Thursday 3 May 2012

This weekend we went to Brisbane to visit my brother James. He's just bought himself a unit so we thought we should check it out. On Sunday he turns 50 so it's good that it coincides with our visit.

We caught a plane at 8pm from Melbourne and flew into Brisbane around 10.20 that same night. Mum wanted to come up for James birthday seeing as it was a special one and had caught an earlier flight and was waiting for us to arrive so we could all drive to James place together. We hired a car for the weekend as James only has a motor bike and we weren't all gonna fit on that! So we arrived at his place in Slacks Creek around midnight and by the time we got to bed it was after 1am. So b*****ed l fell asleep instantly….not even caring that l could feel the springs in the mattress!

Up around 8am Friday morning and had a good look around James place. It's an upstairs downstairs place set amongst about 40 other units in an enclosed complex. On the bottom level of his unit is the living, dining, kitchen, laundry, toilet and 1 car garage. The dining area has a sliding door onto a concrete deck with a tiny lawn area and a few shrubs. The top level has 3 bedrooms all a good size and all with built in wardrobes, the bathroom and another toilet. So for James it's great and he seems really happy with it. The complex has a community pool and BBQ area.

So after breakfast we decided to go for a drive to Springbrook park which is about an hours drive from Slacks Creek heading south. Springbrook park is heritage listed and has rainforests, spectacular waterfalls and views and covers 6197 hectares. We made our way to Natural Bridge which is surrounded by lush subtropical rainforest. There is a rock bridge, arched cave and plunging waterfall. A sealed circuit took us through the forest, across Cave Creek and into the arched cave to witness the waterfall plunging from above. It was quite spectacular!! At night the cave is illuminated by thousands of glow-worms' tiny green lights however we didn't stay to witness this. The hoop pines of the surrounding rainforest are living relics of the Jurassic Age - about 180 million years ago! They are living dinosaurs and amongst the most primitive of conifers.

We then headed to the Purling Falls circuit to view the waterfall. Some of the track was closed so we viewed the falls from the top of one of the lookouts then went across the top of it to view the falls from the other side. The waterfall was great and it goes a loooong way down. On our way back to the car we passed through an open forest of New England ash and fire adapted species such as hakeas and various wildflowers. It's so very peaceful and all you can hear is the waterfall and wildlife noises. The trees act as a canopy from the sun….it's so lovely to look up and just see trees….some of them really big too.

Time for lunch and a cup of coffee, so we stopped by one of the little cafes by the road side and watched some wildlife while we ate lunch.

After lunch we wanted to see The Best of All Lookout which was about a 30 minute drive high up into the plateau section. The higher we got the more clouds we drove through so we were thinking that we weren't going to see too much but still we ploughed on. To get to the lookout we walked through the ancient Antarctic beech forest; a remnant link to a past cooler climate and it's one of our remaining links with the ancient forests of Gondwana. When we got the lookout all we could see below and beyond us was clouds. It was a bit disappointing because had it been a clear day we would have had a view of Northern NSW dominated by Mount Warning - the lava plug centre of the erosion caldera of the extinct Tweed shield volcano. It was pretty cold up on the plateau as it's 900 metres above sea level and can be up to 5 degrees cooler than the lowland so we didn't stay too long and besides….we couldn't see anything. We were about to head home when we took another turn off to the Canyon lookout. There is an old school house there with information about the park inside, an old shed with an old farm machine and then the walking track which took you to the lookout where we viewed the sheer walls of the canyon and saw the Gold Coast and the ocean in the far distance. The spectacular views of the canyon are a result of millions of years of erosion, landslides and weathering……it was just awesome!

Finally we headed back into Brisbane to visit Southbank and the night markets. That was a bit of fun and l bought my self a pair of sunnies. We had dinner at the Ship Inn, one of the hotels at Southbank, which was really nice. I called a lady mum and l met in Spain(Maureen) to see if she wanted to meet us at the hotel for a catch up drink but she couldn't make it. I think we got back to James place by about 9pm, so it was quite a long day.

On Saturday we got up at a leisurely our and after breakfast Mum, Craig and l headed back to Southbank. We didn't have a map or GPS so it was a bit of a challenge getting there but we managed and even found a car park fairly close to Southbank. There was a festival for the Buddha's birthday all along Southbank so there were lots of things to see and do. We walked past the man made beach in the middle of Southbank and there were plenty of people enjoying the sunshine and water. Craig and l took a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane which is a sky high scenic experience with 360 degree views of Brisbane and a narration of all the city's highlights. It was a clear sunny day so we had great views. Afterwards we visited Nepal Temple then hopped on a citycat for a riverfront tour of Brisbane's river edge which wends itself around the city. We went right up to the Hamilton stop where the citycat turned around and came back down the river. We hopped of at Riverside to have a coffee and cake then made our way on foot back to Southbank. On the way we found the Cathedral of St Stephen which was completed in 1842.is the oldest church in Australia and Mary Mackillop worshipped in this church when she lived briefly at Kangaroo Point. It now stands, looking a bit out of place, amongst the city's skyscrapers. We finally made our way back over Victoria Bridge and onto Southbank where the festival and night markets was still on. Craig had a 15 minute back massage at one of the stalls while mum and l had a coffee/wine at one of the cafes. The walk along Southbank is really pretty, by day there is a vine with purple flowers growing all over a trellis creating a shady walk and by night there were red Chinese lanterns (because of the Buddhist festival) suspended above us. There is even a rainforest tucked away however we didn't have a look at it. There is even a rainforest tucked away however we didn't have a look at it. 3Then it was off home and this time we were able to navigate ourselves a little better. Ordered pizza for dinner, then watched a bit of television before l turned in for the night…. Yawn….sooo tired.

Today is James' 50th birthday. We took him out to lunch at a café in Daisy Hill which is not too far from where he lives. I think he enjoyed himself. We didn't do anything else for the day. Left James' at 3.30pm as we had to return the car at 4.30pm and our flight left at 5.55pm. We arrived back in Bendigo around 10.30pm.

What they say about Brisbane weather is perfectly true…..beautiful one day, perfect the next!!!