Car-tripping through Queensland

A quick flight north from Sydney brought our crew of four to the Australian state of Queensland and its capital city of Brisbane. A missed announcement on the train into town meant we overshot our downtown destination by nearly 30 minutes and had to catch a the late night train back; luckily the transit staff were very kind of and helpful in getting us back on track and we suffered few mishaps on transit or otherwise while in town. Our Airbnb, a small two-bedroom apartment in a high rise mostly occupied by foreign exchange students left a bit to be desired in the way of layout and cleanliness, but offered a great jump-off point to downtown and the riverfront.

Brisbane is built along the banks of the Brisbane River, and much of its feel, geography and culture seems to revolve around this mighty river. While our crew has very different running speeds and average distances (one of our visiting friends is an ultramarathoner), we all enjoyed either a walk or run along the well-appointed riverwalk.1 Later that same day we enjoyed traversing the waters themselves on the city's water ferry system, taking both the "City Cat[amaran]" and aptly named Kitty Cat, a smaller boat that hopped between closer stops on opposite shores. The ferry took us to the City's free botanic gardens2, and later to Revel Brewing, an absolutely massive brewery set directly riverside with lots of outdoor seating. We "reveled" in the perfect warm weather over several solid brews.

The following morning, we were off again early so we could get Byron Bay for Shadie, Sarah, and Ryan to take a surf lesson in an ideal surf setting, while I enjoyed a jog up to a beautiful white lighthouse. Both were lovely despite continued grey and cloudy weather. Afterward we enjoyed some acai (pronounced aa·saa·ee) a health food specialty of this very hippie town, and also passed by a tree absolutely full of giant, chittering fox bats, their little cute fox faces mostly upside down.3

The next day we grabbed a rental car and started the journey back to Sydney via the Gold Coast. First stop: the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Here there were koalas and a lovely showcasing of many other Australian native species. Sarah was so kind as to include me in her "koala photo experience"; she got to hold the ball of fuzz while I got to stand awkwardly behind and pet his little back. Koalas are pretty benign creatures that apparently need to be actively eating eucalyptus leaves virtually every minute they are awake, so it was funny to watch our lovely conservatory hosts constantly bating them with green branches stowed in giant bunches in their back pockets as the little fellas gripped on to their fawning fans with long back claws. The koalas seemed very much like the also tree-loving, leaf-eating sloth, until we saw one suddenly leap with great agility from one branch to another. We also got up close an personal with Australia's other most famous marsupials, the kangaroos (and wallabies their smaller cousins), entering a paddock where you could pet them on their noses or feed them kibble as they unconcernedly hopped about. Other sightings included a large saltwater croc, which was actively hunting the human host giving a talk guests about his behavior, a cassowary, a tasmanian devil and many types of native parrots and macaw.

I thought you all would enjoy the money shots of koala and kangaroo petting but also the behind the scenes of eucalyptus stuffed back pockets and desperate attempts to get 'roo's attention for the photo ops.

Footnotes:

1) The riverwalk was well-appointed in multiple ways. One of the coolest sites I stumbled upon while jogging, was the Nepalese Peace Pagoda, a fantastically carved wooden pagoda. As the name implies, its from Nepal, commissioned as part of the 1988 World Expo that was hosted here. The boardwalk also featured a "beach" of sand and water adjacent to river itself, appeasing the Australian desire for swimming holes, while giving the river fully over to motor craft. Finally, it also had a lovely run of bougainvillea, strung along an aerial structure for several hundred meters of the path, probably primarily for shade as Brisbane can get quite hot and muggy indeed.

2) We found that high-quality, free botanic gardens were a staple of large (and even medium) size cities through APAC. In New Zealand and Australia, they were especially fond of including rose gardens, but native showings, tropical breed areas, and much more were often on display as well. It made me wonder why this tradition is not at all alive in the United States, where botanic gardens are almost almost always relatively small, behind walls, and allow admission only with a pricey ticket.

