Trip to Brisbane

  This trip takes place on the land of the Eora Nation, Jagera and Turrbal people

The last time my friend Nathan was visiting from Brisbane (where he now lives, read more about him on my new 'Cast List' page). We discussed myself and my Wife travelling up to Brisbane for a holiday and to visit himself and his girlfriend Mei. Needing a break from work we booked it in a few months in advance for late May. Upon the time approaching we discussed some of our plans with him, but the distance and living busy lives we didn't communicate too well. 

As the time approaching Nathan let me know where he lived. I replied telling him it wasn't too far from our accommodation. He immediately called me, assuming that we would be staying at his place, wanting to save us money (however it was too late for that). I said because we had booked the trip on our own accord we hadn't 'assumed' anything and didn't want to be a burden or a nuisance. 

My Wife's parents got a Group-On voucher for a French restaurant in Sydney known as 'The Little Snail', which my Wife and I had frequented a few times (the first time after our Euro-Trip, because we were looking for a place to experience snails 'Escargot', for the first time. We organised it to head up to Sydney with them the day before we left, where we would spend the night to catch our morning flight to Brisbane.

We drove up to Waterfall, getting the very last carpark (there was more street parking), and boarding a train towards Town Hall station. We made our way down to Darling Harbour. We had some time to kill still, so we grabbed a takeaway coffee to wander the harbour. While heading in I saw and Ibis for the first time attempting to collect food out of a McDonald's bin (which is why they are colloquially known as 'Bin Chickens'). I felt sad for it, knowing it had simply adapted to urbanisation due to habitat destruction.

We continued along, down past the Maritime Museum, along to where some interesting boats were on display, including the Dutch ship the 'Duyfken' a replica of the first European ship to reach Australia in 1606, Duyfken meaning 'Little Dove' in Dutch.

"What is the Duyfken?
In March 1606, under the command of Willem Janszoon, the 60-tonne vessel sailed from Banda (now in the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku to explore unknown territory in the south for potential trade opportunities. The vessel reached the north of Australia and charted 300km of the west coast of Cape York – unaware they were the first Europeans to visit the continent.

Not only is this voyage the first documented European contact with the Australian mainland, but it’s also the first recorded meeting on Australian soil between the Indigenous people of Australia and Europeans.

Janszoon’s voyage was the first in a succession of Dutch voyages during the 17th century that would culminate in the charting of almost two-thirds of the Australian coastline. It predates James Cook’s voyage on Endeavour by 164 years, yet it is often a forgotten aspect of our history." Citation

It was close enough to our booking time, so we made our way up towards The Little Snail, where I noticed a flag flying along with the Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait flags from the garden island signal mast. It had a white top half, a yellow circle in the centre with a red ring around the yellow circle, a light blue bottom half and a dark blue line separating the two halves (but not passing through the yellow circle). I tried to take a photo (though it was very windy), and reverse search it on Google Images. However, I had no luck finding out what flag it was. If you know, please comment below!

We entered the restaurant, taking a seat and already knowing what we would be getting for our entree, Escargot. 

Funny story about the first time we ever tried it, we both ordered it wanting to be adventurous food-wise. As our bowls came out and we starred at the snails' shells with complete looks of apprehension and fear. I met my Wife's eyes (girlfriend or fiancée at the time, I don't recall).
"You first". She said. 
I picked up my little fork, pulling my first snail out of its shell while I looked at it with a face that was a mix of fear and disgust, as I moved the fork with the little piece of meat reminiscent of a booger towards my mouth, putting it in and chewing, expecting the chewiest texture imaginable. 
I glanced up, nodding my head.
"It actually tastes good." I revealed, explaining that the texture was not chewy, but meaty and the flavour was just that of garlic butter.

We looked through the mains list, and I had tried a lot before, but was feeling a bit adventurous, so decided that I was going to get something difference for once, deciding I would get the seafood plate.
"With mussel and crab?!" My Wife asked me, shocked, knowing I didn't like crab, and was pretty fussy with seafood though had been getting better over the years (to the point where I was better with it than her).
"Yeah, it's deep fried though, so hopefully I will be ok." I said, knowing that at least I liked everything else that came on the plate. We ordered everything at once and our entrees came first, which we enjoyed our Escargot as my Father-in-Law looked on (he had tried them the last time he was there but said he couldn't get his head around them being 'snails').

After all our entrees our mains came out, and it all looked good, except the mussel (just because I think they look pretty unappetising generally).

We all got a drink along with the deal. I got a Shiraz, as the last time we had come to the restaurant I wasn't drinking (after my cancer), and the times we had been before that I wasn't drinking wine yet. (The changes that come with time and age I suppose). I ended up enjoying the beer battered soft shell crab (my first-time enjoying crab), however I ate the mussels, but did not enjoy them, which was more a texture thing than a flavour one, because the restaurant had flavoured them well. However, I don't think I'd have them again unless they were cooked in a way that would maybe alter that really chewy rubber texture. For dessert I couldn't go past the decadent Kahlua infused mousse, topped with a slice of strawberry.

We finished very full and satisfied, heading over Pyrmont Bridge. My Wife's parents were going to head to the train station to head home, while we had originally planned to just hang around Sydney to have dinner out at 'Matcha-Ya', which we had tried to eat at after we attended the March for Forests climate protest in Sydney, however they only did sandwiches for lunch, so we decided to come back for dinner.

However, our backs were killing us, as we were only taking backpacks for our trip to Brisbane, which were stuffed full, incredibly heavy and already pulling on our shoulder muscles from carrying them around the city for the day. We decided to also catch a train out to our accommodation (the Ibis Budget at Mascot), dropping off our bags. We separated from her parents at Town Hall, jumping on a train heading to Mascot.
I suggested that if we encountered any good foods walking to our accommodation we could just eat there instead, but if we didn't find anything interesting, we could trek back out to the city, my Wife agreed.

Straight across from Mascot station, there were ample and numerous restaurants, as we walked past checking out the menus. We continued through, eventually making our way to the Budget Ibis which was right by the airport just as night was falling. We attempted to check in only for the man to tell us we had booked at the regular Ibis (that we had already walked past), 10 minutes back up the road. My Wife was confused because the price we paid was the budget price. We trudged up the road with our backs strained from the bloated packs. Finally, we checked in making our way up to the room and instantly kicking off my shoes to let my sore and swollen feet breath (city walking always exhausts me more than when I go hiking). We looked out our window at the dark street as the lights of the cars drove past, loudly honking. We tried Google Mapping some food places nearby, but both so exhausted we ended up just heading down to the Ibis restaurant and getting pizza and a drink each, heading back upstairs to watch the penultimate episode of Alone Australia season 2 and then an episode of Gruen afterwards, before trying to sleep through the noise for our early start to get to the airport.

After a restless sleep our alarm went off early. We quickly got dressed, checked out and started the city trek in the freezing cold and the dark towards the domestic airport.

Finally getting there, (with some minor rants from my Wife about how poorly laid out it was compared to airports in Europe), we made our way through security, with myself being randomly selected to be swiped (and the inside of my bag), for bomb residue. I was so tired I didn't think about the randomly selected part and thought something had caused them to brush me down. I wondered in my tired mine if there was residue from my flint and magnesium that I had taken camping on occasion in an attempt to make fire from flint. The guy was pretty jovial about the whole thing, having a good sense of humour. 

