Flight Home

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After our adventures on Lady Elliot Island it's time to say good bye to Australia and head home to the sunny weather of June in Ontario. It's winter in Australia and, even though many tell us it's the best time of year to be in QLD, we miss our home.

There were only a few passengers on our Saturday afternoon flight back from LEI to the Redcliffe Aerodrome (2:30pm - 4:00pm) where we had left our rental car. On the way we had stopped in Hervey Bay but this time it's direct to Redcliffe. The pilot was the same young lady who gives the same safety instructions and gets us on board. She is the soul master of all things on this short one and a half hour flight. Her home base, the base for Seair Pacific, is the Coolangatta airport on the Gold Coast just south of Brisbane.

Our car was still there waiting for us as were the contents. We had decided to leave the car at the Redcliffe Aerodrome rather than deal with Uber and store our luggage. It's very limited baggage on the flight to LEI. We had thought about leaving our excess bags at the Pullman Brisbane Airport hotel, dropping off the car, and using Uber but it would have involved several Uber trips (back to New Farm, then out to Redcliffe and back to the airport). Keeping the car worked well enough; although, by the end it amounted to about $100/day for the rental. And that's without the extra collision damage waiver. We had reserved the Pullman with AirBnB, got a better price that way.

From Redcliffe, we drove back to the Brisbane Domestic airport, it's just a half hour away. On the way we gassed up the car, I dropped Kate off at the Pullman Brisbane Airport hotel where we had stayed on arrival, and I then dropped the car off at the rental counter in the parking garage which is only a short walk from our hotel. We grabbed a pizza from the restaurant at the Ibis for dinner. Ross and Bev would have liked to spend the last night with us but we begged off. It's a big day ahead of us and much to do to prepare.

Our return flight on Sunday morning has us taking a short cab ride to the International Terminal where we bumped into the same fellow from the Air Canada ground support crew who helped Kate around in her wheel chair on our arrival a month ago. With her recent ankle injury she's in worse shape than before and we need all the help we can get. We are grateful for ground crew who help us here, in Vancouver, in Edmonton and finally in Toronto. We are flying business class and take advantage of the lounges in Brisbane and Vancouver. Our luggage, apart from carry on, is checked all the way through to Toronto. That's a bit odd as we enter Canada in Vancouver, I would have thought they might want to see our luggage there but apparently not.

Our flight, AC 36, over the Pacific is a very long ride to Vancouver — it's 14 hours! We experienced a sunset and the end of day on one side of the pond and then a sunrise several hours later on the other side. We left Brisbane around 10am on Sunday morning and arrived in Vancouver around 6:30am on the same Sunday! That date line, where you lose a day one way and gain a day the other, is very confusing.

Over the Pacific we are wined and dined in business class. There was lots of entertainment to watch, we didn't need to use the Netflix movies we had downloaded on our tablets. We both watched "Sing Street" (2016). It's a charming story of some very young kids in Dublin who form a band — mostly to impress the girls. Set in the mid 1980's there's lots of music that we remember — some punk (e.g. The Jam) and new wave (e.g. Duran Duran) by famous acts of the time. If you have a chance, it's well worth watching. We both tried to sleep in our pods and arrived in Canada pretty well rested. The trick on these long flights is sleep when you can and to not go nuts over free booze. Tired and hung over is not a fun way to travel. Kate was sleeping when the breakfast service came around. The steward asked if they should wake her and I said no. She's not a breakfast person and sleep is more important than food. A drawback of these pods is that, even when close, you're not able to easily talk to one another. Of course, that might not be a drawback (LoL)!

The flight plan we are on from Vancouver has us stop briefly in Edmonton where Oiler fans are obvious — they're in the finals of the Stanley Cup competing against the Florida Panthers. Neither Kate or I are hockey fans but it is a thing for many people. We would have much rather flown direct to Toronto but this was the route assigned. Over the Pacific we had private pods where we could stretch out and get some sleep. Over Canada the business class seating was comfy seating with a bit more leg room. There's a picture of Reg napping on the flight. Pods on the over night leg of this trip make it bearable.

In Toronto we meet up with the Stratford Airporter (a small van shuttle service) at 7:30pm in the very lowest level of the airport (I had to ask and was surprised to discover there's a floor below). It's a short wait, our flight landed at 5:45, we have to go through customs and immigration, pick up our luggage and then find their desk. The driver gets us home in a couple of hours where we find our house in good shape and our cats pleased to see us. Chandell, our pet/house sitter, has done a great job.

Barry has been tending the lawns; our gardener, Wendy, has tended the flower beds, weeded and turned the soil in the vegetable gardens. Sadly we have missed the poppy blooming season. There's much work to do to get plants in the ground. We had left too early to plant our veggies and have come back late in the planting season. Plants we had moved outside are doing well enough, some are, of course very sun burned. Chandel, our house sitter, has done a great job with the cats, our home and the house plants. We are grateful for these many friends who have taken care of things.

Nevertheless, it's good to be home and to sleep in our own beds. Recovery from the time zone changes will take time.

Lady Elliot Island

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For the last part of our holiday in Australia we were on Lady Elliot Island, Queensland, from Wednesday June 12 through to Saturday June 15. It's an "Eco-Resort" on a small island at the very southern edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Our friends Ross and Bev had been before and recommended that we go. It's an expensive holiday and you need to book ahead; book well in advance (like a year ahead if you can). We had hoped to go in early May so we might be in the area for Ross and Bev's 50th anniversary. This was the only time we could find that matched with Kate's KBS conference.

Kate was relatively immobile having tripped and fallen on the Sunday night while visiting with friends. She ended up on crutches with a plastic boot to support her damaged ankle. This was a serious constraint on how we experienced the island as we could not get around readily and hobbling across sandy beaches to get into the water was very difficult. Nevertheless, we went and did get into the water several times. Kate was fine once she got into the water but getting there was tough. With her ankle injuries flippers would not have been possible but she has never used them anyways. We had our own diving masks (mine has prescription lenses), snorkels and body suits. Some people come to do scuba diving, we just snorkel.

