ONWARDS TO BRISBANE - AUSTRALIA

10th - 15th Oct 2011

Brisbane, Queensland

The Countrylink Overland train from Adelaide to Melbourne is, I think, the one I like the best. The staff seem more laid back, it has a good buffet with a decent 'lounge' seating area and with power points for electrics. It refers to us as passengers (good) and does not labour the 'safety' announcements. It is for some reason, a bit of a rocky ride and as I previously waxed lyrical about on the trip up, there is a strange licensing law which does not permit it to sell alcohol in the state of Victoria. I was caught out by this. The train left at  0800hrs. They announced that we would be entering Victoria State at about 1200hrs. I decided to wait for lunch to order some beer at about 1145hrs. At 1130 it was suddenly announced that we had entered Victoria and changed to Victoria time; advance clocks 1 hour. That made it 1230hrs. I had missed the beer window. Bollocks!

Left: Dave, from England, who was the very helpful and amusing buffet manager on the train to Melbourne; but not so helpful that he could find me some beer to drink!

Another couple of days in Melbourne which was quite convenient because it coincided with the arrival of an old friend (Mitch P) from UK. He was visiting his son who was working here. I booked back into the very handy YHA hostel, and then out on the Town with Mitch.

Right: Mitch discussing terms with his chauffeur.

I could have spent much more time in Oz, despite the public services' riduculous 'elf 'n safety regulations (I think I have mentioned my dealings with the jobsworths on the trains) and regret not being able to get over to Perth. However, my time is only constrained by the container ships departures and I have to get aboard one in Brisbane which sails for Singapore on the 15th. Still, got to leave myself some places to visit in future.

Left: A bit of countryside en-route to Sydney. Can't remember why that interested me.

Train the next day back to Sydney on one of the XPT versions, but no buffet or lounge and no power-points for electrics. There was a trolley service which served low alcohol beer. Yuck. Change of train (XPT again) leaving Sydney at 1615hrs for the overnight journey to Brisbane. It was not particularly comfortable.

I only had a couple of days to spend in Brisbane and found the YHA hostel here on Upper Roma Street which was both well situated (walking  distance from the railway station), comfortable and relatively cheap. A good find. In fact I would strongly recommend all the YHA hostels in this country. Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, lies halfway up the east coast between the Sunshine Coast to the north and the Gold Coast to the south

Right: A view south over the Brisbane River from my hostel.

I took a trip up the Brisbane River on the good ship Mirimar 2 (left). Not sure what happened to Mirimar 1; or there may even be two of them. Destination 'Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary' about an hour up-stream. We were subjected to a running commentary interspersed with Aussie folk music, some of which was quite amusing.

The Brisbane River is famous for flooding. Especially big floods in 1893, 1974 and the latest in 2011 (earlier this year) caused mammoth damage.

The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is about a 20 acre site on which are housed various Oz creatures, notably koala bears of course. Actually koalas are not bears, they are marsupials and related to the wombat. I was told that when they are not lazily chewing on eucalyptus leaves, which have a narcotic property and gives them a particularly gormless look, they sleep. In fact the average koala sleeps for 20 hours a day. I know some people like that. Notices told us that we were not allowed to feed them, although the thought hadn't crossed my mind. Anyway I only had some chocolate with me which they don't like. They only eat eucalyptus leaves. It must be rather a dull life being a koala bear. Because they have a 'cuddly' appearance tourists were (for a price I expect) allowed to hold them and cuddle them and have their picture taken doing so. This has its downside as they have fleas and are prone to pee on you. 

I think they are best left to themselves in the eucalyptus trees and, frankly, it wouldn't make much difference if they were stuffed. The Aborigines used to eat them....but expect they are off the menu nowadays. At any rate I didn't see any Koala Burgers on offer.
The Aborigine word 'koala' means 'does not drink' (I was told). So the poor little buggers don't even have the luxury of a cold beer to wash down their eucalyptus leaves. No wonder they spend 20 hours a day asleep and look so bored; nothing else to amuse them.

Right: There was an aviary housing various birds like this rather seedy looking parrot.