"Free shoe clean." He joked at me. It was all clear and I was finally able to progress to the terminal. 

"Should we get a coffee?" I asked my Wife. My eyes strained and brain full of fog.
"We don't have time" She answered, and we headed to the terminal for a short wait before boarding the plane.

We got separated in the line to two different people, and as the lady scanned my card, she looked up at me.
"A change of seats. Lucky you." She said, throwing away my old ticket and printing me a new one. I was taken aback, was I going to be separated from my Wife on this flight, like had happened in Iceland? From behind me I heard the man confirming that we were sitting together, as my Wife had also been told we had a change of seats. The lady confirmed and we soon found out we had been upgraded to 'Economy X', which was apparently just economy, but with more leg room, however costing a ridiculous amount more. (I would never pay that for what it was).

After take-off I chucked some headphones in, and the time flew by (literally) and in no time we had arrived in Brisbane.

We left the terminal and the airport, making our way to the 'Airtrain' which we had already booked tickets for. We took this to Central Station, hopping off and crossing the Anzac Square. It was early in the morning, and we couldn't check in until the afternoon. Not only that, but we had an Escape Room booked at Fox in a Box at 1pm (our hotel check in was even after this). We decided to get an idea of the area heading down to where the escape room was and heading through the city from there in search of coffee and breakfast. We ended up grabbing Starbucks on Albert Street. I suggested ducking to a mall for the toilet, where we ended up at the Uptown shopping mall, which we found backed onto our accommodation, the Ibis Styles. We grabbed some snacks and another drink from the local Coles before heading back down the street to walk around and explore the Botanic Gardens.

We sat at a bench resting our backs from our backpacks. We headed left following the path along, already cracking open the drinks we had bought. We turned right along the Brisbane River, on the Bunya walk, enjoying a bit of greenery and seeing if we could identify any plants. We passed the 'Carron cannons'

"Queenslands first artillery 24-pound Carron cannons
In 1862 12 cannons, cast between 1797 and 1810 by the Carron Company ironworks in Scotland, were sent to Brisbane on the immigrant ship Clftton. The cannons were provided to defend the new colony of Queensland and originally set up in Queens Park (now part of the City Botanic Gardens) as a firing battery on the bank of the river.

From the late 1860s the guns were moved to various parts of the colony for defence, training use, signalling or ceremonial firings. By February 1887 only three of the original 12 cannons were left in the Queens Park battery. During the 1880s cannons were sent north to Cooktown, Townsville, Bowen, Cairns and Rockhampton. After the 1900 the majority of the cannons were installed as ornaments in Brisbane, Cooktown and Townsville parks. From the 1980s onwards, cannons have been relocated to St Helena Island, Fort Lytton, Wynnum, Queensland Maritime Museum, and barracks in Townsville and Brisbane.

This cannon, serial number 63914, was cast in 1803. As part of the battery in Queens Park, it was installed in Cameron Rocks Reserve by Hamilton Town Council in 1909. The cannon was in poor condition when it was relocated to Crosby Park depot in 1950, before being set up at Bulimba Power Station on Gibson Island in 1954. In 1982 it was swapped with another cannon that had been restored by the Naval Cadets which is now on display at St Helena Island. The cadets relocated in 2007 and the gun was reinstated in the City Botanic Gardens in 2015."

As we continued along, I spotted my first ever wild Crocodile!

We took another break by a big fig tree, sitting and just looking across the river at the cliffs, where my mind immediately thought about climbing them.

"Across the River
The rocks in the Kangaroo Point cliffs are the debris of an ash flow from an exploding volcano 220 million years ago. The cliffs have been slowly carved by the river and from the 1820s stone was quarried from the cliffs to build the new Brisbane Town.

Wheat was shipped to South America from the wharves across the river. The empty ships returned carrying exotic plants and a ballast cargo of rocks used in the garden's rockeries. Australia's first jacaranda tree arrived in 1864 via one of these ships, thriving in the gardens until 1980.

The naval stores were built in 1887 for the Queensland Marine Defence Force, and then used until the 1980s by the Australian Defence Forces. Today the Kangaroo Point cliffs are an important recreation site for walking, picnicking and rock-climbing."

We continued wandering through the gardens, exploring a rainforest section before returning back along the river, where I talked to my Wife about the mangroves growing down along the river, taking photos of spiders hanging when we stumbled upon them.

We reached the end of the gardens, cutting up past a group of shops along the central path, stopping to sniff at a Hibiscus Garden, continuing through another section with beams that looked like it was built for climbing plants, but had nothing growing on it. It was here I stopped suddenly, as I thought there was a bird statue until I realised it was an actual bird, and there was a few of them, and that I had never seen this bird before. I slowly crept forward to get a good photo (after already taking some bad ones), and instantly uploaded them to the iNaturalist app hoping for them to be identified.

Bush Stone-curlew 'Burhinus grallarius'

We wandered on, past a flower garden, heading on back out the gate we entered through near Oakman's Lagoon, and finally made our way to Fox in a Box where we had organised to do the 'Wild West' themed room, at the suggestion of our usual escape room partners: Stuart and Megan.

It was a cracking room and we really enjoyed ourselves, finding ourselves making good time at solving the puzzles and proudly using only 1 hint on the hint button (we rarely use any as the team of 4). We escaped with 13 minutes and 30 seconds remaining (as the little timestamp on the left of the photo tells you).

We were so thrilled with how fun the room was we started thinking about whether or not we should do more. We highly considered it, with my Wife really interested in doing the 'Zodiac Killer' room and myself wanting to do the 'Lost Legends' room. We began our way to our accommodation feeling hungry, and deciding to get some lunch before we reached the hotel. We passed a Betty's Burgers and I suggested we grab something there (as it was one of the food locations around Bondi Junction when I had to stay in a hotel there, post Stem Cell Transplant that I had meant to get to eat but never ended up trying).

As we sat waiting for our burgers and fries, we looked at what we had planned for a short while in Brisbane. We would be spending the next day (Friday) with Nathan, but the Saturday and Sunday he was working and could only see us after that. so, we decided to book both the Zodiac and Lost Legends rooms, one after the other first thing Saturday morning. (For a full list of escape rooms, I have done read the bottom of my Bucketlist page).

We ate our burgers and fries (that were actually pretty good), stopping in at a bottle shop to grab some Soju to have later that night in our room, and checked in to our hotel, where we were on the 21st floor, with a window overlooking the Brisbane River.

We unpacked our heavy backpacks having a short break and looking up where the restaurant was that we had booked for dinner. We had booked at Kabuki Teppanyaki Restaurant, as my Wife knew I was always interested in attending a Teppanyaki restaurant as I had never done so.

We rested a little, before showering and getting dressed to head out for dinner, which we did with a little trepidation and fear, not knowing what to expect.

As we entered the restaurant, we were sat along a long-curved table with the teppan in front of us, and seat to each side of us, realising that with was going to done with other people, causing our social anxiety and trepidation to heighten further. Soon that cast of our dinner and show revealed themselves. Sitting next to me, on my right, was an older couple, out for their anniversary dinner. To the left of them one empty seat, with two children further over to the right with their mother. To the left of my Wife, on the last seat, was one man on his own with an outrageously thick Australian accent who seemed very cheerful and friendly very enthusiastically talking with staff and to our chef who introduced himself to us as Chef Miguel. "Very Japanese." He joked about his name with us smiling a very infectious smile.

