Australian Adventure 2013 - 6

Six thirty in the morning of Thursday saw Pam & me pleasing our doctors by stepping briskly along the sea front.  Since we had taken the car down we were able to start where we had left off previously and see a bit more, although at low tide the picture was not scintillating.

Much later in the morning, while Nick was playing at home maintenance, Pam & I went and did a routine grocery shop.  Having learned that my US credit card works on the PIN system used heavily down here I made it a contribution to the household expenses.  It was a very ordinary basket of necessities but the bill seemed more like a Jungle Jim one than a Marsh one, although admittedly the Aussie dollar is slightly less valuable than the US one.

In the afternoon we again took the City Cat ferry up the river, but this time we got off on the South Bank, a former expo site and now a major city park.  It is school (but not university) Spring Break in Brisbane and the park was being very well used indeed.  We walked to the far end and back, took another Cat just across the river and headed up into Brisbane’s Botanic Garden/park which unusually literally butts right up against the very heart of downtown.  Having walked through it we came out by another ferry wharf and took a Cat all the way downriver to our original boarding point.

Friday morning after breakfast Pam put together a substantial picnic and we then headed down the main road south.  Faye & family are camping beside a river near the coast.  Their camper-trailer is massively heavy duty and is capable of being hauled “off road” if necessary.  Once opened up it becomes a massive tent, with a queen-size bed on the trailer itself and an “outdoor” kitchen that pulls out to one side.  We were to join them for lunch.

Objective number one was to show me Gold Coast, commonly known as Bris-vegas.  It is a huge and hideous collection of high-rises, a substantial majority of which are for rent by the week or more since this is a premier vacation destination for those who like a mass of humanity and a huge number of ways of separating fools from their money, including a gigantic casino (or two?).  It is in every way “not a John place”.  Since this is Spring Break it was packed and to add to the confusion massive road works are ongoing, as is the installation of a tram line, plus they are in the process of setting up the road course for an upcoming Indy-car race to be held sometime soon.  Parking was impossible although Pam found a cul-de-sac where she stayed with the car and Nick & I walked a short way on to the beach.  The sand here is very fine, very soft and very white, almost glary.  I took a snap of the coastal side of the city and Nick took one of me actually on a beach & then we moved on back into the traffic confusion.  The city, always somewhat dubious, currently has an unenviable reputation for the amount of illegal drugs changing hands.  I was quite happy for us to move on.

We continued south, past a tall modern “art” monument that delineates southern Queensland from northern New South Wales and into some very pretty countryside.  Sadly, some freak of atmospherics meant that anything at a distance was misty-looking so scenic photography was not possible on this trip.  We reached the town in which Faye & family were camping, had a coffee while we waited to make contact (they were kayaking when we arrived) and then both parties arrived at a crowded parking lot simultaneously.  We set up our picnic in a shelter house (shelter from sun rather than from rain) at the edge of a grassy area next to a small bay with a sandy beach all around it writhing with humanity.  The open ocean at the mouth of the bay was throwing up some great splashes as the waves hit the rocky outer shoreline.

After all eating ourselves silly we packed up and headed back to the campground - dry camping but with full city water/sewer facilities at either end.  Faye brewed tea for us all and showed off the camper as set up (I had only seen it in travel mode in their garage previously).  We sat and chatted for a while and then we left them to go back to their activities and headed for home, but on a rather more scenic road.  We stopped for a little while at an art gallery, but none of us liked any of the various collections being displayed, so we carried on, joined the main expressway and wended our way home.  The Friday afternoon-before-a-holiday-weekend traffic was bad our way and horrendous going the other way, but apart from two or three traffic jams we made decent time.