38) The Big City

We finally succumbed to peer pressure (well, just from one person but he is a Kiwi and bigger than me) who said we HAD to go to the Sat market up in Brissy. As it was dubious weather, no wind, flat surf..... a day in "BRISBANE: The City" seemed like an entertaining option. We first headed to the market in the West End (which may have, at one point, actually been AT the west end of the city. Now it is rather central.) This was where we had been told to start (by our intrepid local - Vandy. Who is actually from NZ. But he knows where all the great food is!)






It is a rather large market, I would estimate 4-5 times the size of the Boulder Mkt, with an abundance of local produce, flowers, arts and crafties, lots and lots and lots of food-things.









Some great artistic clothing..











It is good to see all the local produce - many Brisbanites with little trolleys and wheeled things carting away their week supply of 'veg' (as in 'fruit an veg').

We still find the global distribution of food puzzling. At the local grocery this week we saw that AU garlic was 4 times the price of garlic from Mexico! We needed some lemons midweek (when the market was not open - the lemons from the US were cheaper than the locally grown. Given the price of petrol, I can't figure that out!


Haircut as a spectator activity!

























This was the real reason we came - the Langos - Hungarian frybread with garlic, cheese and hot sauce! (hat is extra). They also had tubular crisp donuts - they swore no place in the US made these!


















A refrigerated trailer with dead animal parts!











Brisbane is cut by the Brisbane River (the dratted obstacle to our success on the mighty Fabled Story Bridge!). The city has made good use of it for transport and has a cheap and regular ferry service across and up and down the river through the city. This makes for a fun excursion as you can buy a return ticket and use jump on and off at any point. "Though the city has an extensive network of transportation system, the Brisbane ferry service is what you must avail. To watch the reflection of the setting sun in the water is an experience to treasure for the entire lifetime. "(http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/australia/brisbane/how-to-get-in/transportation-in-brisbane/brisbane-ferry-service.html)




(that is a permanent 'ferris wheel' on South Bank - tourist attraction).



















The inspiring Kangaroo Cliffs climbing destination from the river












We headed down to UQ - (University of Queensland) one of the 'old sandstones' - the first big AU public universities. Which are built (at least in the original parts) out of, you guessed it: sandstone! Quite an impressive campus taking up a whole meander-bend in the river. Numerous Jacaranda trees (from S. America, originally) provide color against the beautiful aeolian cross-beds of the sandstone.






















"The city of Brisbane in Australia has a local reputation of having a significant population of Jacaranda trees. The University of Queensland in the city's inner west has a very high concentration of the tree, and due to the impressive display of purple flowers in mid-Spring, which wind up littering vast sections of the suburbs, local folklore claims that "one won't start studying for exams until the jacarandas have molted"." --Wikipedia




We then headed down river to the Botanical Gardens - a nice city park with displays of native , and distinctly nonnative species. Many birds--

(Kookaburra to the right,
a Bush Stone-Curlew below)



















A Little Corella









It was a festive place - a group playing cricket in the corner, look there's a bride with her entourage and photog in tow. Look there goes another. And another! This must be wedding party photo central! As we walked the grounds we counted no LESS that a dozen weddings in progress or just finishing. And we got there at 3 pm! This Aussie wedding party toted their own Esky to make it through the photo-shoot!






A Dusky Moorhen






























Art in the park...













We headed back upriver to our car, quite glad to have avoided all the downtown traffic. We didn't have the perfect AU sunset but is a pretty boat ride back to the West End

What is not well known about Brisbane is the extent of the alien population. After dinner, we visited one of the original landing craft. Vandy hooked us into this site on the West End and suggested we might be able to get a tour. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but he swears it it is a hyperspace tesseract ("And He Built A Crooked House") inside with gardens, ballrooms, a seafood bar and a pool... So he says....


(Dirk trying to get beamed up by the aliens masquerading as an street-art exhibit...)



Below -I think they started to open the portal for me but then someone walked on on the street and they stopped.... footage captured here!!!!!

37) Fly Girl

Well Nancy has gone and done it - moved to the darkside. Maybe it was my incessant nattering about the lack (or overabundance ) of wind, my constant checking of http://seabreeze.com.au, or my pricing of flights to western AU where they seem to have perfect kiting conditions every day. But she has gone out to 'the bank' in the Broadwater (a large bay protected by Strakebroke Island) and started the steep learning curve for kite surfing!

It was her Day One - where is the wind window, where is the power zone. (above -Iain from Surf FX explaining the darker arts)
how to steer and how to sheet in/out on a practice kite. How to launch a kite, how to land (properly) a kite, how to not get lofted and end up someplace 'not good'.

