Brisbane and Surroundings - MyAustraliainfo - Information about Australia

Brisbane and Surroundings


June 6, 2001

I arrive in Brisbane early that afternoon, it seems like a very modern and well organized city. The journey from Byron bay was about 3 hours from the coast to Brisbane. A really beautiful place with different types of landscapes with beautiful rivers, canals and hills. However still no kangaroos.

7 June 2001

Today is quite a challenging day as i have decided to do a tour around the area of Brisbane. First stop the Big Pineaple, it is a big pineapple, a farm specializing in the cultivation and production of pineapple and other by- products . Good commercial Centre with lots of restaurant, bars, shops, tourist train, subtropical forest and garden with animals.  This is where I see my first kangaroo, a kangaroo rather small less than 20 cm.  It sniffed and looked at me it seemed peaceful and free in a beautiful garden with many other animals including koala bears so beautiful and sleepy that look at you and seem to say, why don't you leave me alone and let me sleep on my post!! .  Second stop a quick visit to Ginger Factory, a factory where Ginger is produced, I am not sure what it is exactly, I think an energy drink.. Here they use it and put it everywhere, I believe, I'll have to find out!!. It's got a good taste a bit 'fizzy, the pure crystals are good. The tour continues to Noosa a beautiful town with the usual beaches and walk along the Sunshine Coast with its endless deserted beaches. Last stop visiting Underwater Word on the Sunshine Coast. A very large aquarium with a lot of flora and fauna such as the one in Sydney. Even here an underwater tunnel with breathtaking beauty. I took some more photos I hoping they will be pleasing to everyone. Went to see a show with Seals, although entertaining, I was sorry to see them obey instructions for the exchange of food.. In my opinion they would be better off in their own environment, but without these organizations you would not get to see these beautiful sea animals. Even I contribute with my visit to keep these animals confined in this habitat. Tomorrow, weather permitting, as it's raining heavily at the moment, I will be visiting Brisbane.

8 June 2001

Brisbane is a beautiful city not very big. The centre busy with people going about their daily business.  But during lunch, I noticed it everywhere in Australia, that everyone including bank personnel, business men, shop assistants armed with their lunch head towards the gardens.  There are many sitting on benches on tables, quietly lying on the grass eating their lunch in the open. The Chinatown area in the district of Fortitude Valley in Brisbane  is very small and lovely. The Botanic Garden near Queensland University of Technology is rich with plants from all over the world and is close to Brisbane river.  I took some more pictures. Tomorrow I will board the Cyty Cat and cruise along the Brisbane river.

Jun. 9, 2001

The Cyty Cat is a fast catamaran that runs along the river allowing one to see the stunning views of Brisbane. Visit to the South Bank one of the many parks that have little turisty markets and to the artificial ith its marina and the beach artificial, that is, a beautiful swimming pool with sand and palm trees, etc.. I had lunch in the park in an Italian restaurant and ordered spaghetti marinara. For being an italian restaurant, if they are at all, then they could've done much better. Not much fish and lots of tomato sauce. Here, it is like this always lots of sauce and for someone like me who has had a restaurant with a classic Tuscan cuisine all those sauces do not go down, the other night I had dinner with a steak, a little 'hard, where they put the sauces, the waiters came 3 times to know if I wanted to sauces and seemed puzzled whan I didn't request any.  
A large bird has just arrived between the tables in search of food;  In Australia it is like this in amongst nature. They call them Ibis and they are larege with a long beak and I don't think they fly, bigger than a chicken.  He has found a slice of Salami.
In the morning I met a group of Italians, I recognized them from afar as they were you're typical italians.

Jun. 10, 2001

Today I am going on an excursion within Brisbane at a famous park to the Kondalilla National park. Very thick forest  I could only do a few photos as there was very little light and the flash would just go off automatically with very poor results, just where there was less forest was I able to do better photos. Interesting to see nature like this and the humidity was very high even though it is the dry season. The trek between forest, streams and slippery rocks was at least 5 km between going down and returning to the parking lots, the whole thing was quite tiring because of the humidity. In the afternoon visit to the famous zoo, the zoo where there's that guy who feeds the animals and catches them with his hands, the Crocodile Hunter. Sometimes they show him on TV even in Italy. The  Crocodiles are traitors as they seem that they are asleep but suddenly they make an incredible leap forward.  More than once even the experienced hunters had to jump the fence because they were going to be attacked.  I also saw kangaroos, a nice group just eating away.  Tomorrow a mystery  excursion recommended by the guide he said it would be a surprise or I didn't understand what he was saying, tomorrow I will find out.

Jun. 11, 2001

A very intense day today I started the day at 8am with a tour called "Rob Explores Rainforest" a former globetrotter who is now a tour guide in the parks of  Brisbane. It 's all very nice and he takes small groups at a time.. Rob is a great tour guide as he stops and explains everything about nature in detail, the beauty of the park from the trees, animals, small burrows hidden under ground, etc. . We visited several sites on Mount Glorius, Miala the national park, as they say, the most beautiful jewel of Brisbane's forest park. By mid-morning, like a good boy scout, Rob stops and prepares  a delicious  breakfast with tea/coffee and cakes. At about 1pm, after the first long walk, a barbecue in the great outdoors., very nice. We return to the hostel happy but very tired but after several several kilometers of walking. By the way, the barbeque that Rob did was probably the best lunch I've had since I arrived as the fresh pork sausages with baked potatoes, grilled onions and salad were simple but delicious, he did a great job!