the city area that housed the 1988 World Expo. We didn't swim at this beach but we swam at the pool below. Notice that there is no-one in either area of water, that is because it was FREEZING.......!!!!

Yes, we finally managed to drag ourselves away from Surfers Paradise and Main Beach, caught up with friends in Brisbane, but really there was not a lot that interested us there, so we are now at Bribie Island, arrived a day early yesterday, as we were hankering to get back to the ocean. It's a lot quieter here, although we were surprised how many people live here, a very thriving community, but of course, a LOT less traffic than Brisbane or indeed the Gold Coast, there are too many people living there for the infrastructure to cope with. So we now start a week at Bribie, and I think we will enjoy it immensely (photos next time), but we are camped here under the palm trees, just across from the pool, and it's Friday arvo, and we're off the the RSL for tea, sounds pretty good to me!!!