When we booked our original around-the-world tickets we decided to hop from Perth over to Brisbane. Leaving out lots and lots of desert in between… and Ares rock unfortunately. We knew it was a bit of a cop-out, but Australia is very big, and we simply didn’t feel we had the time or money to cross it overland. And given that the flight was almost 4 hours long (i.e. further away from London than Moscow, Athens or Lisbon) I think we were right.
So, we skipped neatly over 2 time-zones to land just in time to catch the last train into town in the evening. One thing we did notice either end of the flight was the strange lack of people using public transport. It’s wired – in Perth they have a very convenient and cheap local bus to the domestic terminal but we were the only people on it with travel bags (everyone else was obviously only going to the local housing estates). And in Brisbane things were similar – the train into town was mostly deserted, but the queue to the (empty) taxi rank was over 50 yards long! Very odd.
Anyway, most of our time in Brisbane we’ve spent catching up with one of my friends from Uni that I haven’t seen for years… well, it’s been a little difficult to since she’s moved to Brisbane! Catherine and her husband Ben have really looked after us here. They’ve shown us around Brisbane, driven us to lovely towns, introduced us to local wines and beers, insisted on taking us out for dinner… just been generally fantastic. They even managed to find us some wild kangaroos and possums! Seeing twenty odd kangaroos bouncing around a secure mental health facility was particularly great after our deserted island in Perth (erm, I know, apparently there are always lots of them in the beautiful park maintained for the patients). It brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘hopping mad’! As you might have guessed from this, I got to know Catherine while I was at medical school, and she’s still practicing out here.
Brisbane itself if a lovely city. OK – we did have the benefit of seeing all the nicest bits courtesy of Ben and Catherine! It’s built on the river like Perth, and they have really made an effort to make the waterside area beautiful and used. The shore is filled with parkland, kid’s swimming pools, restaurant-lined walkways, or lively market areas. And I suppose it helps that the weather never seems to be anything but glorious – thankfully it’s a few degrees warmer than Perth here, and the sky never seems to be anything but a deep, brilliant blue. Saying that, we were told that Brisbane has suffered a severe drought for the last two years due to rainfall shortages… so there are drawbacks.
Anyway, our next move is just down to the Gold Coast to Surfer’s Paradise which also sounds a lot of fun (so highly recommended by Ben and Catherine that they’re going to come and join us for a day or so!). And from there we’ll start our trek down south towards Sydney, which will involve the most painful bus ride since Laos…
So, we skipped neatly over 2 time-zones to land just in time to catch the last train into town in the evening. One thing we did notice either end of the flight was the strange lack of people using public transport. It’s wired – in Perth they have a very convenient and cheap local bus to the domestic terminal but we were the only people on it with travel bags (everyone else was obviously only going to the local housing estates). And in Brisbane things were similar – the train into town was mostly deserted, but the queue to the (empty) taxi rank was over 50 yards long! Very odd.
Anyway, most of our time in Brisbane we’ve spent catching up with one of my friends from Uni that I haven’t seen for years… well, it’s been a little difficult to since she’s moved to Brisbane! Catherine and her husband Ben have really looked after us here. They’ve shown us around Brisbane, driven us to lovely towns, introduced us to local wines and beers, insisted on taking us out for dinner… just been generally fantastic. They even managed to find us some wild kangaroos and possums! Seeing twenty odd kangaroos bouncing around a secure mental health facility was particularly great after our deserted island in Perth (erm, I know, apparently there are always lots of them in the beautiful park maintained for the patients). It brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘hopping mad’! As you might have guessed from this, I got to know Catherine while I was at medical school, and she’s still practicing out here.
Brisbane itself if a lovely city. OK – we did have the benefit of seeing all the nicest bits courtesy of Ben and Catherine! It’s built on the river like Perth, and they have really made an effort to make the waterside area beautiful and used. The shore is filled with parkland, kid’s swimming pools, restaurant-lined walkways, or lively market areas. And I suppose it helps that the weather never seems to be anything but glorious – thankfully it’s a few degrees warmer than Perth here, and the sky never seems to be anything but a deep, brilliant blue. Saying that, we were told that Brisbane has suffered a severe drought for the last two years due to rainfall shortages… so there are drawbacks.
Anyway, our next move is just down to the Gold Coast to Surfer’s Paradise which also sounds a lot of fun (so highly recommended by Ben and Catherine that they’re going to come and join us for a day or so!). And from there we’ll start our trek down south towards Sydney, which will involve the most painful bus ride since Laos…
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