Au Revoir Queensland and Brisbane

From Stradbroke it was a long bus, boat and train journey to north Brisbane, where I stayed with Eileen in her lovely home in North Lakes. I had also met her in Portland so it was nice to catch up. This was a totally different experience, in a newish housing development which is very well serviced, with its own up market shopping centre and library. It even has its own lake which we walked around.



There were many signs in the area to watch out for koalas. But it’s like all those yellow, triangular, road signs in Australia; you never actually see any kangaroos, wombats, emus or koalas. I am sure the signs are just put up to keep the tourists’ interested.
Of course many of the corridors of eucalyptus trees, that the koalas depend upon, are being overtaken by housing developments.



While Eileen went to her table tennis morning, I explored Redcliffe Peninsula. I was very taken with this area, beside the sea, with beautiful walks around the front, another lovely man-made lagoon for swimming and lively pavement cafes. With beaches like Scarborough and Margate you get the picture. It was the first landing spot and settlement in Queensland, until the town moved to Brisbane.

Later I had a look at the U3A catalogue of classes and was tempted to move there straight away! Older people are very well looked after in Australia and I still have my Australian passport. I can certainly see why many people from here are tempted over there.

The best weather was in the north. The Gold Coast had terrible weather, while I was enjoying the heat further north. As I got closer to Brisbane the temperature steadily went down.
However during my last few days in Brisbane I was lucky, with calm sunny days and 16 – 24 degrees. The only cloudy day of my whole holiday was the last day, and the sun did come out in the afternoon.
I see a very cheap fare from Hamilton to Cairns is being advertised on TV!

But of course there are still the snakes, spiders, crocodiles, stingers and the heat to contend with!