I bribed the ferryman (Iain) so I could go out and practice in a fairly good learners area (no waves, few obstacles). It was a fairly lightwind day with some periods of gusty slop. I was less than successful and had two non-recoverable water crashes resulting in getting towed among the house boats in the bay by a non-launchable kite ("You Ok out there?" shouts the man with a stubbie resting on his ample gut as I am dragged past the rear deckof his housebaot in slow-mo..
"Yeah, I'm fine!. Bloody kite is flipped the wrong way!"
"Where ya frum?"
"Colorado - US" says I with my thick accent.
"Having fun?"
"Well, not right now!"
"Well, Its right fine - haven't seen a saltie in here in a couple of minths, so yu outa be OK!"

Great. No crocs in the lagoon. I knew that.
Didn't even offer me a beer....


Back on the beach Nancy flying a 6m Best - oops.


Nancy is crashing a 6m Best!










Learning to steer and NOT get ripped off your feet! (note Guy's hand on the back of her harness holding Nancy down!)
















We are stuck in a lull - apparently quite abnormal for the GC this time of year. We are moving toward cyclone season and should be having hot days with nice steady 20 knots side-shore (coming onshore at an angle) seabreezes.

Instead we have days of no winds followed by southerly gales and rain. Not good conditions to learn in even if there are only a few houseboats to collide with! It is also hard to get to a safe learning place - online forums keep warning about staying away from a certain seawall where a kite could crash in traffic resulting in - it does not bear thinking about. We will happily await conditions to get to to bar where one does not have to worry about tangling a kite with moving cars!

So we await another wind day and I will report on Nancy's progress with body-dragging (yummy!) and her first board day. Now that she is trying this, maybe the wind will favor us. The US election indicates we have turned a corner , right? (Hey - hope is hope...)
Maybe I'll buy her a kite for X-mas (shhh - don't tell her!)

And no pics of me in ignominious lagoon swimming - again! I will overcome!

(All pics from my new Pentax Optio W60 - waterproof! So more ocean sports pics in the future!)

36) A REAL climbing trip!

The guidebook promised a unique and exhilarating experience (only one of four in the world), a full 360 degree uninterrupted panorama, awe inspiring views. This was a real climbing destination (unlike Kangaroo Cliff with its old-world urban charm), a spectacular monolith, an iconic symbol of Down Under itself. A climbing destination worthy of coming half way around the globe.......

After weeks of brutal training and sacrifice, early light saw us trundled into the car, loaded with gear and guidebooks in hand and heading north. We felt pretty fit after weeks of punishing runs in sopping heat, scads of pullups, hill sprints and severely curtailing our Apple Fritter with fresh cream consumption. Little traffic on the MI (which still sounds like a small version of either a gun or a British spy organization) so we buzzed north, ever north, with the haunting call of the Australian outback beckoning us ever onward till finally, after what seemed like an hour, the towering crags of the CBD came into view. A quick consult of the guide, and we headed west. Our destination?

The fabled "Story Bridge" (I can't find the fable actually...)


Opened in 1940 and synonymous with Brisbane, the fabled Story Bridge can now be climbed legally via an award winning commercial climbing operation. Groups of climbers who are fixed to a static line are carefully guided across its structure over a leisurely period of two and a half hours. The knowledgeable guides provide an insightful commentary about the bridge�s history and the characters that built and worked upon it. At the same height as a 22-storey building, the 360� panoramic vista looking across Brisbane and surrounding hinterland is exceptional



In this undated photo from last week, you can see the Australian team topping out on the Wombat Ridge Route (R-skyline) just ahead of the Austrian team (L skyline - the perilous "Windtunnel Arete". The Austrians had been forced into an extended emergency bivy at "The Pass" due to ferocious winds at midday (they were at the one protected spot on the stretch known as "the Abyss"- where a fall will take you and your team dozens of feet down the sheer S face into ---- the river. See detailed route topo below) . This allowed the Aussies, who were obviously much fitter, had better training, and greater beer and sausage sizzle consumption behind them, to sneak a quick refreshing "turp and a slab" to refuel and gain the summit first. We had watched them all day from our bivy at the RiverWalk Cafe - we wanted to have full beta before we made our bid for this elegant and fragile summit. We also hoped to be the first co-ed team to start at the "Point of No Return" and complete the dreaded "Jumping the Shark Tank" traverse down the Koala Ridge--- an incontrovertible prize and well worth the weeks of training and mental preparation - 22 stories - that is a loooong way up! Do we even have enough ropes for the fixed lines the guide talked about? I only brought five 60m ropes over - we may be in for some rope soloing! The morning, which comes too early, will tell!


After a light meal of Grilled Baramundi, crisp greens in an aromatic vinaigrette and a Belgian chocolate mousse with orange shavings we sacked out early in preparation for a dawn start. Nancy was all for making use of the ambient lite conditions but I really felt we would have a better chance not counting on the AU's somewhat sketchy power supply!