You can snorkel on the reef right off the shore of the island as you can see in the picture at top left. This really appealed to us. We have snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef before, a couple of times (from Cairns and from Townsville/Magnetic Island), but that's always a long boat ride out to the reef for a short swim and on the way someone, often me, will be throwing up with sea sickness. We have also snorkelled with the Whale Sharks on the Ningaloo (on the west coast) and swam on the reef fringing Magnetic Island, QLD. There's also some really great snorkelling with some coral growing on the wrecks at Tangalooma on Moreton Island just off Brisbane. Of all of these places it's hard to say which is best. Were we younger and more able this might have been the best place. There is some very good reef to explore off the lighthouse where you can ride the current from one end to the other and then walk back along the shore. That's like our experience on the Ningaloo at Coral Bay. Great way to see things ... if you can walk.

Lady Elliot Island is about 50 miles from shore, the primary access is via small turbo prop aircraft. Apparently, it is the only coral cay island with an airstrip on the Great Barrier Reef. It's quite small, about 100 acres (45 hectares), and if you count a city block as around 2.5 acres then you could pace it off as 40 city blocks (say 6 by 7). It's small enough to be walkable (for those who can walk). The grass landing strip bisects the island. In the picture above you can see the landing strip down the centre, the resort area at the top right, the lighthouse at the bottom right, and the reef all around the island.

We caught our flight shortly after 7:00am early on the Wednesday morning from the Redcliffe Aerodome (it's a single paved runway with no control tower or "regular" flights). This is the closest departure site to Brisbane and is only 45minutes away from our place in New Farm. We drove out from our long stay in New Farm and left our car with excess luggage at the airport. On the flight with us were some staff on rotation and a family visiting from Texas — they were on a whirl wind tour and were staying over only one night. Our flight stopped at Hervey Bay to pick up more passengers, on the way back we were direct to Redcliffe.

The landing was interesting as the pilot, a young woman who acted as steward and ground crew, came in low to first judge the wind direction then seemed to abort the landing and went around to land on a second pass. It seemed rather scary but apparently that's the way they do it. That also gave you a second chance to get a good view of the island.

Our guide showed us around the small resort, pointed out the dive shop, gift store, dining hall, lecture hall and orientated us to where most things are. Kate hobbled along on crutches doing her best to keep up. Our well appointed room was in a modern building a short walk from most things at the resort and right against what they call "The Lagoon".  We did most of our swimming in the lagoon; however, the lagoon is very shallow and you really cannot swim there except at high tide.

The dining hall serves three meals a day in a buffet style. Everything, of course, has to be brought in. Water at the resort is saved rainwater and desalination — a precious commodity. The resort manager offered to take us around some time if we wanted to see the mechanics behind the scenes. There's a bar serving drinks, including espresso, and a snack bar that's open most hours. Everything you purchase at the resort, including drinks, gift shop purchases, etc., is just added to your bill. The staff did get to know your name, but usually it's just "Put it on Room L37, Graham & Quinton". The meals were all very good, ample with lots of choices for your mains as well as desserts. After a few days I did discover that instant coffee was free and available at a hot/cold water bar at one end — however, I much prefer a "flat white" although Kate balks at the $8 charge for each.

One of the really interesting things is the lack of security. There are no room keys! Doors do not lock on any of the guest rooms or cabins. Of course if someone were to rob you there's only one way they're going to get off the island.

We had a number of glorious sunrise, sunset events. We got a ride on a golf cart to see the sunset from Lighthouse beach on our first night. It wasn't very dramatic as there were no clouds in the sky. We did have a couple of beautiful sunrise mornings — 6:30am when it's actually a bit chilly.

Swimming in the Lagoon was very convenient to our cottage/room when the tide was high. When the tide is out you can see the tops of the coral. Even at high tide, the water is only about 3 foot deep which makes swimming a bit of a challenge — you don't want to touch the coral. The coral is fragile and very rough. Kate had swim gloves, I did not. There were lots of sea turtles in the Lagoon which were a delight to see. There was lots of interesting and different corals, huge sea clams, brightly colored star fish, schools of fishes and a ton of sea slugs. At the outer edge of the lagoon there's a coral wall that drops down quite deep. There are scuba diving trips out to that area but neither of us have tried that. You can see the waves crashing against the outer coral wall of the lagoon and tour boats bouncing around. Going out there looks like a good way to get very sea sick!

Our reservation included an adventure off the lighthouse beach in a glass bottom boat. The coral on that side of the island is quite impressive and in deeper water. Some people saw manta rays in this area, we did not. Some of the people would have been on a day trip where they've come out to do swim in that area and return at end of day. They would be at the mercy of the weather. Several days the wind was up and you could see boats bouncing around wildly off the lagoon. Those were days we didn't take advantage of the tour to Lighthouse Beach. I did a guided walk one day to the Lighthouse Beach, every day fit souls would walk from the resort, across the landing strip, and follow the path down to the beach. It's not very far at all.

There are some interesting birds on the island. Gulls of course, but also little "Rails" you had to look out for. We were having breakfast a couple of times where, when you turned your back, a rail came up and stole some of Reg's bacon rashers. He didn't get too far as the gulls stole the goods from him! This happened about 3 times to us, it also happened to others. There's also a very tame bird called a "Black Noddy" that has webbed feet but rests in the branches. We understand a lot of the native birds have returned to the island since mining stopped and the eco-resort was established.