The dinner was a set menu, with us choosing the Tsubaki menu, which included prawn cutlets, beef tenderloin, and teriyaki chicken. As the chef went off to get prepared, my Wife looked at me with total fear, she was out of her comfort zone, and stressed that the man would try and talk with her all night. However, that didn't occur as he was happy enough chatting with staff and ordering shots of saki. Soon a man arrived filling the final seat in between the elderly couple and the children revealing he was the father and that they were out for his birthday.

Soon Miguel was back out preparing our food, all the time joking around and keeping us entertained, slightly alleviating our anxiety through comedy. He asked as all if we were ready before tapping his cooking utensils on the teppan like he was playing the drums before beginning an elaborate act of throwing and catching his knifes and cooking tools, we were all impressed, clapping him on when he began to throw hot oil over it with explosions of flames reaching high into the air. You could feel the warmth of the fire blow against you. He looked up at the man whose birthday it was, apologising and joking that the flames had burnt off his hair (as he was bald). He talked to the family about where they were from and the Mum revealed that she was Irish, and the dad was from Brisbane, but the kids were also Irish. He made his way around the table asking everyone little bits about themselves while he cooked, before having a shocked look at me and also apologising.

We got our first course of prawns (other people getting differing things at different times depending on the menu they picked), and I commented to my Wife that they were really tasty.
The showmanship and comedy didn't stop while all this was continuing, with Miguel asking whoever could guess where he was from would get a prize. I commented under my breath to my Wife that I didn't like guessing where people were from as it felt 'mildly' racist, but then also commented if I was going to guess I'd have said Mexico.

Next up came the chicken, which again was delicious and well cooked, flavoured with his special white powered from Colombia he joked, (it was salt, and the joke was that it was cocaine. I feel sad I have to write this, but just too many people don't get things when I speak to them).
After people around the table continually guessed wrong, someone eventually guessed right with Colombia. Where Miguel filled us in on his story about only coming to Australia to 'learn English' so he could make his way to Japan, but how he ended up getting stuck here during covid.

The beef came next while the man to our left had also order as an extra some Wagyu beef. 
The two of them started talking about travel, with the man saying he had often travelled alone and how he had gone to 'Zihuatanejo' for his friend's wedding, because his friend's favourite movie was 'The Shawshank Redemption' where the characters end up at the end of that film. 

Soon the classic teppanyaki game of catching eggs in a bowl began, with Miguel throwing them at various people (along with throwing us all empty bowls to prepare to catch) and then stopping to resume cooking. I decided the little bowl of seaweed I had next to my bowl of sauces was just for whenever I felt like it, so began eating at it with my chopsticks, keeping a watchful eye on Miguel lest he lob an egg at me, with my left hand holding on to my little empty bowl. Soon my Wife received hers, catching it, next up was my turn, however, the egg hit the side of my bowl, cracking spilling more raw egg on my Wife than on me, but not t0o much and we were impressed by the staff who ran around cleaning any messes up very fast.

Miguel began cooking eggs, and rice, continuing to put on a show providing us with laughs, including drawing an arrow going through a love heart with the salt in front of the couple for their anniversary.

Next up Miguel was wanting people to catch pieces of cooked egg with their mouths as he flicked up little pieces for us. 
I was personally slapped in the face with a piece of egg 3 times, so close yet so far. The older gentlemen had it bounce in and out of his mouth. 
He wanted to do it for the kids who looked terrified, so he told them to come closer, getting them to close their eyes so he could secretly drop the piece of egg in their mouth with chopsticks. However, even doing this it bounced off the side of the kids mouth and landed on the ground leading to much laughter at the table. He gave me a fourth attempt and this time I succeeded in catching the egg in my mouth much to my own pleasure.

Soon he was serving us up massive portions of egg fried rice and asked us if we were local.
"No." I told him. Explaining that we were from New South Wales, a place called 'Wollongong'.
The elder couple was shocked, explaining that they originally were from Penrith and asking why we were in Brisbane.
I explained it was just a holiday and that my mate worked on the 'Go Boats'. I mentioned something about only seeing the river and not being to a beach.
"Oh, there's no beach in Brisbane." The man explained to me, which shocked me as I assumed there would be.
"Everywhere on the coast has beaches." I thought, not really having a geographic understanding of where Brisbane was or knowing much about Brisbane at all.

Soon Miguel thanked us for coming and we thanked him, certain people grabbing a photo with him within the restaurant.

A rare photo of me without my beanie or hat

Soon we had a staff member come around and tell us that there would be another seating up soon, but that we were welcome to stay in the restaurant, just moving to a different section. I looked at the time, it was almost 7:30 and the Survivor (US) season 46 finale was about to begin soon.
"We can just make it back in time." I said to my Wife, who was wearing heels. I wished the couple a happy anniversary, we paid the bill, and I rushed my Wife through the streets back to our room to watch the Survivor finale. (If you've read through any of my old blogs, I have sometimes mentioned being a big Survivor fan, I've watched it since I was 9 years old, the majority of my life now, and have applied for the Australian version with yet no success).

We sat down watching, drinking our Soju and relaxing, with our blinds open to a night view over the river, all lit up.

After Survivor ended, we closed the blinds and rolled over to sleep, ready to catch up with my friend Nathan the following morning.

The following morning we awoke, and began looking on Google Maps for a good place to get coffee. Soon Nathan messaged me saying he would pick us up and take us to the café where his girlfriend Mei worked. I was hungry for breakfast and had terrible brain fog and wanted my morning coffee, but we put off going out instead relaxing in bed doing morning puzzles (wordle, quordle, connections etc).

We showered and got ready to go out, waiting out the front of the Ibis hotel on the street as Nathan drove around the corner and greeted us. It was good to see him and I jumped in the front seat and we immediately started catching up, as he drove us through the streets of Brisbane automatically in tour operator mode telling us things about the city, recommending things and throwing out suggestions of things to do together.

We soon arrived at 'The Coffee Commune' a neat little café. Nathan said that while the place was really good, parking was a bit of a difficulty there. We walked in and were immediately greeted by Mei who was working as we sat at a booth with Nathan buying us both coffee, while he told us he was having issues with his phone and was unable to get mobile data (through Aldi mobile), and that he needed it to pay and use GPS so he had been trying to call up and figure it out which is why he'd gotten us a bit later than planned. Soon our coffee came as we looked through deciding what to get to eat for breakfast.

Nathan explained that a lot of the items on the menu were named after the staff, such as the 'Made for Mei' which my Wife ended up ordering (I got the brekky burger). There was an item on the menu called the 'Boxer Brekky', and Nathan explained that there was a boxing gym up the road who always came and order the same thing so to make it easier they just added it to the menu.

Soon our food came and Nathan had disappeared, trying to sign himself into the local Wi-Fi so that he could pay using his phone. I was pretty full after my burger, but had to help my Wife finish hers as she was filling up. I tried a piece of chorizo commenting on how flavourful it was compared to ones we could buy and that it had a lot more spice. I ordered myself another coffee, which Nathan tried to pay for once more but I didn't allow him, and as people passed through, Nathan struck up conversations with them obviously knowing them all really well (nobody knows me when I go anywhere, that's what being anti-social gets you!). One of the ladies was from Italy and he told her that we were giving information for their Euro-Trip with a majority stay in Italy. We mentioned that we had only really been to Rome, and that it was just for a few days so he would have to fill up in on his trip when he returned.

