More to come soon (and pics etc)
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Wednesday 12th April
Arrival and local area orientation, and shopping for sustenance in book form and in victuals. Elliot discovers Marriot bookshop and starts emptying the shelves.
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Thursday 13th April- Roma Parklands and CBD
Took train to roma street, walked to parklands, walked across bridges and through herb and flower gardens, saw flocks of ibis, saw a blue lobster picking its way over shale and pebbles in a shallow stream beneath lush forest canopy, huge spiders harvesting flies and beetles from their webs, a solitary and graceful crane, a waterfall or two, ducks and seagulls and tadpoles and swallows etc.
Got ‘a bit’ lost after leaving from opposite end to the one we came in at. Found bearings when we got to the main city CBD(central business district) though, saw city lights, walked past city hall and went through queen street mall, and had dinner at a subway before catching train home for dinner, yummy meatloaf etc
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Friday 14th April- Monty Python day
Jabberwocky, Holy grail, Life of Brian, Meaning of Life, Live at the Hollywood Bowl
Tucked into sweets and fizzy pop like kids…
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Saturday 15th April- Mount Coot-tha, honeyeater trail and slaughter falls trail
So hot and dry, but lovely walking the honeyeater trail and the slaughter falls trail and seeing insects and trees and plants and listening to birdsong. Took some great photos of the superb views and of interesting things we saw in the forest walks. Reflective elements in the soil made the colour appear to change as afternoon sunlight hit it, then the glow of sunset. Saw fungi, spiders, trees and flowers, small caterpillar climbing up elliot’s shin, ant-hills, beautiful effects from sunset at the summit etc. Orange moon! Saw the city lights slowly coming on and the city cat going down the Brisbane river.
Dacelo novaguineae, "Laughing Kookaburra"
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Family: Alcedinidae
The Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaguineae) is the largest kingfisher. They have a loud, maniacal laughing call and are often heard in "chorus." They feed mainly on reptiles and large invertebrates. They are common in woodlands and forests in eastern Australia and are often seen in pairs. Length: 46cm.
Other birds seen include Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, Brush Turkeys, Noisy Miners, and Currawongs.
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Sunday 16th April- Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens
Another day of gorgeous weather. Was glad of water bottles as quite hot and long walks etc. but not as tiring as previous day. Saw the most beautiful Forest plants and trees I have ever seen, infinite variety and colour and uses…… saw awesome palm trees from all over the world in the rainforest walk, sat on the bench and had sandwiches, refilled water bottles from one of the numerous water fountains dotted around the area. Saw dragonflies in about 6 different colours and varying sizes.
Tasted windfalls in the fruit tree area, chinese apples and pecans particularly. Saw fantastic tropical fruits and enormous flourishing vegetable gardens, saw fast growing bamboo, all kinds, saw huge cacti, cocoa plants in the tropical dome, bonsai trees, a large crested water lizard, a large turtle(only briefly), saw brush turkeys and heard kookaburra, crows, magpies and other birds. Sat by fruit trees in scattered shade and sketched stuff with elliot. I drew the tree just ahead, elliot drew his version of the roman dude on the cover of the book he’d bought me. We saw cockatiels and coconut trees, took lots of great pictures, and went home knackered but happy. One of my favourite days.
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Monday 17th April- Gold Coast and Beaches…
Drove through gold coast tourist areas, drove down to main gold coast area and bought souvenirs (cuddly toys and spear etc) and walked along the gorgeous coastline for a while, near white sand and blue seas watching the waves and taking pictures and stuff, went to surfer’s paradise and looked around tourist shopping area and lastly ate dinner whilst looking out to sea.
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Tuesday 18th April- Brisbane City, CBD and SouthBank cultural sights
Took train to Central station, went to queen street mall, looked round all shops and then on to city hall, parliament house, Brisbane museum, Queensland Museum(better), Anzac Square, Victoria Bridge, tried to find sciencentre but failed, (changed location apparently) went to city botanical gardens that weren’t as rich in variety or colour as mt coot-tha’s nor roma street parklands, but were a nice place to read and walk and relax, notably me reading a book under the shade of (and elliot reading in the branches of) a ‘Jerusalem sycamore’ tree :) saw another water dragon, this one had a red glow on its chest (to attract potential mate?)Took pictures and it soon scuttled into the pond, presumably out on the pull.
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Wednesday 19th April- Sunshine Coast, Underwater world, and Bribie Island
Underwater world was fantastic, was disappointed to not see a big fuckoff octopus (thats the latin term) but the sharks and manta rays and turtles in the underwater tunnel (and in open topped tanks) were awesome, not to mention the fish and frogs etc. there was a dinosaur world too but we didn’t stay there long as it was embarrassingly lame. Indeed the animatronics were so jerky it made me wonder if t-rexes/rexii?? were susceptible to parkinson's disease back in the triassic period!! Far from fearsome, unless one is reminded of the impending ravages of old age. The only thing that was just barely worth taking a picture of was the velociraptors and even they were sub-par.
Bribie island was beautiful, a lovely calm walk along the beach, fishing area, picnic area and pier, marred only by the fact that it must be lorikeet season as they kicked up the most awful racket, they are beautiful, thousands upon thousands of rainbow coloured parrots but their piercing squawks made my head start to ache eventually….was glad to drive down to the main beach area and walk quietly across firm sand down the coast, gorgeous rainbow coloured sky as the sun set and we found shells and caught crabs that ran really fast but elliot managed to catch one and hold it for inspection, then we let it go and it ran down the many crab holes in the sand...
we saw larger crabs but didn’t catch them, they were too nimble and sand coloured(for obvious reasons) so it was easy to lose track of where they were. Didn’t see any turtles nor dugongs, I don’t think it’s the right time of year for them, and dugongs are very rare anyway. We saw more ibis and more seagulls, some people fishing at the shore, (with laid-back bystanders ‘cracking open a tinnie’) and a large macaw, in silhouette, circling high up, its colours only evident when it turned towards the setting sun.
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Thursday 20th April- Sunshine Coast- Glasshouse Mountains-
Mt Ngungun and crop field walking(pineapples and avocado plantations in particular) seeing caves and huge trees and volcanic rocks(ancient lava plugs apparently) and rich red soil….taking pictures of views and interesting trees and plants, then was chased home by huge wasp to train station and got sunburnt waiting for train back home, arriving at Corinda at 4.45, 15mins before bookshop closing time…..got off train hurriedly, followed by last minute dash to marriot’s to buy last remaining books on the classics and ancient Mediterranean history shelf :-D
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