We hit our stride early but sadly, the stars were aligned against us. Someplace along the way our navigation went wrong. Nancy, who had the map, told me to turn R so I did. She claims I turned Left (which I did not. I never get those mixed up! We are still squabbling over that.) But at any rate, we were suddenly off the known and planned approach route, on the wrong side of the river and there was no damn place to park! One way streets all over and unreal traffic hazards. People were driving ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! No stop lights - just roundabouts, no signs with speed limits, just "kph" - it was like being in a foreign country!
Now anyone in the right mind, who was writing a guidebook to a famous iconic monolith like this should damn well remember to at least MENTION a frigging river in the guide don't you think!


We did eventually find an approach - of sorts. Here we are geared up at our closet approach point with the icon, the legend , the prize behind us. But it was too late in the day to really make a solid go of it. So close and yet - across the river!

So somewhat devastated we headed for a bakery - after weeks of deprivation an Apple Fritter with Fresh Cream was to be our prize and our solace. We have our memories and some good pictures. It was a dream .. that may still come to pass.

But NEXT time. I bring a GPS navigation unit.

And a boat!

35) The Border Ranges

Another jaunt out to a World Heritage site, this time on the far west part of the Tweed Caldera - the Border Ranges National Park. The drive took us farther west than we have been- the country over there seems really dry, although the ponds are full and there is new growth springing up in the fields.

As we crossed from Queensland to New South Wales (hence "border" ranges) we crossed from logged and developed land to a full blown temperate rain forest. The line of demarcation was so sudden and straight - like a knife cut - it was rather shocking. Fields one minute, top a rise and - bang - you on a winding road through rain forest! We first went to see the "giant Red Cedar," of note because this was the type of tree that started the logging craze in the area. This particular tree is said to be about 1000 years old, and about 48 m in height.
















We started on the Helmholstia Trail. This is famous for it's Helmholstia lillies - a "rare stream lily found only in northeast NSW and south east QLD."















In places it was hard to see the narrow trail as it was slightly overgrown; it was much less used than other park trails we have been on. I was watching out for roots as I jogged along around a corner and saw - quite unnervingly - my first wild AU snake. Dark brown/black, 1.5 m long, scales - that narrows it down to 1/2 dozen or so highly venomous snakes in the bush. I stopped - it cruised into the ferns - I am quite sure it waited there, just off the trail, as I went by. Given the poor lighting and numerous roots and sticks on the trail, my pace slowed considerably after that!


Hmmm - one of those phrases where some slight bit fell out as it crossed the Pacific (much like the common "thinking outside the square...").












Rain forest light on Brindle Creek
















The really pretty cool Versa Falls. Great spot, big lilies, boulders, giant fern trees and a great falls!






















Mt. Warning from the "English Black Butt" overlook (I kid you not! It's a type a of tree, not a disease!)

















Our Friend Wally at Wallabee Run (a horse farm)

34) Bungle in the Jungle

King Parrot on the edge of the park.


Lack of wind and a desire for cooler temps saw us heading into the hills, back up to the rain forest in Springbrook to run. But spring is here and along the way there are a multitude of little stands (or vans!) with folks selling a bit of this, a bit of that - whatever they grow in their yards.

Mango season is almost on us!













We have been getting a fair bit of rain and some real downpours on the GC. The creeks are still pretty full in the park (nowhere the levels we saw during the big floods in June!) It has been a strange season - we have fair rain here but if you go N or west - (just 40 km or do), they have severe water shortages.
















That is the ocean back there (the horizon). This was only a short loop (5 km) - we couldn't do the 17 km loop.. well... it was closed (due to flood damage). Really! (and we probably didn't want to just jump in and run 17 km anyway...)











At least this part of the cliff was safe from falling stuff! Elsewhere the trail runs at the base and you just hop no nitwit drops rock off the trail above!

We did hear a peregrine near here - the jungle can be irritating - we both heard it and tracked it as it screeched through the trees - but we never spotted it!

















My favorite bit of this trail - a long stretch behind the water curtain - this is a place I will be heading for once the big summer monsoon rains hit!












As we finished the loop and Nancy turned around to do it again, she passed a family (who we had just passed as they headed down) the little girl said "Hi again!. Oh look - she's going around again!")

A verdant jungle - moss everywhere.

































A rare and illegal view peering over the top of Purling Brook Falls - I didn't notice the "no admittance" sign until I headed back to the trail. The sign was really quite small and the rocks leading to the edge just beckoned! Would be a bad place to pitch from....














We stopped at our favorite store on the way out - this is a fairly habituated Scarlet Rosella - The King Parrot at the top of the page was also here - quite the nice little birding spot!











But - the REAL reason to go the Springbrook to run - you get to stop at the fudge store on the way back! - Double chocolate and Ginger Fudge pictured!