3) Like many other wild animals in Australia, we were delighted to see these amazingly giant flying mammals, but locals sometimes viewed them as pests. One of our taxi drivers complained that the bats would sit in trees over his car and poop all over it while making quite a loud racket. Personally, I'd gladly clean the car in order to see these amazing creatures more often.

4) Earlier that day, Ryan had dug up the term "bogan", an Australian slang term that describe certain people that are most likely comparable to the American redneck. The term apparently comes from the Bogan River, which runs just inland of the area in New South Wales we were visiting. We were delighted when the holiday park staff, and again later, a grocery store clerk, self-described as being bogan and we knew what they meant!

The Brisbane River, a map showing us the city and kitty cat routes and the riverside brewery.

Then we were off again early so we could get to get to Port Macquarie (pronounced muh·kwaw·ree after a Sydney Governor) where we were to stay at one of those quintessential quirky road trip spots: a holiday park that featured shipping containers, vintage streamline trailers and tipis as bedrooms. After a nice burger and salad dinner, we enjoyed our own trailer and shipping container although each had some minor maintenance needs that needed to be addressed by the friendly bogan4 staff.

We had a restful evening playing cards in the common area while it poured rain and slipping into slumber in our unique rooms. It was still raining the next day, so we headed straight on south and in-land hoping for the weather to clear. I had read about Kosciuszko National Park, where there was supposed to be nice hiking and good swimming holes. What my research hadn't turned up was the perils along the way. We turned off the main road onto a narrow and windy 2-lane road, which in turn turned into a dirt road, and then we started crossing over depressions in the road accompanied by ominous flood warning signs, and finally came across one that also harbored a knee deep stream running across it and an especially large flood warning sign. We pulled off to evaluate the situation and were soon joined by a whole gaggle of other cars. Several of these were trucks with tail pipes that were like snorkels, and we suddenly put two and two together about why there were so many such vehicles around this country. But none of them were crossing either. We were just about to turn around, deciding it wasn't worth the risk, when a mini-SUV appeared from the other direction and, un-hesitating, plowed right through stream. The spell of uncertainty broke, and all the other cars began to cross. We followed along in our rental car, vowing to turn back if we saw narry a storm cloud in the sky. Luckily the skies stayed blue and we joined a group of cheerful friends who had made their way to Ladies Well, a fantastic swimming hole on the creek with a great cliff-jump. Shadie and I both the got the courage (with some of us taking a bit more time to gather it than others (cough, Shadie, cough)) to leap off the boulder. The swim savvy Australians did not hesitate to leap, including several small children that looked not a day over 5.

We drove a few more hours down the coast and enjoyed a late afternoon hike in Burleigh Heads National Park and then took a queue from the natives and hopping into the water, right where Tallebudgera creek entered the ocean. We may have misjudged the locals' swimming prowess though, since outward tides turned out to be a bit more powerful than expected and nearly swept us all away before we were able to paddle to the sandbars mid-stream! The next adrenaline rush came as we drove the last hour through dumping rain to our airbnb in the tiny town of Teven. Luckily, we made it safely and celebrated with some late night bbqing under their covered carpark.

Our next quirky road trip stop was in the tiny town of Dungog, where we were to stay in a historic Inn, which was also the main town pub, Settlers Arms. The pub was great, serving up local fare and local color and a very easy transition from beer to bed. However, Shadie and I discovered the downside of the whole pub-hotel concept when the other pub-goers' fun kept us up until around 2AM.

So...we got a bit of a late start the next morning, but luckily our main goals were to leisurely in nature: wine tasting and cheese tasting in the Hunter Valley, a region known for its Shiraz. In this endeavor we were generally successful! We also managed to try out Australia's attempt at fast casual Mexican at Zambrero; it was..a'ight. That was a great last full day with Sarah and Ryan before they had to hop back on a plane.