We finished our coffee and Nathan wanted to give us a tour of the pack of house where they did all their own industrial bean roasting (I'd never been to a café like it), but they were pretty busy and so we waved goodbye to Mei, telling her we'd see her after work as we set of to Nathan's work at the Go Boats to explore the Brisbane River.

His work was not far away at all, just near the Mercedes-Benz building. As we made our way down we stopped to apply sunscreen while Nathan went down to organise and get the boat ready.

When it was ready we told Nathan we had been watching the video of him on the Today Show on the train on the way up to Sydney.

He began telling us how violent ill he actually was that day with a really bad chest infection.

As we hopped on and set off I asked if we were on the Brisbane River and Nathan told us we were on 'Breakfast Creek'. 

We headed out under Breakfast Bridge where I noticed a pillar to my left (I was facing the back of the boat towards Nathan), that had an Bald Eagle on top, looking very American. I then noticed it was called 'Lydon B. Johnson' place after the 36th United States President, who my Wife and I had only a few weeks before watched a film where Bryan Cranston had played the president. 

As we left the creek entering the Brisbane River, Nathan began to speed up the boat as we zipped up river.
"How fast are we going?" I asked him.
"About 60km/h" He responded back, as we bounced up a wave and I held on to my hat. There was a seat facing across from where the two of us were sitting, just in front of Nathan so I swapped places to take a photo of my Wife, who then took one of Nathan and I.

We continued up the river, with Nathan pointing out various locations including a big pink painted mansion he joked was the 'Barbie House'. I joked that Margot Robbie lived there and he started telling me he used to work with someone who's 'claim to fame' was that they had taken out Magot Robbie's parents on a boat.

We continued racing up the river and I thought we where going pretty fast for an electric boat. I looked back at the motor and asked "Is that a petrol motor?"

He confirmed it was, saying we weren't out on the regular Go Boats you hire, but the one the staff use on the river.

As we passed a Jet skier I pointed it out as I have always wanted to ride a Jet ski. However, the guy riding saw me looking, slowing done his jet ski and aggressively yelling in a bogan and degenerate fashion "What?! What!? What are you looking at!" He was obviously some overly aggressive moron with either fetal alcohol syndrome or with too much exposure to lead. (With Nathan explaining most people on the water hate jet skiers).

We made our way past Story Bridge (which Nathan said he had seen written in historic documents both with and without and E in the word Story), and he pointed out Felons Brewing saying that the company that owned it had a monopoly along this side of the river. 
"They're felons!" I joked, wondering if the brewery offered any stouts.

We continued along past the Botanic Gardens and Kangaroo Point where there were a bunch of people Kayaking and I once more looked at the cliff face longingly, thinking it would be cool to head around there to go for a climb. 

We passed many places along the way getting repair work done from all the severe flooding that had occurred in Brisbane, with Nathan telling us he had been out on the boat during it to assist and how intense the whole situation had been.

We continued on past our hotel with the Museum and Art Gallery on the opposite side of the river to us, which Nathan suggested we visit on the Saturday and Sunday during the day (as he was having to drive down to the Gold Coast for some Boat show for work). Further up the river on the same side as the museum and gallery there where a bunch of tents where homeless people were living.

Nathan asked if I felt good and wanted to drive, so I hopped up swapping places with him and I continued driving us up river.

Once Nathan saw I was capable of handling the boat fine (I grew up driving my Dad's tinny around Lake Illawarra), he relaxed, sitting down allowing me complete control as I pushed the speed up to max capacity.

As other boats made their way up and down the river, I would adjust the speed and make sure to go over the wave created by their boats on a diagonal angle.

"Do a donut." Nathan said at one point as I bent sharply turning the boat and heading back down the direction we had come.
Nathan looked sad. "You didn't complete it." He said.
My tired mind finally computer that a donut was 360 degrees, not a sharp U-Turn, so I suggested I would go again, doing one before Nathan suggested we head back so I drove us back down to river.
"You have to have a turn." He said to my Wife, but she had no interest in having a go driving, content to just be a passenger. As we headed back down a boat approached on the right hand side (the opposite side they should have been on) as in boating you are supposed to keep right. I tried to go further right, but so did they and I could see we would end up having a collision. Nathan instructed me to hold my position as that is what you are meant to do on the water, but I could see the people in the other boat and no fucking idea what they were doing so I stuck to the left of them while they passed close to the shoreline. 
Nathan commented that the maritime world was a bit of a 'wild west' which I found a little amusing give the theme of the escape room I had just done.

As we approached back at the section where the museum and art gallery were Nathan once more took over driving as there was a lot more river traffic through this section.

As we passed New Farm park Nathan got us on some choppy water, giving that boat that bouncing jumpy feel, mentioning that he had once come clean out of the water, but we wouldn't be able to do that with the weight of the three of us in the boat. He also told us he had once it a submerged log causing him to come out and do a complete 360 in the air which left him terrified.

He did a couple of really fast and tight 'donuts' and I held the side rail and my hat, before continuing back into Breakfast Creek, and pulling the boat back up where it was stored.

We thanked Nathan for the great time on the river, well aware of how much that would have cost if we'd paid for it. We headed back to his place for a wind down and a catch up, chatting as he filled us in on some of the stuff he had planned for his trip while he made a few calls do Aldi Mobile to try and get his data back on. We could hear him from the other room and he soon came out frustrated.
"She hung up on me!" She said, saying that he kept telling the woman his mobile data was down but she kept saying that home Wi-Fi might be affected, but he kept telling her his home Wi-Fi was not with Aldi and then she ended up hanging up on him. 

We headed down the street from where he lived to Agnes Bakery, where my Wife and I got a lamb and harissa with smoked labneh sausage roll and a cardamom and blackberry kouign amann to share, which we took back to Nathan's to eat outside on his balcony while we continued chatting and catching up.

"Man that sausage roll is rich and flavour and very filling." I said, allowing my Wife to eat the majority of the Kouign amann, as I had filled up.
Nathan suggested we could head up the road to Felons Brewing as it wasn't too far, and always keen for an interesting beer I nodded in agreement, making sure to grab a NSW Rock out of my backpack that I could place somewhere up in Brisbane. 
I grabbed one I had painted like a lady-beetle and placed it ion front of somebody's home underneath a flower, explaining what they were to Nathan and how I had accumulated too many and needed to start distributing them on walks and travels.

We headed up a hill and came onto Bowen Terrace overlooking Felons Brewing. We headed towards Story (Storey?) Bridge and down a lift, grabbing some good seats overlooking the river as dark clouds formed overhead and I commented that I thought it looked like rain was coming.

Nathan and I headed in to buy some drinks while my Wife remained keeping our seats. We entered in looking at the drinks menu when Nathan asked the bartended if he had any stouts, knowing full well I like a good stout. He said he had a new one coming in about a week, and so I ordered a lager, Nathan a pale ale and grabbed my Wife a cider.