.......and a few emus wandering about. They are the 2nd largest bird in the world, after the ostrich, and have 3 toes as opposed to the ostrich which has 2 toes, so you can tell the difference if you need to, although ostriches live in Africa (and some farms in UK) whereas emus don't, so the need should hardly arise. They can't fly of course, but can run at a max speed of 32mph therefore no point in trying to chase them. Not sure what predators there are in Oz which can catch them for speed. Certainly not a koala.

You know, I can't remember if this fresh-water croc (right) was real or a stuffed dummy. I suspect the latter because I wouldn't have got this close if it was real. As you probably know, a croc has a more varied diet than a koala and doesn't, as far as I am aware, eat eucalyptus leaves, or climb trees for that matter.

We were treated to a flying display of various birds of prey. This owl (left) did nothing very dramatic. In fact I don't think it even took off.












I didn't make a note of what kind of birds these were. This one (right) could be a Wumba-Wumba Fluffy-tailed Shitehawk for all I know. It flew around for a bit and duly returned to its handler.

My ornithological knowledge is somewhat limited as, being from the north of England, the only work of reference we had access to up there was 'The Geordie Book of Bords'. This lists a total of three types of 'bord' namely; 'spuggies' (small birds like sparrows), 'craws' (larger black birds like crows) and 'shitehawks' (anything else).

Same with this feathered creature (left). It looks rather like a seagull to me. Perhaps it was and they just stuck a large hooked beak and a pair of funny shoes on it to make it appear more 'eagle-like'.
I asked what they fed them on. I was told dead mice and things. I asked if they were allowed to hunt for their prey. "Oh no", I was told. "that would be cruel". I get the feeling that in the over 'politically correct' urban areas of Australia Field Sports such as falconry, deer stalking, hunting, game shooting etc. are not exactly de rigueur.

There were also some large snakes, python-like reptiles which lay about flicking their tongues at you. They too could only be fed on dead mice. Where did all the dead mice come from I wondered? Presumably they must have died of old age. I never did discover.

...and, of course, there were lots of red-kangaroos knocking about or, in many cases, lying about (right). Perhaps they had been eating eucalyptus leaves.

Some of them looked rather old and flea-bitten. They were certainly tame enough (or lame enough) not to be bothered by tourists. The male 'Joeys' had exceptionally large balls. I expect they are very used to tourists walking amongst them. Maybe they are 'rescue' kangaroos.

I'm not sure what kangaroos eat. Probably dead mice for all I know.

They too can run, or hop, very fast. Their max forward speed is 30mph, I was reliably informed....so can't quite keep up with a flat-out emu even if they wanted to.

There were, apparently, some 'musky rat kangaroos' in residence. They are the smallest variety and only grow to  6" tall. I didn't see any, which is not altogether surprising considering most of the grass was about 8" high.

Back on the good ship Miramar 2 returning to the city centre we were treated to another running commentary plus Aussie folk songs. 

We passed this building (left) which is vastly significant for some reason and I forgot to write down why. Can anyone help?

After chatting up the skipper and telling him of my vast experience in container ships, he gave me control! Well, we didn't hit anything. And I thought the Aussies were sticklers for 'elf 'n safety. Pleasantly surprised.

I decided to take a ride on the Big Wheel on the southern bank in the city centre. Not quite on the scale of the 'London Eye' but gave quite a good view of the city all the same.

Right: The view north across the river from the big wheel.

Well, that is about it from my brief stay in Brisbane. Not a bad city at all as far as I could see. I now have to get a train to the town of Hemmant which is near the port area where I am due to board the AS Carelia container ship for the voyage to Singapore via Malaysia. We are due to sail up the east coast of Oz and through or around the Great Barrier Reef which might be interesting. I hope there is some means of watching the remaining matches in the Rugby World Cup.

By train to the town of Hemmant where I spent a long time hunting down a taxi. It was driven by an Indian gentleman who said he knew exactly ( oh yes ) where the Port was and, more specifically, Patrick's Terminal where the AS Carelia was berthed. Against all previous experience I believed him. Of course he got completely lost and, what should have been a 15 minute ride turned into a 45 minute series of U turns and a $48 bill! The useless cheating..............!!!!!!!!!!

I am now sitting in my cabin waiting for the loading to be completed. I am probably about to lose internet connection so sending this as it is. I might fill in the blanks when next 'on line'. Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum........Stand-by to cast off number 1.