Exploring Brisbane - 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th June

Time to catch up on the blogging. I had to wait a few days to let the steam from Trishy's venting over the "Unmentionables", to clear before I could continue blogging. All is well that ends well and we have had some great neighbours since then.

Thursday 7th looked like being a beautiful day so it was a great opportunity to take to the hills on the bikes. Most of my mountain riding has been with the trailer in tow so it is great to do the twisties without it. The road to Mt Glorious is the motorcycle mecca around here. It did not disappoint and being a weekday we did not have to contend with all the "Boy Racers" speeding through the corners, unfortunately several crosses on the side of the road shows where some got it wrong. Coffee break was at Mt Glorious which sounds much better than Mt Difficult where I dropped my bike. It lived up to its name.

The road down the other side of Mt Glorious I think was even better as long as we stayed out of the leaf and twig litter down the centre of the road. Once off the Mountain we were into open grassland and on to Kilcoy. Kilcoy is a small rural town with a cute public toilet that looked like the front of a cuckoo clock. Funny the things that grab your attention like the cow with two prosthetic legs, on the roof of the motel. Don't ask why, just get photo for the memory.

From Kilcoy it was back into the mountains. and on to Mt Mee . The lookout at Mt Mee had great views across to the Glass House Mountains and their old volcanic cores. From there it was down through Samford Village and along the road where Trish had a personal reason to visit. A couple of light showers of rain as we joined the rush hour traffic could not dampen our spirits after such a great day.

Friday 8th and time to head for the city again. After sleeping in to 8:30am it was onto the bus and then ferries to get to the Maritime Museum. It was a pity that the first Citycat sail straight on by the Maritime Museum without stopping, then past the next stop and the next until a final port of call. No problem, just jump on the next inner City ferry going back the other way. Too bad that that one only went one stop back across the river then terminated. Final after checking we got a ferry down to the Maritime Museum where we spent several hours exploring. Trish was particularly taken with the tiny pink yacht of Jessica Watson, who recently sailed around the world. We had planned to go to the Botanic Gardens after the Museum but a check of the time once we finished and the growling of our unfed stomachs led to a change of plans. Lunch at Southbank and then head home as we had a dinner date with friends planned.

After sprucing ourselves up, as best you can when you only carry a week's worth of clothes, we were picked up by Will Bond and taken to their home for an evening meal in a real house, with real chairs and all that room. Barbara cooked up a delicious meal and I stole the recipe, well she gave it to me, for the rice mixture that we had. We had a lovely chat with Will, Barb and their three beautiful daughters. As Will has to rise early for work and had already had a long day it was time to be driven home and let him get some sleep. What a wonderful night.

Saturday 9th It was a cloudy start to the day and our washing was piling up so laundry day was first up on the agenda. Even though we have limited clothes we still get about 10 days between wash days. As they say you don't have to change clothes when you are on the road you just have to change towns. The day was spent finally getting to our previous plan of the Botanic Gardens and then the Art Gallery. We had not been overly impressed with the Brisbane Museum but really enjoyed the Art Gallery. We returned home to find we were surrounded by cheerful, friendly non -tap hogging campers.

Sunday 10th My Daughter's Birthday - Happy birthday Natalie! Trish concocted a plan for the day after a bit of internet research as I slept in. On the rainy nights I pop in the ear plugs and become "Mr Oblivious". The plan was to go into town and catch a movie, our first in 4 months. The only thing that interested us was "The Dictator" and what a laugh that turned out to be. How someone can be soooo politically incorrect and get away with it, I don't know. He took the p*ss out of every one and every nationality. In particular all the despot Dictators around the world. If you want a good laugh and don't mind a bit ( well lots ) of bad language then go see it. We finished with a walk to Chinatown and some Asian shopping to stock up on meal spices.

Finished up with tea in the campers kitchen with all those wonderful people. I fired up the computer, plugged in the TV card and indoor antenna then set up our external speakers to watch the Marbo film on ABC. None of the just push a button to turn on the TV it is a 10 - 15 min process to get tuned in but we really enjoyed the Marbo film and found out more about the High Court fight for Land Rights and the extinction of "terra nullus".

A bit of short blogging to catch up but still the days roll on.

Mr "Oblivious"