Nathan decided he was hungry, ordering some chips with the QR code to be brought to our bench, but then it began to rain so we moved across to a table that had an umbrella, soon the chips came and Nathan offered us some and we waved him down telling him they were his chips.
We finished our beers and decided to grab another (my Wife not wanting any more to drink). Nathan and I headed in, trying to decide what else to try with the bartended suggesting the 'Jonze Juice', a hazy pale that had been created in collaboration with the Brisbane Street Art Festival. He offered us a sample of it (as I was dubious, not really a fan of hazy pale ales), but it was milder and less intense with the flavour of hops and so we both ordered that, heading back to the table, where soon the alcohol had brought back out hunger so we both started tucking in to Nathan's chips like greedy seagulls.

After finishing we decided to head back to Nathan's and wait for Mei to finish work, so we made our way back up the lift and onto the street with Nathan turning around wanting to get a photo of the two of us with Story Bridge. As he went to take it he joked that my 'fly was undone' a photo after me checking and making sure it wasn't and laughing.

We headed back to Nathan's, where he had a chess board sitting out on his table. I suggested a game and we began playing. With myself starting off as ultra aggressive while he played conservatively. 

Shortly into our game Mei arrived home, and we took a little break while Nathan and Mei thought about where the four of us would go for dinner, eventually deciding on a ramen place, while Mei hopped in the shower, Nathan and I continued our game of chess. Eventually Mei came out and our game was still afoot, and we were pretty even, both having lost significant pieces and it was really anyone's game. Every time one of us thought we had made a good move the other player would move a piece, making them regret their actions. Nathan soon moved his king and I moved a piece showing that my piece would take it saying "checkmate". But I was told in an actual game of chess that would be 'check' and he couldn't move is King into that position and so we reset a move and continued on. Soon without either of us realising Nathan had placed me in a position where I would not move my King out of check, therefore having a legitimate 'checkmate' and winning a well fought game of chess (although I hate losing!).

Mei had poured herself a glass of red wine, and as I read the back of the bottle she offered me a glass. Being the raging alcoholic I couldn't resist, asking my Wife for a photo with Nathan as every time we had caught up over the years we had forgotten to grab one.

We finished our drinks and headed out for dinner at Taro's Ramen, where I got a Fire Tonkotsu Ramen and a can of black beer. We all ate and chatted, making jokes and it was nice to be out and socialising.

We discussed art (as Nathan is big on art) and him and my Wife agreed on the sort of abstract art they enjoy (which I don't) while Nathan recommended we go to Mona in Tasmania, saying it was the highlight of his trip their (though Mei hated it). As we headed off from dinner, Nathan and Mei wanted to take us for ice cream, driving to a location that had a huge line out the front of it of incredibly well-dressed people (clubbing and sexy well-dressed, not like businessman well-dressed). They didn't want to wait, and as Nathan had to be up early to drive to the Gold Coast for work, we stopped in at his to collect my backpack and said goodbye to the two of them saying we would see them the following night.

As he dropped us, we headed up to our room where I could hear loud music (surprising me from 21 floors up). I looked out our window over the city and could see a large gathering of people and food trucks over at a section known as Brisbane City Markets (or Reddacliff Place). We decided we wouldn't be able to rest with the loud bass and decided to head down and see what was going on.

As we arrived the place was filled with Latin people dancing and food trucks. We were the only two white people around and I didn't know quite what we had walked into. We inspected the food trucks but were still full of the ramen and decided to go for a walk across the Victoria Bridge to inspect the South Bank and see where the museum and art galleries were.

We crossed over heading down Grey street and turning up Russell street to arrive at 'The Wheel of Brisbane' which I kept calling in my head 'The Brisbane Eye' after the famous 'London Eye'. We made our way down to the path by the water which we followed along heading south, looking back towards the lit up Victoria Bridge.

We continued along and I was surprised by the amount of people out. There were older couples on strolls together, families with kids, tourists, lots of young couples hooking up and being a bit frisky for a public space, as well as some dingy sorts of characters who were either drunk or on drugs.

Continuing down we came across a Nepalese Peace Pagoda that I thought looked cool, and wondered out loud if there was a 'prayer wheel'.

"Why is the Nepalese Peace Pagoda at South Bank Parklands?

The Nepalese Peace Pagoda was originally commissioned and installed at South Bank for Expo 88. Following its success, it became a coveted item, with several international bidders vying to keep it. It remains here today thanks to a generous donation from philanthropists Frank and Myra Pitt, in addition to contributions from Brisbane locals, the Australian Government and Brisbane City Council."

"A Hand-Carved Treasure
The Nepalese Peace Pagoda was commissioned by the Association to Preserve Asian Culture, on behalf of the Kingdom of Nepal. It was designed to showcase Nepal's distinguished woodcarving heritage and it has several defining features - it is a close replica of the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, it is the only Nepalese Peace Pagoda in Australia, and is one of the only three Peace Pagodas outside Nepal.

Making the Pagoda was no easy feat - it took 160 craftsmen from Kathmandu Valley two whole years to hand-carve it! To make it, they used more than 80 tonnes of Terai Forest timber from Nepal's southern jungles."


"Peace Pagodas
A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist monument to unite all people for world peace. There are more than eight Peace Pagodas around the world and they can be found in India, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Germany, Austria, Italy, England, Latvia, Canada, Mexico, the United States of America and Australia. Peace Pagodas can be powerful symbols of peace, such as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki where they were built after the destruction of these cities by atomic bombs in World War II.

We have the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order, led by Japanese Buddhist Monk Nichidatsu Fujii (1885-1985), to thank for many of these Peace Pagodas, including at the Lumbini Buddhist pilgrimage World Heritage Site in Nepal. Fujii devoted his life to promoting world peace through the construction of Peace Pagodas after meeting Mahatma Gandhi in 1931."

As we walked through inspecting the place in the dark on our own as we came around the back there was one person sitting alone, silently in the dark, so we made our way out from the pagoda, heading through the rainforest walk.

 

There were all families with kids running through here, so I tried to take a picture without them in it. As I turned to my left in a section the public wasn't meant to go in I noticed two teens (or young adults, it's getting hard to guess ages as I get older), getting pretty frisky, hooking up and coping various feels of each other. I looked up and noticed the area was full of security cameras that would probably capture their every action.

We came out the opposite side following a path along past two younger girls (again teens or young adults), making really lame (and what I assumed was) TikTok videos, in the really lame style. I thought to myself that I didn't get the entertainment value of it, why everyone did it, and questioned if I was now one of those old out of touch men, or if this new generation just liked things that were boring and dull as shit, concluding that I of course, was right. We saw bright lights shinning through another forest walkway leading back towards the river, cutting through, and stopping to take a selfie together (but not a dance routine and mimed lyrics).

We continued down a fair way, stopping at an ice cream stall where my Wife got an ice cream and I got a honeycomb milkshake. We passed by the manmade beaches all along here finding the design of the whole thing really cool.
"See Brisbane does have a beach." I told my Wife, while also remarking that it was surprising that it was just open for use at night with no one around (I was also surprised that no one was in it).

We continued down to the Epicurious Garden, where we walked around looking at plants until inside a little bit where two men off their faces on drugs and my Wife didn't feel safe continuing in any further, so we walked back to the river, coming to the OTTO Ristorante, before turning around and heading back, where I looked up that the museum and art gallery were on the other side of the bridge (still on South Bank, just heading north) and we had passed right by them.

We headed back to the bridge past even more young couples hooking up (Brisbane, the city of love?), and made our way across the bridge past the Latin dancing where the music had now ramped up and was even louder.