The birds are an important historical part of the island. When the island was discovered back in the early 1800's it was forested and home to many many birds. The birds, as birds do, left great layers of guano (i.e. bird shit) and that was strip mined for fertilizer by Chinese and Malay workers (slaves?) with British/Australian bosses. This left the island a barren treeless dry desert. In 1969 the island was taken over as an eco-resort and a serious revegetation project began. The forest which exists now is a result of that project. It's been so successful that the original lighthouse (built when the island was strip mined) is now obscured by these trees planted since 1969. The original 17 meter lighthouse of 1873 is no longer tall enough and a second much taller modern lighthouse was installed (1996) that requires minimal tending. There are no longer lighthouse keepers on the island, the buildings are now used by the resort.

Near the lighthouse there are two tended graves for a lighthouse keeper's daughter and another's wife who passed away on the island. I asked the guide about the Chinese and Malay miners/slaves who worked the guano, no doubt many of them died here as well. Their graves, if there were any, are not known or marked.

We flew back to Redcliffe on Saturday afternoon, drove to the Brisbane airport where we dropped of the rental car and stayed overnight at the Pullman hotel. On Sunday we returned home.

New Farm

 

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New Farm is an inner city suburb of Brisbane. We stayed at an AirBnB here when we returned from Perth. We have a favorite long stay place on Gregory Terrace in Springhill where we like to stay when in Brisbane but they weren't available for this visit.

Our AirBnB was on Merthyr Road in the same block as the Coles shopping mall — in Australia Coles and Woolworths are super market chains. Our apartment was on the second floor with lots of balconies to enjoy the fine weather. One evening we got to see some rather large possums munching on the leaves of the schefflera trees just outside our balcony.

The apartment had a nice sized bedroom, a sitting/living room, a tiny kitchen and an awkward bath. But it was our home for the duration of our stay. At the end of our visit we went to Lady Elliot Island for several days and then home.

There's a nice neighbor hood shopping district nearby (Coles, Post Office, several liquor stores), there's the New Farm Park with the Powerhouse Station where we say Eric Bogle. The neighborhood is bracketed on three sides by the Brisbane river and Fortitude Valley to the north. Across the river to the west is Kangaroo Point with the Story Bridge over the Howard Smith Wharves to Fortitude Valley.

The photo album shows our apartment, shops in the area (you can buy Kangaroo meat at Cole), some of my walk through New Farm Park and along the river towards Tennerife. There's some photos of friends and colleagues — Ross and Bev of course, but also our friend Susan who was pleased we reached out to see her again.

The pictures of "#Dreambig" (at a New Farm sports injury clinic), Queensland X-ray and Kate on crutches at the apartment near the end of the album are about Kate's tragic slip and fall where she twisted her ankle badly at the end of our stay. That didn't stop us from going to Lady Elliot Island — it might have stopped others but not Kate!

Redcliffe

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On Sunday we drove out to Redcliffe to investigate the Aerodrome where we fly out on Wednesday for Lady Elliot Island. Redcliffe is a little to the north of Brisbane and one of the closest beaches. When we were in Brisbane years ago we used to drive there and go swimming. There's a long beach area on the east side facing Moreton Bay and a bit on the south. The airport is on the north side on Deception Bay and there's quite a bit of swamp area there. Redcliffe is not an ideal spot for swimming — the water here is quite shallow and a bit muddy, it might be reclaimed mangrove swamp as is much of the area around Brisbane, but there is a long sandy beach. If you want nice sandy beaches you ought to go south to the Gold Coast or north to Bribie Island, Coulandra and even further to Noosa Heads.

Redcliffe used to be a fairly quiet and, frankly, uninteresting modest suburb. But things have changed since we were last here. We easily found our way to the airport (it's about 45 minutes by car from our AirBnB in New Farm) and went looking for a nice restaurant we had read about along the water front. Today there seems to be an event/street fair of some sort with streets closed. Streets that are much more interesting, more trendy, than ever before.  We can't get close to the restaurant we hoped to go to and Kate is unable to walk very far. So, we end up driving along the water front and stop at Scotts Point which is near the south end of the eastern waterfront/beach area. Having not been able to get into the fine restaurant we had planned we ended up having "Fish & Chips" from a small shop that was incredibly busy.

After a long wait at the chip shop we enjoyed our lunch and met even more "Bin Chickens" who wished to join us for their dinner. On the way back we explored the Sandgate beach area (south of Redcliffe and north of the airport) before heading off to meet with Ross and Bev,

That evening we met up with Ross and Bev's family for a pizza party at their son Chris's place near Griffith University. It was a fun family gathering with a lot of very nice kids. Chris, who was just a kid not that many years ago, has a son of his own — River is a young active footballer (footie?). Naomi's son is an informed well spoken young man and Jacquie has a newborn of her own. We even ended up talking over Skype (or some similar technology) with Tim, the elder son, who is a lawyer in Sydney. It's a well connected supportive family that we've known for years now.

Now, Kate has been struggling with nerve pain where she had an ankle replacement last year. I've explained the limitations to Ross and he's kindly waiting for us at the curb when we arrive to help Kate in. All of that has worked well. Unfortunately, when we were leaving in the dark, Kate tripped in the driveway, fell and wrenched her other ankle. Over the next few days we are coping with this set back and preparing for our trip to Lady Elliot Island — should we stay or should we go and forfeit what we've paid?

We got Kate home and into the house that night. We bought her crutches the next day (Monday) from the pharmacy down the street as she was simply unable to walk unassisted. At Bev's urging we ended up taking Kate to a sports/physiotherapy clinic in our neighborhood. We had been thinking that we should go to a Hospital Emergency but Bev was right. A podiatrist examined her injury, put her in a removable plastic boot and sent us for an MRI at another clinic to make sure the injury wasn't as bad as he feared. He ended up giving us a detailed report on the injury and the MRI results that we shared with our doctor when we returned home. She had never seen an MRI or an MRI report of an ankle injury; I guess they're too scarce in Ontario to waste on ankle injuries. Fortunately, though we weren't much out of pocket, it was fully covered by our travel insurance.

I worried about Kate's injuries but she soldiered on.

