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| South Bank Arbour |
Day
Two in Brisbane got off to an early start and we were dropped off close to the
South Bank area. Unfortunately the roads were closed for maintenance and we
couldn't find the Information centre in a hurry. We headed off hoping that we
had chosen the correct route and soon walked through a beautiful Arbour of
flowers and greenery to a magnificent river side pathway that led us to the
Maritime Museum, our 1st port of call. It was quite amazing to see where the
2011 flood level had reached and it must have been an awesome experience for
those who witnessed this event.
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| HMAS Diamantina |
I
was keen to step on board the HMAS Diamantina which has been installed in the
old dry-dock. Our tour of the ship brought back many memories for me of my
times when I boarded many Navy ships over a 25 year career with ships stores
and the recorded sound of radio signals that played continually, gave it a
rather eerie feeling and I half expected the ship to start moving up and down
with the waves. The museum is manned by volunteers and has an excellent
collection of Navy and Merchant shipping memorabilia. They had an exhibition
celebrating the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic and many other items of
a bygone age and the tour was most enjoyable.
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| The Beach @ South Bank |
We
stopped for a cup of tea and sat and watched the passing parade (one of my
favourite pastimes) There were many runners and cyclists using the broad walk
along side the river and the ferries that flitted here and there made for a
busy scene. We had a bit of fun trying to track down a loud noise, which turned
out to be a couple of huge black crows squawking in the trees, but this noise
became quite tiresome, so we moved off. Further along the walk we came across a
really amazing sight. A large area had been turned into a beach, complete with
bikinis, sand, life guards and sunbathers. It had suffered during the floods
and more than 3000 cubic metres of sand had to be replaced before the beach
could be fully restored. The whole of South Bank is a walkers paradise, but my
arthritis told me it was time for lunch. Lyn had spotted an outdoor eating
establishment attached to an old historic pub, so we adjourned to the dining
area, having ordered two steak sandwiches and a cold beer.
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| Now that's a sandwich! |
The sandwiches duly
arrived and I couldn't believe my eyes as they were HUGE and were accompanied
by salad and fries! YUM! The pub was quite busy and I gather is a very popular
watering hole for the many businesses that are located close by. The local bird
population seemed to enjoy flapping around and from time to time a large Ibis
would suddenly swoop down on the table next to us and then flap it's way to a
higher vantage point where it sat and watched every mouthful being eaten,
before flying off again to startle someone else.
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| On board a CityCat |
From
our lunch stop we wandered further along until we reached a major jetty where
we decided to board a CityCat and take a tour upriver to our pickup stop at
Bretts Landing further upstream. The CityCats and CityFerries are great people
movers and have become an integral part of the Central Brisbane transport
system with all transport apparently integrated with a single card system and
they run from 5.50am until 10.30 at night. I believe there are 21 docking
terminals and getting on and off is a breeze. We arrived at Bretts Landing and
joked with the Cat staff, who waved and performed for the camera as the boat
left an headed back to the City. While we waited for our transport to arrive,
the ferries just kept arriving and leaving, with a new ferry about every ten
minutes, some with quite a few passengers and some with lot's of school kids
who just wanted to get to the other side of the river.
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| Kangaroo Point |
Sheree
arrived and we then went on a small Tiki tour around the suburbs to a wonderful
lookout called Kangaroo Point where the view of Brisbane City is quite
stunning. A wedding party were being photographed on the rocks below and I
guess it is a photographers dream destination. Then it was time to head onto
the ever present motorway for the trip back to our Apartment at Archer Hill,
which is attached to the Royal Pines Golf Resort.