We headed back up to a room, where I tried to look up what the deal was. I discovered it was 'Friday Latin Nights', a recurring event, that ran until 11pm. Figuring we wouldn't sleep before then, we decided to crack open our third and final bottle of soju, just chucking on the TV (while idling on our phones). Soon 11pm came and the music began to die down as my Wife fell asleep cuddling into me while I finished the episode of South Park that was on TV. I rolled her off, closing the blinds, and head to bed myself.

The following morning we awoke, and it was pouring with rain. 

We sat around looking about where to get a coffee, before finding the closest one that was open was just inside the mall (named Wake Up Speciality Coffee) on the back of where we were staying, which was good given the weather. We headed in grabbing a coffee and a matcha each, along with something to eat. the man who served us was very friendly and helpful offering my wife cream or butter with her pastry and asking me if I would like sauce or chutney with my spinach and ricotta roll. The coffee was really good and my Wife loved her matcha, however halfway through I had a bowel movement and had to rush to the toilet leaving my Wife sitting along for a solid 20 minutes, and when I came back we now had to rush to Fox in a Box to make it to the Zodiac Room.

This room was a little different to the Western room (and I don't just mean the theme). The puzzles where very visual and cryptic and we found a few red-herrings in the room. We had killed too much time at the start and ended up really using more clues then we would have liked (I'd rather have it clued the shit out of then fail). We ended up just getting our with 1 minute and 48 seconds to spare, both of us commenting that we really could have used Stuart within that room.

Our game master said goodbye but we told him we had booked the Chamber of Lost Legends next, which he commented was one of their harder rooms, lightly crushing our souls given how poorly we had just done.

As we waited in the waiting rooms hordes of groups poured in, and he had to just to a large group announcement about do's and don'ts within the room, as one by one game master came to take large groups away, until it was just us, and another couple. They were ready to do the Zodiac room which we explained we had only just done. The girl asked if it was hard, implying she was hungover. I mentioned we had to use a lot of clues and only just got out in time, as our game master called us and we began our third room.

It was a hard start (needing a clue to begin the first puzzle) but we did find ourselves in a bit of a rhythm, up until we made it into a second room. In here, we became unstuck, particularly looking at the timer count down. We asked for a few clues and were able to figure somethings out (but really would have benefited in this room from a bigger group to have eyes everywhere). In the end we were able to escape with almost 4 minutes left, but felt like the room would have benefited from having a bit of a longer time to do it, that we we could have taken the time to work through things and not panic for a clue.

We left slightly annoyed and disappointed with ourselves, discussing over some puzzles and puzzle mechanics while also wishing Stuart and Megan were there, feeling like us our core escape room four we could have smashed those rooms.

I mentioned I suggested doing some rooms with Nathan and Mei (who had only done one room ever and told me they had bombed hard), but that we would just see if we had time to do one, not wanting to push them into doing it (we never ended up doing one with those two, maybe another time).

The rain had stopped now and we made our way to the museum as we had planned today, I suggested getting lunch first, as we walked by Mr Edwards Alehouse and Kitchen and grabbed a burger and a pint from there, while we sat still discussing the two rooms.

After finishing we made our way in to the museum (which was free) which also has a special exhibit of lego Jurassic World creations. Now, I'm a huge Jurassic Park fan, but not huge on lego, and they had some out on display for free (the special exhibit was a paid one), but I wasn't interested in paying to see lego creations (if it where props from the movie franchise that might be a different story).

As we wandered through the museum, that was running wild with feral children pressing up against everything inside a glass container, with their runny noses, coughing and spluttering, I hoped we wouldn't catch covid again, although being in Australia this time, I would be able to get myself antivirals.

I found that in a short time I had taken photos of both a Great White Shark and a Giant Squid, and realised I had better stop myself because I couldn't blog and document about everything in the museum that I had I read up about, that is up to you dear reader (read that like Lady Whistledown please).

We walked through a section about bugs, beetles, insects and the like, before heading through a section on indigenous stone fish traps, before entering the dinosaur section (not the Jurassic World lego), which got both myself and all the children giddy with excitement that I forgot that I was going to try not to take more photos.

We spent some time in here, because the dinosaur nerd in me wanted to read and take in everything. We progressed upstairs to a section filled with fauna and a lot of taxidermy animals. I took my last photo when I read up on the 'Investigator Tree' which I had never heard of before.

"The Fate of the Investigator Tree
The Investigator Tree stood on Sweers Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, a recognised watering point for 19th century maritime explorers. Many carved their marks into the tree.
Mathew Flinders' crew carved the name of their ship HMS Investigator in 1802. One of Australia's most important explorers, Flinders mapped the Australian coastline during his famous 1801-1803 voyage.
In 1841 Lieutenant John Stokes, commanding HMS Beagle, carved the words 'BEAGLE 1841'. The Beagle is famous for its 1831-1836 voyage carrying Charles Darwin, who later formed his theory of evolution from observations made while onboard.
A.C. Gregory's North Australian Expedition crew recognised the importance of the tree in 1856. Seeing Flinders' inscription becoming faint, they carved the word 'INVESTIGATOR' below the original inscription, which you can still see today. The crew also inscribed their names across various branches.
In 1861, members of William Landsborough's expedition, searching for lost explorers Burke and Wills, carved their names. The first European settlers on Sweers Island added their names until the tree suffered storm damage in 1887.
While this section of the tree was donated to Queensland Museum in 1889, a second section, without carving was donated in 2009."

We headed straight from here to the art gallery which was much more docile and subdued, with fewer people, walking around slightly looking at the art, all the while under the prying eyes of a lot more security.
"Weird they care more about some crap art then historical objects." I said, confused by the things humans choose to value, believing history is much more important.
Every art I stopped to admire and genuinely liked my Wife did not, instead liking canvas or random colour, which I though held no meaning or skill (art works generally divide people).

I took only one photo of a ceramic art of pigs in a swimming pool, just because I found it amusing.

We exited the museum, crossing over to the library so I could grab a coffee, before making our way back to our accommodation for a little rest before Nathan picked us up for the afternoon.

As we proceeded back past Queens Gardens (which we could also view from our window), there was a large protest occurring. We watched the crowds grow larger from our window as we could begin to hear people yelling from microphones, deciding to look up what the protest was about.

We learned that the protest was about some digital ID law in Brisbane (which I didn't really get as I am from NSW, and we have digital ID and it's not an issue?). Soon my Wife told me that it was organised by the 'One Nation' party.
"Ah say no more." I said, knowing that they were probably a bunch of wack jobs, later learning that Malcolm Roberts, the dude who argued science with Professor Brian Cox, was there. (The dude is a complete moron.)

My Wife suggested we got to 'Eat Street Brisbane' at Northshore for dinner, as many people she works with had recommended it to her. So, I suggested it to Nathan who was keen. 
Later that night Nathan collected us, driving over to Northshore where Eat Street was. 

There was an entry fee to get in and I covered the cost of the two of them seeing as it was us who wanted to go.
The place was large and very busy as we wanted through the hordes of people looking at what to eat. I instantly found a Wing food truck that did 'The Chillogy' which apparently had 3 of the hottest chillis available in Australia and was over 1 million Scoville. I made a note to myself to get that later in the night.
As we made our way through, we came to a venue with loud music and a saxophone player, where Mei decided on getting some Korean Fried Chicken and my Wife did to wanting to share it with me.
"I'm already going to be getting chicken later in the night." I explained, feeling like we had barely walked through and looked at options yet. She tried to argue we would 'buy a couple of different things." 
I relented lining up to order the chicken. Nathan disappeared and as I checked my phone, he had messaged taking a photo of a drinks menu at a food truck asking what we wanted. I told him not to get anything that we 'might get a drink later, even though I noticed a milk stout on the menu I didn't want him to fork out for drinks. As our chicken was ready and we collected Nathan approached having bought drinks for everyone (including the brouhaha milk stout for me!).