Eric Bogle, New Farm Powerhouse

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We were really excited to see Eric Bogle (born 1944) at the Brisbane Powerhouse here in New Farm, QLD with our friends Ross and Bev. It was a full house in a smallish concert hall. 

Eric had a small backing group — violin (Emma Luker), percussion (Jon Jones) and guitar (Peter Titchener) — that accented the music perfectly. It was a great low key show with lots of stories between songs over two long sets (7:30-10:00). He sang many of our favorites and I'm not ashamed to say he brought us to tears. We've learned his long time writing and playing companion John Munro (1947 - 2018) had died here in Brisbane some 6 years ago. As the song goes, "There must be a reason for it all ..." (from "Scraps of Paper" 1981).

We were first introduced to Eric Bogle's music through our friend Mike. I think he showed us "The Green Fields of France" (aka "No Man's Land") in a version by the Irish band the Fureys. This would have been back in the very early 1980's. Soon after we discovered his music again through the Pogues and their version of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" from "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" (1985). We have been lucky enough to see him at the Horseshoe Tavern (Toronto, ON), the Roxy Theatre (Owen Sound, ON) and the University of Western Australia (Perth, WA) over these many years. We are especially lucky to see him today.

The Powerhouse is an old industrial building on the shore of the river not too far from our AirBnB. If we were anyone else we might have walked, instead we took a Uber. There are some pictures of the New Farm parkland where the Powerhouse is located in another blog entry. One reason for taking an Uber — there's a street party event in nearby Teneriffe so parking is at a premium. We meet Ross and Bev for dinner at the Italian restaurant, Bar Alto, in the Powerhouse before the show and got a ride home with them. We might have eaten outside on the riverside patio but it's dark and cool out.

An interesting story .... I had my camera and was taking pictures from our seats during the show. After a bit I got up to get a bit closer to the stage from the one side and to get some close up pictures. I was doing ok when one of the ushers came up to me and told me not to do take pictures during the songs — the clatter of the DSLR mirror slap was distracting. That's a first but I suppose it might have been worse for me as there was a sign up at the entrance saying "No Photography!".

To round out our collection of Eric Bogle music we bought a couple of CD's we don't have: "The Source of Light" (2008) and "Voices (with John Munro)" (2018). He sang songs from from his lengthy catalogue including, of course, "Waltzing Matilda" and "No Man's Land". "A Reason for It All" was originally a duet with John Munro singing the high voice. When he passed away Eric had stopped doing that sone. Fortunately the woman on violin (Emma Luker), who plays and tours with him, convinced him to let her give it a try. She plays an excellent replacement role, perhaps even better than John Munro's part.

If you're a fan of music with a story, music that tugs on your heart strings, simple tunes with a powerful message we would encourage you to investigate Eric Bogle. Some music is timeless.

Mt Coot-tha

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Friday June 7 was a day exploring a bit of Brisbane. In the morning we went shopping for bathing suits in the Gabba neighborhood which is across the river from New Farm (via Fortitude Valley and the Story Bridge across to Kangaroo Point). Kate wants a new suit for our trip to Lady Elliot Island. The store where we ended up was pretty serious with many suits to choose from and lots of diving and snorkeling gear. I offered, but Kate declined, to model a budgie smuggler — they are popular on Australian beaches.

There's some photos of traditional Queensland homes in the area with bougainvillea blooming. Apparently the "Gabba Cricket Ground" is a large oval stadium and it names the area. I understand there's some discussion about refurbishing or replacing it for the Summer Olympics Brisbane will host in 2032. But, Wikipedia tells me that "Between 1993 and 2005, the Gabba was redeveloped in six stages at a cost of A$128,000,000" so perhaps it's "good enough".

On the way back from the swim shop we stopped for the view of the city from Kangaroo Point. I was wearing my Wabi Sabis t-shirt and we shared a photo on Facebook. You cross on the Story Bridge to get to Fortitude Valley and New Farm. I understand there are conducted tours of the bridge where you can walk way up high on the beams. I recall Ross mentioning that as a possibility we might try. Neither Kate nor I are up for that adventure! Bad knees, ankles and a healthy fear of heights make us unlikely climbers.

We took an Uber and had lunch at the Balfour Kitchen & Bar which is in New Farm but at the north end very near Fortitude Valley. We had hoped to dine on the rooftop for the views but that part wasn't open. It's a very nice high end restaurant in an old house, we enjoyed our lunch and I did get some pictures from the rooftop.

We drove to Mount Coot-tha for sunset views of the city. While Google maps has been a great help at navigating the city we missed an important turn at the foot of the mountain and ended up stuck in a traffic jam on a 4-lane expressway. But we got to the mountain top in good time to catch the waning light of day. It might be interesting to come here for sunrise as you're looking east towards the city, at end of day the sun is setting behind us. 

We have been here before on previous trips and have fond memories of bumping into our friend Murray from the Brisbane Central BS&B club. The fine restaurant (The Summit Restaurant & Bar), where Murray was going, and where we had eaten in years past is no longer open. There is a cafe (The Summit Cafe) where you can get light snacks but the fine restaurant seems to have been another COVID victim.

As the sun left us we soon discovered how cool Brisbane winters can be. There's a picture in the album of a couple huddling under a blanket to keep warm as they watched the day end. Others wore sweaters (do they call them jumpers like in England?). I found it quite cool.

A note on "mountains". Mount Coot-tha is all of 741' (226m) so it's not really a mountain. There are some higher elevations in the dividing range but nothing to compare with real mountains like the Rockies or the Alps. An Uber driver was telling us about some people who were visiting from Austria and how the young boy was quite disappointed at what passes for a mountain in these parts. They had driven him into these very mountains and he had to ask "Where are the mountains?"

Mt Nebo

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On Thursday June 6, we retraced some of our paths from previous visits. Our destination is to get out of the city and head into the bushland of the nearby "mountains" of the dividing range. You can drive up to Mount Nebo, then on to Mount Glorious and come down the other side to Lake Wivenhoe which is a major reservoir for the city. We had done that before and thought we might retrace that path ... but we only made it as far as Mt Nebo this time.

