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I arrived in Brisbane, Australia on the 20th July to be met at the airport by Lesley, an ex-nursing colleague from London. It was a tremendous relief to see a familiar face and catch up with her news. She had kindly agreed to letting me use her home as a base in Australia, travelling out from her and , her husband Jez's home, to distant parts of the country, usually by plane as the distances are so very great. Their home is situated 100km north of Brisbane, and about 15km inland from the 'Sunshine Coast' and on my arrival, despite being winter in Australia, the daytime temperatures were in the low to mid-twenties, though the night temperatures dipped often into single figures. Travelling to Brisbane for a few days and staying with Lesleys' cousin, I attended bellringing practice nights at the 2 churches in the city with ringable bells, the cathedral, St Johns and St Andrews, south of the main city. The days in Brisbane were spent visiting the very fine botanical gardens, some retail therapy and finally a visit to the south bank centre which boasted an artificial sandy beach , with pools, as well as an arts complex not unlike the Southbank Centre in London. Sadly the beach and pools were closed for maintenance, but most of the restaurants were open and I had a couple of reasonable meals in the area.
Most of the first two and a half weeks were spent at Yandina, Lesley and Jezs' home village/ town, relaxing and planning the Australian journeys. My birthday was well celebrated by dinner at a Turkish restaurant followed by a visit to see the new Harry Potter film. The next day a surf lesson at Caloundra beach, generously given by Lesley for my 61st. Inbetween times I visited the local Astronomical observatory named after nearby Wappa Falls, run by an eccentric 'Patrick Moore' character and entirely privately owned. It had a surprisingly good series of telescopes, and was also very informative, particularly as it was my first opportunity to see the southern sky.
Hiking each day, exploring the local places of interest, for example, Mount Nindary, gave a focus to the days , and also insured I was fit enough for the diving course and more tramping in Tasmania. Yandina is renowned for its ginger farming and has a factory processing the ginger, much of which is exported to the UK. I duly paid my $10 (senior citizen rate!) and joined a group touring the 'Ginger Factory' which included the opportunity to sample some of their products including, of course, their excellent ginger beer. Other sightseeing included a visit to the macadamia nut factory, another homegrown industry in the area. Part of each day was spent arranging the visits to other parts of the country and arranging to meet up with people I'd tramped with in New Zealand, especially people in Tasmania. Having met a couple of groups of travellers in Fiji who'd recently been in Australia I decided to visit some of the places they'd been to, including bush walking in the Northern Territories, near Alice Springs, this latter journey was planned after the Tasmania visit.
The PADI diving course , starting from Cairns was booked for the 10th August, and assuming I passed the medical and the water tests, was optimistic about completing the course. The actual diving would be over the Great Barrier Reef, and for me this was probably one of the best places in the world to learn to dive, and would fulfil one of my ambitions for this journey!
Photos 1 and 2. The local observatory, surprisingly well equipped despite its ramshackle appearance!
Photos 3 and 4. Lesley and Jez's lovely home, set in a semi rural area and part surrounded by forest.
Photo 5. Post-surf posing with the surf instructor....
Photo 6. Post surf photo.
Photo 7. An Ibis at the botanical gardens in Brisbane, also seen in the fields near Yandina.
Photo 8. A view of the recently completed bell tower at St Johns' Cathedral, Brisbane. One of the few stone built churches seen in this hemisphere, a very fine building that has taken 150 years to complete, and this is being celbrated in November this year.
Photo 9. The view from the rocks on at the top of Mount Nindary. The coastline is visible, about 12km away.
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