Only 24 hours after waving off the in laws I had my bag packed and was at Changi airport again waiting for a flight to Brisbane and to visit my son, in fact not just visit, he and and I had a road trip planned.
I have never been to Australia and was more than excited, on landing I waited at the bus stop to get the transfer to the city and immediately started snapping away, at the birds, the trees and plants just outside the airport, even the car number plates!
It was lovely to see my boy again after 3 months. HT and I met at a little hotel and immediately found their laundry room as after weeks of travelling he hadn't had much time (or money) to get this done. Then we went to explore the city, with a bit of shopping on the way to help re-equip my travelling son with some decent clothes.
I loved the many sculptures we saw around the city
The fine 1930s City Hall in King George Square
Kangaroo sculptures seem popular, these seemed to have been made from car and bike parts
ANZAC memorial with eternal flame
I was excited to see an Ibis strolling through the square, I later came to realise these birds are pretty much everywhere in Oz and considered a nuisance as they raid bins and scatter the rubbish whilst looking for food
We jumped on the free Red City Hopper ferry over to the Southbank getting lovely views of the city on the way
for a little snack... and HT to show me the lovely man made beach and swimming pool that he had previously spent time at, keeps swimmers safe from the sharks in the river!
Once night fell the views of the city and Story Bridge all lit up were even better on our cruise back across the river
Walking up the steps from the ferry HT noticed something move in the bushes, looking round just behind me there was a possum, he frightened the life out of me! They're much bigger than I had realised
The next day we picked up our hire car and set off on the 1000km journey to Sydney. A couple of hours after leaving Brisbane we stopped to visit Stradbroke Island which I had read could be a good spot to try and watch whales from
'Straddie' as it's generally known, is a delightful island with glorious beaches, and nature filled countryside. We took the bus to the far end of the island and headed for Point Lookout
on the way we soon came across a group of kangaroos
when this one stood up on its hind legs and started to box with its front legs we left them to it!
We sat and watched the waves crashing onto the rocks-truly mesmerising, several times we spotted turtles in the water but I failed to get a decent photo of them
more kangaroos or were they wallabies, they were smaller than the last ones we'd seen
At Point Lookout we found a good place to sit and spent the next 2 hours looking out.
First we saw 2 huge Manta Rays, in the 2nd photo they are in the bottom left and surfers in the top right
and then we started noticing splashes in the sea. I was over the moon with excitement-Humpback Whales were leaping up, breaching and crashing down. Really hard to photograph as it happens so quickly and it was hard to judge where they would next surface but absolutely thrilling to watch
It was time to head back to catch the ferry and the sun was starting to go down. We could hear Lorikeets screeching as they came in to roost
and Pelicans and Egrets stood on the sand banks
and we enjoyed a glorious sunset
Having had a lovely day on Stradbroke Island we checked into our hotel which was a bit grim but comfortable, it didn't matter nor spoil our trip and I had to laugh at the sign as we walked into the local pub for supper...
I had only been in Australia for 48hours and had already seen so much and really looking forward to what was still to come
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