We first stopped in the Spring Hills neighborhood to see City Park Apartments on Gregory Terrace. We had stayed there several times on previous visits and might have this time had there been room for us. It's a great place for a long stay in Brisbane. Convenient to the city centre, spacious well appointed apartments with balconies, parking garage, there's even a little pool and a nearby city pool. Our AirBnB in New Farm doesn't compare.

We headed west out of the city and first stopped at the Walkabout Creek Discovery Center. You're in bushland here, there's walking trails complete with warnings about snakes (sic!) and a pretty smallish reservoir made by the Enoggera Dam where people swim. Today they were sunbathing, I suspect the water might have been a little cool. I was able to take a brief walk down to the water. Some of the trail was briefly closed for a wedding under the trees. There's a spot there especially for weddings. I think there's also a special room at the cafe to host the reception after the wedding.

We stopped here because we have fond memories of a lovely little restaurant that used to be here (I think it was call the "Green Tree Frog Cafe"). It was a white table cloth hidden gem back then. These days it's a much larger open air restaurant but not fine dining. I ended up having "fish and chips" yet again. I think Kate had a salad plate with fried haloumi (the Greek cheese).

The road up to Mt Nebo is a narrow two lane affair and wanders along a mountain ridge. There's not much room for the locals to pass doddering tourists like us and there was some construction. Kate found the drive hard to stomach so we cut our trip short and turned around at Mt Nebo. That's a small town, a village really, only about 450 residents, with only a few shops. But Kate did get to do some shopping. I tried to get some international stamps at the post office but they didn't carry them. I suspect they didn't carry any stamps.

There are some scenic lookouts along the way. The picture above is from Jolly's Lookout which is very near Mt Nebo. There's a William Jolly Bridge in the city very near the GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) where we visited with Ross and I suspect this lookout is named after the same fellow (confirmed by Wikipedia).

There was a winery marked on our maps, and even some signs, but we did not find it. We had stopped in years ago but I suspect it's no longer in production. Another victim of COVID.

Motorcyclists love this road. Lots of twists and turns. That can be dangerous because there's two kinds of people who ride motor bikes: those who fallen off, those who will fall off.

BS&B, CityCat

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BS&B Lunch

I'm a member of the Beefsteak and Burgundy wine club which is based out of Australia — while most of the clubs are in Australia and New Zealand, with a few in East Asia, there is a local chapter here in St Marys where we live. Ours is the Stonetown Beefsteak and Burgundy Club (club #227) and was formed some time ago (1991) by our friend Pierre who had discovered the club while on sabbatical in Australia. I've been a member for many years and had a tenure as the chapter president (2015-2017).

Membership in the club is a passport, of sorts, to friends and events when travelling; especially in Australia where there are many clubs. Anytime we're in Australia we try to find a local club (e.g., there are lots in Brisbane; it's a big city) that is having an event that we might attend. Over the years we've been to several clubs around the country (in Perth, Melbourne and here in Brisbane) and always are welcomed. We looked for a club in Fremantle and Perth when in Western Australia earlier on this trip but there were no events that worked with our visit (there's only a few clubs in that area).

When we go to these events, sometimes just a tasting, often a gourmet dinner, we always have a good time, some good food and drink, and sometimes meet and make some long lasting friends. See our Brisbane BS&B (2006) story (a visit to "Brisbane" (club #17) at the United Service Club near the city centre) and note the photos of Murray and Baggins. Murray was a great friend, as was his wife Joan, who we met with many times outside the club. They had a very strong Canadian connection having studied here. He has passed away in 2019 and will be sadly missed.

The Fortitude chapter (club #138) has a regular first Wednesday of the month lunch event which would work while we were in Brisbane (we attended on June 5). I reached out to see if we could come as guests and, as expected, we were welcomed with open arms. Chris, the president, and Mick, the secretary were kind and gracious hosts to us; we shared their table. Although their club is a men only club they were happy to have Kate come as a guest. The event was a chef prepared gourmet lunch at the Royal Queensland Golf Club, in Eagle Farm, a far eastern suburb of Brisbane towards the airport and on the river at the Gateway Bridge. We took an Uber to the event and planned on riding the CityCat back along the river.

As you can see from the photos the lunch was quite a spread; a gourmet meal accented with gourmet wines. Wines were selected by the wine steward of the club; likewise for the dinner served. The many wines were all presented blind, poured from bottles wrapped to hide the label, so you did not know what you were drinking. The objective of the game is for the wine steward to call on various people from the club to have their say in evaluating the wine and what they thought the wine was that they had just tasted. This is a bit of a laugh because 9 times out of 10 the guesses were wildly off (at least beyond that was a red or white and probably from Australia, we could seldom guess the grape let alone the region, country of origin or vintage). That's interesting as all the members, like Kate and me, drink a lot of wine and should do better. Our wine club has a similar blind tasting at our January event. Kate, who is a bit of a super taster, was able to correctly identify several of the wines. She was, to my mind, the champ at this game.

Some of the wines were from their wine cellar. Brisbane is a tropical climate and wine cellars are rented space from a cold storage company as nobody has a cool basement. Some of the wines would have been recent purchases. And some wines were awarded in a draw at the end. The price for the event also included some money raised to replenish the cellar. They are a long standing club and have quite an investment in their wine cellar. So much so that they've recently, at the recommendation of the parent club, incorporated and are now insured to limit their liability.

