Brisbane, last 2 days with Henny Penny and Mr Intrepid: 11th, 12th June 2012

What has happened to the Sunshine State? It was freezing cold and rainy all day today, Monday. European backpackers were shivering and looking miserable in the open camper's kitchen, as they are staying in their cars, or in tiny tents.

Dave and I stayed warm and cosy in our igloo…our little fan heater kept us warm, and we caught up with mail to people. Then we donned our wet weather gear and walked to the shops for a nice little meal and coffee in a café.

I got an attack inspired by the big chicken Henny Penny and told Dave that tomorrow was Not a good day to pack up the tent and leave Brisbane, because The Sky Was Going to Fall In, with rain! So Mr Intrepid was convinced by Henny Penny and we booked ourselves to stay in Brisbane for an extra day.

Next morning (Tuesday) we poked our heads out of the tent and saw Sunshine! Not a cloud in the blue sky, birds twittering, no rain. Oops! Never mind, this meant we could go for a motorbike ride up to Mt Cout-tha, which overlooks Brisbane city and it had been raining too much for us to see it before.

The views were beautiful: Brisbane sure is a pretty city. At the bottom of Mt Cout-tha (an Aboriginal name for this place) there is a beautiful big botanical garden with plants represented from around the world. We had been told by many not to miss this place, and so we strolled around the lovely gardens admiring lots of features. I loved the bonsai section, plus the cacti section was very impressive. Dave and I had fun taking lots of "textures" photos.

After cooking up a yummy meal in the camper's kitchen, chatting away with other happy campers glad to have seen sunshine today, we were able to fire up the laptop in our tent to say happy birthday to my 2nd son Alistair. It was great to hear his voice on Skype, even if we didn't get a picture.

Brisbane to Toowoomba; Wed 13th June 2012

A perfect tent pack up morning, no wind, blue skies and sunshine. As we left we gave a little thank you card to the Management at the Newmarket Caravan Park, for their excellent services and their friendly helpful manner, and, for helping to prevent World War 3 with "the Unmentionables"!

Leaving Brisbane, we rode via back country roads up to the lovely Mt Glorious, weaving through the beautiful Samford area where my dear sister Pauline had died 34 years ago. It's got a lot busier since she was there but I thought of her lots as I rode along. The reason we are going to Toowoomba, apart from wanting to explore lots of Queensland, is that Pauline used to live in Toowoomba and Oakey Army Base, so I wanted to see her old haunts.

Dave and I don't like riding along main highways because the scenery isn't as great as other roads, and the extra traffic makes motorcycling more dangerous in our opinion. So our GPS was programmed to direct us along gorgeous twisty roads to the pretty little town of Esk, where we stopped for lunch and made up bad Esky jokes. We eskplored a very nice antique shop in an old Staging Coach Hotel, which had ghostly feelings throughout it, especially in the upstairs section. Dave was interested in a very old film projector that was run on lamp oil with a wick and chimney, but a closer inspection revealed it had been modified for electricity and so had lost its value. So no sale to the Mighty Intrepids. No alexandrite jewellery either….never mind….I looked! We continued our riding, through the Hampton to Toowoomba road. What stunning scenery again, lots more twisties and lovely pale green grasslands, different to what we've seen before. Some of the road sections were a bit lumpy, as I think heavy rains have had their effect here.

We arrived in the city of Toowoomba, which is situated on the top of the Dividing Range. It has about 100,000 people and is known as "the Garden City". Terrible floods in January 2011 have happened here, as an "inland tsunami" hit the place. But it all looked normal when we rode in and took our pre-booked cabin at The Jolly Swagman Caravan Park. This place is the closest to the city centre and we are living in luxury with a high bed, our own bathroom and kitchen, and a TV that works with a flick of a switch, not the programming and scanning of a laptop. Spoiling ourselves for the next 3 days as we go and explore the area where Pauline used to live 34 years ago. And it seems a very pretty place too…I'm so glad we have travelled to this place.