We found a table across in a different section with a man DJing. The food were decent portions, and I knew we probably wouldn't end up buying more, but we slowly worked our way past all the stalls (keeping an eye out for dessert), with Nathan wanting to take a photo of us at a the Eat Street Face Hole cutout thingy-ma-bob (I don't know if they have an actual name).

My Wife saw some matcha Japanese pancake souffles being made near here and decided to order them for her dessert. We told Nathan and Mei we would meet up with them as I waited with my Wife, which was taking forever. I told her I would go now and order my spicy wings, and if she was done before me where to meet us. My Wings were done first, and I started making my way back to my Wife at the opposite side of Eat Street, however she got hers in time and we just passed each other by a loud band singing songs from Moana. Nathan and Mei had grabbed a table behind this stage and when my Wife and I found each other we made our way to them, joining them at the table overlooking the river.

I started tucking into my wings, which had heat, but nothing compared to what I usually eat. Nathan looked on at me in amazement, while I told him they really weren't that hot, while recapping some of my chilli eating challenges I had taken on over the years. As a man was walking past Nathan asked him to take a photo of the four of us.

As we went to leave, we decided to get some candied fruit, deciding on the candied strawberry (it was like tiny toffee apples... but with strawberries, and I love toffee apples!)

As we exited making our way back to Nathan's car, we passed a group of young attractive girls out celebrating for a hen's night. They seemed drunk and were all loud and obnoxiously singing, with one of them blatantly lifting her short dress and flashing her underwear. We shook our heads at them, and Nathan began driving us back to our accommodation as he once more had to be up early to drive down to the Gold Coast. As we headed through the city and were stopped at a red light, we could loudly hear someone preaching in the street about God and religion, though I looked around and could not see where it was coming from.

As Nathan pulled up outside our hotel there was a large line of flight attendants waiting for the lift and I needed the toilet so said we would duck into the mall. Nathan and Mei waved goodbye and said they would have us over the following night, and Mei would cook us dinner.
We headed down to the mall only to find the entryway was closed, and as we walked back to our hotel the line for the lift had already vanished so we made our way up to our room to shower and get ready for bed, while I thought about things to do the following morning as we had a reservation at 'Madame Wu', a restaurant at 12.15pm, so anything we wanted to do we would have to fit in before that.

I found a company that did the rock climbing over at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, but it ran for about 2 hours and felt bad that I would do something on my own without my Wife, on a shared holiday, so I never ended up doing it. We just wound down in bed with some TV before closing the blinds of our wonderful nighttime view of the city and went to sleep. 

We awoke the next day, heading back to Wake Up Specialty Coffee where the man remembered our coffee orders from the previous day, (I've never once had my order remembered even at the cafe at my work). I told him I would grab a large this time (having gotten a medium the day before), however we got take away ones as we wanted to relax back in our room. We grabbed a cheese and cranberry sauce toasted sandwich to have for breakfast and headed back to our room, where we laid in bed doing morning puzzles and waiting around.

I felt a little annoyed, like we could not really do much with this middle of the day lunch at Madam Wu, and I could feel myself getting cranky and like I was wasting holiday time just sitting in a room, thinking I could be rock climbing instead of laying around in bed. I tried to let it go, realising it was a shared holiday, and I had to try not to be so selfish. Eventually our lunch date time came around, so we got dressed, making our way through the streets to our reservation at Madame Wu.

As we got seated at our table overlooking the Brisbane River (and we could see Felons Brewing!), my Wife asked if we should take a selfie, as I held the phone to do it a staff member offered and took one for us. 

We had the 'Sunday Best' banquet meal explained that we got served the food on the menu, and we had a drinks package, and could have all the drinks we wanted within that 2-hour time. We both ordered a 'Japanese Slipper' cocktail, as our first menu item was brought out.

Kingfish sashimi, avocado puree, and lemon aspen ponzu

It was nice, but I seem to struggle more with the texture of sashimi than my Wife (who seemed to struggle with all other seafood more than me). Our Japanese slipper game our and it was sweet and tasty, and we guzzled it down a treat, ordering our next cocktail, a watermelon seltzer.

Next another two entrees were delivered to our table.

Tang Sui Chicken Ribs and Steamed Duck Buns

We had ordered an extra banquet add on, of Pork and Prawn Dumplings, Corn Puree, Black Vinegar and Chilli Oil which was the next to arrive along with our second cocktail.

All the food so far had been fantastic, and the watermelon seltzer was super light and refreshing. My Wife ordered another one while we waited on our mains, but I decided to try another different drink, ordering a 'Missing Summer' cocktail.

Soon all our mains were brought out at once, two being placed on our table, and the other two on the little side table next to us. On our main table we had the Carrara Wagyu, stir fried with Mustard Greens, and Piju Yu, Rice Crusted Barramundi braised in Tsingtao Beer.

The wagyu was delicious, but I was even more a fan of the peppery mustard greens, while I really enjoyed the barramundi, my Wife struggled a bit with the ''fishiness'.

On the side table we had Steam Rice, and Wok Tossed Market Greens in House Made Oyster Sauce.

Meanwhile our third cocktails had arrived. While I enjoyed my 'Missing Summer' at the start, the longer I drank it for the more bitter it tasted to me, maybe from the grapefruit, but in the end, I found myself not even wanting to finish it, but I did anyway because it looked so pretty.

Because the menu was $90 per person ($6pp for our added dumpling), and I know how much cocktails usually are our and all the food had been excellent, I told my Wife I would not order a fourth drink unless the staff asked me (I know places need to make a profit). The staff asked of course, so my Wife got a fourth and final seltzer while I needed something sweeter to counteract the grapefruit, opting to go back for another Japanese Slipper.

We had finished our meal, downed 4 cocktails and enjoyed a beautiful view of the river from our on the balcony, and now we had time to kill before Nathan would once more collect us. We headed back to the hotel, changing into different clothes, and set out to explore the Roma Street Parkland he had recommended to us.

We arrived in the parklands, making our way past the fields of people picnicking, playing soccer, with a little train driving around taking families throughout the park.

We continued in, past a water area in leading up into a rainforest zone.

Just after this little art display house

As we wound around through the rainforest, with the path leading us up and around to a bridge on top of the area, I commented that these parklands felt more like a botanic garden then the botanic garden had, with the 'biome' like featuring of different plants.

As we followed the trail along, I was reminded of Minnamurra Rainforest.

Except maybe this 'Urban Fossil' art piece, with a Nintendo 64 controller

But sections like this did

We continued up crossing the 'Fern Gully Bridge' up to a section with some Bottle Trees, and along to a section of succulents, seeming more-and-more like this parkland and the botanic garden had gotten confused. I captured a good picture of a Water Dragon, and we stopped at a flower garden to eat a sweet snack we had bought at the cafe in the morning.