I was called upon to speak to the main plate. As you can see it was filet of Australian beef au jus with a bit of black pudding (Kate had some fish, barramundi perhaps?), roasted cherry tomatoes, asparagus, beet greens and Hasselback potatoes all tastefully arranged. (I say fill-aye, they say fill-ette and are surprised by that dang French influence in Canada). One comment I had was on the mustard served with the beef. In Canada mustard is slathered on dishes and adds a bit of heat. Dijon mustard adds a lot of heat and is my mustard of choice. But the mustard they had absolutely cleared the sinuses and took my breath away! It seemed to have the intense kick of horse radish or wasabi paste. Really wild. "Is it always like this?" I ask. "Yup, that's normal", they say. All of the food served was great. The chef was introduced and rightly congratulated on the feast he had prepared.

There were several guests to this event beyond Kate; several wives as well some "Old Bulls". Within the BS&B club system there are "lifetime members"; a special status for long standing members who have contributed a lot. We have a couple at our club. This club had an interesting informal designation for older members who are no longer regulars. They're called "Old Bulls", an apt title as the logo for BS&B is a bull with a glass of wine, and are invited to events. This helps to make sure that friendships are maintained and they have good attendance at their events. We should do something similar at our club.

We chatted with many members. They even gave me a copy of the recently published BS&B history — quite a large tome. I am constantly surprised at how well travelled Australians are. Many we talked to had been to Canada and all were more than hospitable. When the event wrapped up we hitched a ride to the nearby CityCat landing at "Northshore Hamilton" where we caught a ferry around 3:30pm

CityCat River Tour

The Brisbane River is a distinctive feature to the city. Draining the Wivenhoe Dam in the mountainous interior and opening onto Moreton Bay, quite a few miles down river from the here (ie. Eagle Farm and the golf course), the river meanders through the city and, while there are many bridges, the river is an obstacle. The CityCats (large fast catamarans) are part of the city transit system. They're also a very good way to tour the city. We bought transit passes at a local shop in New Farm and only later discovered that we could have just used our credit cards to tap on/off the ferry.

Near Eagle Farm and the wine event the river is quite wide with the Gateway Bridge, the last bridge on the river, immediately downriver. The next bridge up river is the Story Bridge which crosses from Kangaroo Point to Fortitude Valley and nearby New Farm where we are staying. On the CityCat ferry it's about an hour up to the Story Bridge with many stops on each side of the river in between.

We continue on the ferry past the city center with it's many towering high rise buildings, the Botanic Gardens with it's quiet green space, the glossy Star Casino Center and across from that the South Bank park with the GOMA, on to the Milton stop where we got off and turned around on the next CityCat to head back towards New Farm as the day was ending and the sun had set. We returned down river and got off at New Farm Walk (there are several stops in New Farm) and called a Uber to take us home.

When we started at Northshore Hamilton there was a fellow waiting with us obviously dressed to serve on the boat. He said we needn't worry, that the boat wouldn't leave without him (hence us as well). It turns out he was the captain. Jeff was an incredibly friendly fellow, a real ambassador for the CityCats and the city of Brisbane. He posed several times for pictures with us and other tourists. He even had me come up to the wheel house to see things from that vantage point. He's our age, I would guess, and has been working on the river transit for many years. He obviously enjoys his work and the social aspect of meeting people. Not everyone wants to retire early. In the selfie above that's Jeff with Kate and me.

The river floods on a fairly irregular basis (see Historical Flooding in Brisbane). In our time there was a serious flood in 2011 and another in 2022. The 2011 flood happened, when after torrential rains (they have cyclones, we have hurricanes), water was released from the Wivenhoe Dam causing extensive flooding. At the time our friend Murray, who lived far up river in Chelmer (across the river from Indooroopilly where Ross and Bev live), had a home on a high bank of the river where we had visited a few times. He had a boat and dock on the river. It must have been 20' or so above the water with stairs down to the river but with that flood they had water to their doorstep. 

We had turned around on our CityCat tour at Milton. This has a flood connection as well. The first time we met Murray's wife Joan was at a lovely floating restaurant tied to the north bank at Milton. The flood of 2011 washed that restaurant away along with much more. There's a walkway/bicycle path on the river under the Story Bridge at the Howard Smith Wharves that I had explored before that flood. I know that much of that was wiped away in the flood of 2011. I can recall watching the news back then and seeing the damage that flooding caused. See for example Decade-long Drift restaurant debate (2022). Oddly I don't recall the flood of 2022 (that would have been during the pandemic) but should:

 "Thirteen people in total lost their lives in the 2022 floods, with 23,400 properties flood-affected in all but 11 of Brisbane’s 188 suburbs." — from Why was Brisbane’s 2022 flood different? (Griffith University)

From the CityCat there are many very posh homes along the river front especially from Kangaroo Point on down the river. I wonder how they survived past floods and what will happen to them at the next.

However, enough about flooding and catastrophes; the city is resilient and seems to take these in stride. The point here is the CityCat is an excellent way to see the city. There's lots of interesting places to jump off along the way. We enjoyed the trip, the captain was a treat, the weather was great and we would highly recommend the CityCat to anyone visiting Brisbane.

Ps. as well as the large CityCats which run the entire length of the ferry system there are also smaller "KittyCats" which provide a free shuttle service within the city core! See CityCat and ferry services.

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Notes composed Nov 21, '24

GOMA, South Bank

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Tuesday June 4, we met Ross on the South Bank, toured the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). and learned about "bin chickens".

The South Bank Parklands is an important green space, entertainment and cultural district across the river from the city center. We were here for a dinner with Ross and Bev when we first arrived in Australia on this trip (see Brisbane Briefly) and have been many times over the years. Much of the current configuration is the result of a big development for the World Expo 88; more changes are likely for the Brisbane Summer Olympics in 2032. And there have been lots of changes since we last visited years ago.

Across the river from the parklands is the city center dominated by a huge glass modern hotel/entertainment/casino — the Star Brisbane. It's a new building for us and seems to be still under construction. In front that is the old Treasury Casino which has now been merged into the Star Brisbane. We're told the development has been controversial with some dubious money involved. Several pedestrian bridges cross the river to provide access to the city on one side and the parkland on the other.

