EC-Rider Travels

I have to confess to being the true ‘tourist’ today and at 10am boarded the great ship Mirimar and headed down the Brisbane River, to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Along the way we had a commentary about the sights of Brisbane, which to be honest were not too memorable, but it was still a nice way to travel and I made some new friends. There is some stunning modern architecture in the city, but appear to be few traditional buildings still standing, more perhaps as we moved through the suburbs. Some areas had some amazing looking homes with beautiful gardens down to the river. We were told that one property we passed was on the market for $44m! The river is a tidal estuary, with four tide changes every day and so is pretty churned up and brown.

There are a number of bridges along the way, one, the Schonell Bridge named after Florence Schonell in recognition of her pioneering work for children with dyslexia.

There was an interesting gas-tower (apparently built in Yorkshire in 1912 and transported in segments to Brisbane) and a few historic houses; perhaps the most interesting being the Regatta Hotel which is rather beautiful and dates back to 1886. It is still run as a hotel having survived several fires and major floods (one going up to the third storey with people tying their boats to its 3rd floor balcony). It is also where a protest by women, in 1965, resulted in women being permitted entry into a bar – this had been prohibited in Queensland until this time! Brisbane sits on a flood plain and has suffered many serious floods, the most significant in 1893 and more recently in 1974, 2011 and 2022 – perhaps the reason for so few historic houses?

As we went further downstream, we passed Queensland University home to 51,000 students and in the world’s top 50 universities. As we left the city, the river became lined with mangroves (which are heavily protected throughout Queensland) and soon arrived at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. The sanctuary was started almost 100 years ago, in 1927, to rescue koalas from being hunted for their furs. It is the oldest sanctuary in the world and cares for over fifty different native animals and birds. Once again it is beautifully laid out and the animals looked well cared for and as happy as they could be in captivity. The kangaroos were ridiculously tame, you could literally walk up to them. I met my first dingo (being taken for a walk) and saw my first duck-billed platypus – so much smaller than I expected.

Sadly the wombats, Tasmanian devils and echidnas were all asleep, but of course it was the koalas we were really there to see. They too were mostly snoozing, sleeping for up to twenty hours a day and eating for four.

I had seen on the website that you could pay to cuddle a koala – so cheesy and touristy, I thought …. but I could not resist. I just don’t know how anything can be so adorable and just loved by 60 seconds with Baron. Queensland is the only state where you can handle a koala, they are however on strict rotation with only 30 mins of hugging a day.

I also rather fell for the white lipped tree-frog, but he was not up for a cuddle!

They did an excellent and informative ‘raptor’ show – who knew New York City had the biggest population of peregrine falcons and that they can fly up to 389km/hr. It was another school day!

We were back by 3.30 which gave me an hour and a half to race around the Queensland Art Gallery where I saw another extraordinary collection of art, mainly modern but a surprising collection of earlier work too with a Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec and a Degas thrown in. The gallery was quiet but one thing I have noticed throughout Oz is how passionate and knowledgeable all the gallery staff are. Even the guy taking the bags knew about all the exhibitions and told me exactly what to do in my limited time. What makes me laugh however is how keen they are on closing time, there is no flexibility here!

I have found Australians so kind and helpful. I obviously look at a loss most of the time as people never stop coming up to ask me if I am ok and point me in the right direction. You feel very safe and well looked after.

This evening saw another first….. I went to see a movie on my own. Can you believe I have never done that before?! It was ok and such a great RomCom from Working Title called What Has Love Got to Do With It? A charming couple kindly came to my rescue and showed me the way out of the shopping mall (now closed!), and I had a delicious salad on my way home, though only just, as last orders are 8.30! As I think I have commented before, everything is very early here. My last night in this very nice Indigo hotel.