Brisbane

We have now arrived in Brisbane and we are staying on the northside of the
city for four nights. We have previously visited Brisbane so we don't
intend to go all out from a touristic aspect.

Today we put on "city read tidy" clothes rather than beach wear and took the
bus into the city. We had decided that we would take public transport to
give Peter a break from driving, it saved following the GPS into the correct
part of the city, finding a carpark and paying the exorbitant city price
(after all we haven't been in too many cities of this size of late) and just
because we now favour public transport where possible.

We left the car at the caravan park and walked to the bus stop - that was a
challenge in itself as we found that although we were on the correct road
the buses don't stop at every bus stop. We needed to sort out stop the 340
route stopped at and of course that was the most distant. Never mind the
walk was good for us. Once on the bus we were surprised and impressed that
Brisbane has this "Northern Busway". This is a bus-only road which allows
buses to travel north/south through the city without encountering car
traffic. It has opened in stages since 2004 and arrives in the central city
underground before following a further bus-only road to the south of the
city. Apparently it links with the new underground road to Brisbane
Airport. It is a great way to travel and we were most impressed. The cost
$7 return for us so far cheaper than parking in the city.

Once in the city we enjoyed wandering along the shopping precinct area
amongst the lunch time crowds - it felt just so normal. We made our way
down to the river and took the City Cat boat which gives a smooth ride up
and down the river stopping at various riverside areas. The January 2011
Brisbane floods and the breaking of the Brisbane River banks caused mass
evacuation of the Brisbane central business district and surrounding
residential areas. The flooding resulted in 20,000 homes being inundated
and the Brisbane Riverwalk which is a floating walkway over the river broke
up. The Suncorp Stadium which is the major rugby league football stadium
filled with up to two metres of walker. It is amazing that in just twenty
months the city has been able to successfully re-establish the whole area
and now there is no evidence of such a devastating flood.

We travelled downstream on the City Cat and then back to the city - it was
really interesting to see that the master of the catamaran was a young woman
and the deck hand and ticket seller were also women.

A large yellow duck was tied up at the Riverside Restaurant precinct in
readiness for the annual yellow duckie fund raising race. There were quite
a few children on the boat as it is school holidays so they really enjoyed
seeing the duck and some thought the race must have been on, but no.