In these parklands the artificial beach is probably one of the more well known, we've gone swimming there when visiting in their summer months. There's also a big ferris wheel, The Wheel of Brisbane, that dominates the skyline and is again new to us. It's big, but not as big as The London Eye. The cultural buildings are just as interesting. At the far north end of the parkland is the GOMA but there's also the State Library of Queensland, Performing Arts Center and more. I recall visiting the Queensland Art Gallery here many years ago and was quite impressed by the collection of more traditional artworks. We had not been to the modern art gallery and, with Ross, are curious.

We drove there and met up with Ross. Google maps took us by what we thought of as a very circuitous route (perhaps it's the "fastest"; certainly not the most direct) and we got mucked up crossing the William Joly Bridge missing our turn into the gallery. After much circling about I was able to drop Kate at the gallery and ended up parking underground some distance away under the Performing Arts Center. It's worth noting that all of this area along the river, and especially the underground parking, would have been flooded recently in 2022 and before (See Brisbane's history of  flooding). 

The GOMA is a modern building on the river bank. There's a pedestrian bridge over the river, the Kurilpa Bridge is itself a piece of modern piece of art!, and an outdoor patio/lunch area. We three have a brief conducted tour of the gallery focusing on the galleries of indigenous art. Some of that was traditional (like the feathered Digging Sticks (Wapitja) and baskets). Others were quirky like the Smurfs hidden in a traditional black and white art piece. Some of the exhibits were painful and heartbreaking like the pile of sugar skulls (see above) to commemorate those who died as slaves in the sugar fields. After the tour, another gallery was an exhibit of recent juried high school pieces. All were quite good, many challenging and thought provoking: "Pardon Me For Being Born Into A Nation of Bigots". As in Canada, there's a lot of ground to mend with those who were here first.

Afterwards we had lunch on an outdoor patio overlooking the river. There were several Australian Australian Ibis (a really lovely bird, think of Egypt and the Nile) wandering around on the patio, green space and when not wanted, onto the tables. They had learned that there would be food scraps they might get if they were patient and fast enough. Ross tells us that in Australia they are seen as pests and called "Bin Chickens". "Bin" as in "garbage bin".

The gallery was certainly worth a visit. I actually prefer the traditional art in the Queensland Art Gallery which is just next door. Much of modern art I do not understand or appreciate. But it was good to go and visit with Ross. It was an interesting and challenging experience. I was worried about Kate and her ankle problems but fortunately we were able to use a wheel chair to keep her off her feet.

— these notes composed Nov 24, '24.

Howard Smith Wharves

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Tuesday June 4, Sunset at Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane.

Under the Story Bridge, which connects Kangaroo Point to Fortitude Valley, there's an entertainment district on the river front — the Howard Smith Wharves. We have decided to have our dinner there at one of the many restaurants; I'm interested in getting some views of the Story Bridge as the evening comes.

At each end of the bridge there's a high steep cliff, I'd estimate about 50' or so. There's the Wilson Outlook, a small greenspace at the top of the cliff on our side of the river which should have some good views. We take an Uber to the overlook and are disappointed to discover that there's a project underway to stabilize the cliff face so most of the viewing area is fenced off — you can't get there. But the elevator access from the overlook to the waterfront gives us a view of the work. At the foot of the cliff is some green space and the Bougainvillea House (a tea house and patio closed with the cliff remediation project). Immediately up river is the entertainment area, down river is the riverwalk to New Farm.

At the river side Kate settles into a table at Ciao Papi, as pictured above, while I go explore the New Farm Riverwalk. This is a pedestrian/bike way that wanders on the river side anchored by pilings. The steep cliffs mean there is no shoreline here, where we are, for the walkway. This is fairly new, I suspect that the previous walkway was washed away in the floods of 2022 (See 7News video of Brisbane flood 2022). I'd guess that much of this entertainment district was under water as well! But it's all been restored and reclaimed. 

We enjoy our Italian dinner, our views of the Story Bridge and the City Center. We enjoyed watching the busy CityCats ferrying people around on the river, there's a terminal here at the wharves, and decide that we should take a tour on the CityCats another day. See BS&B, CityCats later in this blog.

There are many restaurants in the area. There's also a Pirate Ship Playground for children with ships to clamber around on. But the area is more for the night life, I wouldn't say it was kiddie friendly.

There's another elevator nearer to the Story Bridge (the Petrie Point/Story Bridge Lookout & Elevator) that takes us up to the top of the cliff where I'm looking for more photo opportunities. When we're ready to go we call for an Uber but there's some confusion about where we are to be picked up. They keep coming to the entertainment district at the waterfront, nearby but we're at the top of the cliff. We ultimately get a driver who is patient with us and explains that they can't come to where we are, we must come down the elevator to meet her. With Uber you have to be exacting about the pickup location; I suppose we must have got a couple of bad reviews as a result of the confusion.

Howard Smith Wharves is an interesting area to explore. Lots of fine restaurants and great views.Pirate Ship Playground

— these notes composed Nov 24, '24

Manly Harbor

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Monday June 3, Ross took us out to Manly, an eastern suburb on Moreton Bay, for lunch. We ate at the Manly Harbor Boat Club and sat outside on the deck in the sun overlooking the harbor of pleasure boats.

The club, like the surf clubs, has a membership and we, as guests, just need to sign in. It's a very nice restaurant with an attached casino. There's an ATM, for those who are losing at the slots, so we get some cash here. Not that we need a lot of cash.

Ross picked us up at our AirBnB in his new car. He recently got a Tesla, there was a government incentive that he couldn't resist, and he's just figuring it out. He leans to the left, like us, but is willing to overlook the obvious — Elon Musk is an asshole (and even worse now that Trump has won the election and he's a major advisor to the Mara-Lardo gang). Ross says it's probably the only option in Australia if you want an electric vehicle. He's quite happy with the car but has noted one downside is the glass roof. In a hot sunny country like Australia it's not an asset.

There was an event on the harbor with many little sail boats. There's a small Moreton Bay Discovery Center at the harbor where we learn a bit about the wild life in the waters. All along the Moreton Bay the shoreline is fairly shallow, muddy and mangrove swamp. Here there's a pleasure boat harbor and the Brisbane Coast Guard.

Manly Harbor is due west of our place in New Farm but across the river and a bit over a half hour away. We cross the Story Bridge and Ross navigates us towards the water (or rather the onboard Tesla and Google maps takes us). We didn't have a particular destination in mind, we were just heading to the seaside. We had never been to this harbor before, nor explored this part of the coast. Further south along the coast is Cleveland where you catch the ferry over to North Stradbroke Island and we've been there a few times.

We enjoyed our lunch and our visit with Ross at the Manly Harbor.

Caloundra

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Sunday June 2, we take an Uber out to the airport and pick up our car at 10:30 or so. Flight delays got us in last night, the car rental was closed and we took an Uber into New Farm for our AirBnB rental on Merthyr Road near Brunswick. It's a small car, I would have preferred a smaller car, but that's what they had for us.

It's a sunny day and we're thinking that we'd like to see one or some of our favorite beaches. To the north is Caloundra, even farther north is the Sunshine Coast and Noosa Heads. We opt for Caloundra as it's only an hour north.

Brisbane is a city on a river. On the coast it's shallow muddy mangrove swamps. Not the idyllic beaches you might imagine (although there is a man-made beach like that on the South Bank within the city). Surfers' Paradise to the south is an idyllic sandy beach with too many young people and too much night life — not to our liking. Caloundra is more our speed.

Bribie Island (say "Bry-Bee") is a large, coastal sand island; mostly a nature reserve; with a tidal channel behind it that flows out to the sea at either end. The north end is Caloundra and I can recall being here before basking in the warm waters of that channel as the tide changed. Of course that was summer, this is winter and we're not likely to go swimming. Our recollections of Caloundra are of a quiet coastal town; I recall that our friends Murray and Joan had a summer home here. It has changed. There are high rises, condos, coffee shops, street side Cafes, and what looks like an expensive restaurant row along the channel. We're looking for a nice lunch; but not that nice!

We find the Kings Beach Surf Club a little north of the channel where we grab some drinks and a bit of lunch (I had too many meals of fish and chips while in Australia). This is one of those Australian Life Saving Clubs which helps to raise funds to support the local volunteer life savers. Locals are often members while visitors, like us, only need to sign in as guests. There is a sunny patio area outside where people are enjoying the day but it's busy and full. We end up inside. We're a little past their better "Sunday Lunch" service and limited as to what we can have; hence the ubiquitous Fish and Chips. It's a nice, informal place, we enjoy our lunch together and the views of the sea.

We have been to this beach before. There's a beach side pool in front of the club where people are swimming, I assume it's salt water filled from the sea, there's a rough rocky beach area, and the wide sweep of a sandy beach south towards the channel and Bribe Island. On the beach it's off season, the surf is up as are the warning flags, and there aren't any life savers in sight although we do see some swimmers in the water and some life saving boats on the beach. There are also some "Utes" and fishing boats on the sand. Nearby is a carnival like area with a large Skyline Ferris Wheel (cf. the Tourist Wheel in Fremantle, the Wheel of Brisbane in the South Bank, all a take on the massive London Eye).

We are admiring the flora and fauna and spot some birds including an Australian White Ibis. A few days later we learn, while at the GOMA with Ross, that these are considered a bit of a pest and are derisively called "Bin Chickens" for their habit of rubbishing around in garbage bins. Of course Australians, when visiting Canada, are fascinated by our squirrels and racoons which we might call "bin rats". 

On the way home we stop at the Caloundra Dan Murphy's to stock up on some clean skin wine. Back at our AirBnB we discover that although there is a parking space under the building allocated to our apartment it's far too small and awkward for our small car. We should have insisted on a smaller car! We end up parking on the street, always within a block. A bit of a worry for us but it worked well enough for the duration of our stay.

Al in all, an interesting first day back in Brisbane and Queensland.

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Notes composed Nov 22, '24

Flight Delays

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Saturday, June 1. Our flight from Perth to Brisbane is delayed, it's chaos at the airport. See WAToday Article

The day starts with some confusion. My calendar says we're flying out in the morning but we have mail confirmation for a different time? What the heck is going on, is it just time zone confusions (EST vs Australia time)? We are flying business class on Virgin Australia so we are not expecting delays. If there are delays, they ought to be handled quickly.

Apparently there was some problem with the fueling system at the airport. Planes couldn't get fueled which meant those on the ground couldn't leave and likewise for those arriving. Perth is an international airport, the largest within the state, and an important hub. This has a ripple effect throughout the system. We hear about an international flight landing in smaller regional airports like Geraldton (population 40K, over 4 hours to the north) and Kalgoorlie (population 40K, over 6 hours to the east) with passengers being bussed into Perth. Further, that these international flight have refueled at the these regional airports and headed back leaving little fuel for others. It's a real muck up and surely heads will roll. How can this happen?

We understand that techs are brought in to solve the problem (I recall it being an airlock in the undergound pipes that caused pressure to drop) and we are at the airport by 1pm and camped out in the Virgin Lounge where there's lots of food, snacks, beer and wine to while away the afternoon. The flight we've been moved to does leave on time but we won't get into Brisbane until around midnight.

We were able to get out of Perth on the same day. Many of our friends from the conference will have had an unplanned extra day because of the interruption at the airport.

When we had thing figured out I called the car rental to find out if they would be open that late. Unfortunately not, but fortunately we have not prepaid so they just move our reservation to the next day. We arrive around midnight and take an Uber to our apartment in the New Farm suburb of Brisbane a short half hour away. We'll come back tomorrow and pick up our car.

Flight delays? That's just part of travel.