While we were sitting eating, Nathan called asking if he could pick us up from our hotel as he had gotten away from work early. I asked how long he would be and let him know we were at Roma Street Parklands. He decided to head home first for a shower as we would take a little (and wanted to shower too), so we began our way through a new section towards the entrance of the parkland and back towards our hotel, encountering more water dragons along the way.

Heading back through the city to our hotel, we found ourselves waiting at a traffic light to cross the street, next to us was an old mean soundly yelling things from the Bible that he was reading from his phone, I whispered to my Wife that he must have been the person we had heard the night before.

After returning to our hotel for a shower and getting changed we headed to Nathan's for some dinner. We sat around talking while Mei cooked, we offered to help but sometimes it's easier to be in the kitchen and have space to do your own thing.

We all moved around a dinner table as Mei brought the food over, with Nathan offering us a wine. I decided I would and so he began rummaging through the fridge to get a wine, ending up pulling out a very expensive one. We could see the look of horror on Mei's face about sharing the wine and laughingly told them just to save that for themselves and just give us the cheap one, saying we would do the exact same thing if we had guests. (When you work hard and spend that money to spoil yourself you deserve that right).

We sat around eating and talking and Nathan told us the next day, our final day in Brisbane, he would pick us up and we would get out of the city for a bit. He told us he would take us up to Mount Coot-tha.

I noticed my Wife go silent as the night progressed, and just assumed she was tired. When we had all finished dinner Nathan and Mei drove us back to our hotel, telling Mei we would likely see her again if they came down our way for Christmas, and telling Nathan we would see him in the morning.

As we made our way up the lift to our floor my Wife told me that she wasn't feeling very well, and that she had a sore throat. We both worried that she had caught covid on holiday again, but I offered to go out into the city and find some throat lozenges and Panadol for her while she rested.

I ducked out into the street, passing some man who was drunk or on drugs screaming to nobody in particular, down past a quiet little alley where some guy was taking modeling photos of what I assumed was his girlfriend, and found a little store grabbing some soothers and Panadol, dodging past the undesirable characters and heading back up into my room to try to sleep, while my Wife made little whining noises all night from the pain.

The following morning, I messaged Nathan, letting him know she was sick, in case he didn't want to be in a car with the two of us. He wasn't fazed, saying that the majority of Mei's friends were sick with the flu at the present. I headed out for a coffee, with my Wife too sick for anything, so I didn't go back to our usual place, instead just grabbing one at a place called Doppio (to avoid having to explain to the man who would remember our orders that my Wife was ill).

We told him to let him know when he was on his way, as we would complete back up and check out (as he would be dropping us to the airport that afternoon).

My Wife asked if it was ok if she didn't speak too much, given that her throat was so sore. I told her it was fine, and decided I would wear jeans for the day, so that when we got off the plane in Sydney and had to catch the train home, I would not be too cold.

Nathan messaged he was on his way, and with our stuffed backpacks we checked out, waiting out the front for him to arrive. We jumped in and I let him know about my Wife's throat, as we headed up towards Mount Coot-tha. 

We pulled up going for a walk to the summit lookout and reading some information boards about the mountain and the city.

"One Tree Hill
Before European settlement, the Brisbane region was home to various indigenous people, who still have connections to the mountain. They came to collect 'ku-ta', the honey of the stingless native bee, from hives in tree hollows.
From Brisbane's early days, residents would ascend Mount Coo-tha for picnics with a view. The bush at the top was cleared, leaving a lone large eucalypt, and the mountain was then called One Tree Hill."

"Dreams of Gold
Gold was sporadically prospected for and mined at Mount Coot-tha between 1890 and 1950. Ore quality was low and only small amounts of gold were extracted.
Traces of the of the old workings can be seen at the Gold Mining Circuit."

"Reaching the top of Mt Coot-tha, a beautiful panorama of the City and miles of surrounding country unfolds itself...
Here can be found the bubbling rivulets, cool shady spots, glorious foliage and stately tree, an enchanting place and a goodly heritage for the populace." Brisbane Mayor W.A. Jolly 1925

We headed to the Summit Cafe, grabbing a table with a good view overlooking the city, and Nathan and I ordered coffee while my Wife was too sick to get anything. I let her know that there was Boysenberry milkshake on the menu, that she later got upset that she was too sick to try, and I reassured her we would head back up and go there again so she could try it (and so I could do more bushwalks).

After we finished, I suggested doing a walk, mentioning I had read about a relatively short one on one of the information signs, we went to leave but Nathan wanted to take a photo of my Wife and I from the lookout.

We continued back to the car, but I could no longer remember the name of the walk (I swear it had Gold Mine in it), looking on Google Maps we headed to the Gold Mine Picnic area, which instead had the Ghost Hole Track Walk, which was also relatively short.

As we followed the path down from the carpark, we crossed the bridge in the picture above where the path split in two. Knowing it was a short walk I assumed the track would loop and suggested we head up the trail on our left (which I assumed would loop down), not reading the sign I had taken a picture of up by the carpark.

The track we followed led uphill and back along the road, and I asked Nathan about what sort of snakes would be around the area. He said he wasn't too sure as he never really comes out on walks, but he assumed red belly and brown snakes, not to dissimilar to the Illawarra.

As we approached a sign, pointing to two other walks, it informed us we were on the 'Powerful Owl Trail'. I apologised, and we headed back down to the bridge to walk the other way, while also loading up the 'All Trails' app, just to check that was actually the right way too. This walk came up on the app as the Ghost Hole and Powerful Owl trail, and that they were both the one loop.

We continued down until we came across the remnants of a concrete dam with and information plaque.

"From rock to gold dust
Ore dug from the mine was pushed along the tramway and treated at the battery on the other side of the creek.
There the ore was crushed and washed onto copper-mercury plates. Gold particles combined with mercury, forming a 'pulp'. The mercury was evaporated in a retort, leaving the gold.
You are now standing on the old pump house site where water was collected from the dam and the well. Water from the nearby mine shaft was also used.
If you look down into the creek, you can still see evidence of the concrete dam. The timber headstocks mark where the tramway crossed the creek."

We continued along until we came across the remnants of an old wooden bridge that also had an information plaque.

"Hard yakka
In the early 1940s bridges were constructed and 200m of steel tramway were laid between the mine and the battery.
Ore was shoveled onto the carts at the mine and pushed and winched along the tramway to the battery. Sections of the tramway and this wooden bridge still remain.

Ore from the Ghost Hole mine was of very low grade. The investment in labour and machinery over the years was considerable and yielded the prospectors only small amounts of gold.
Imagine this life of hard yakka in the heat, dust and flies - shoveling ore maneuvering the heavy cart and dreaming of striking it rich.
Please stay off the wooden bridge - the timber is unsafe."

We continued along further, spotting a little hole on our left once more providing us with information.

"Mining for Gold
In this area the miner were seeking gold-bearing quartz veins and lenses, intruded into old sedimentary rocks as a body of molten rock crystallised into granite deep below the surface some 220 million years ago.
This now closed shaft was the Ghost Hole Mine. The only gold recorded from these mines were two parcels of crushed rock sent for processing in 1940. No other records exist. Most of the ore was treated on site at the battery.
These ventures may have been unsuccessful, like most gold mines in Brisbane's western hills. The lease was surrendered in 1959 for non payment of rent."

"... Mr. Towle expressed hi belief than an auriferous (gold-bearing) body lies immediately below the floor of this shaft....
I regret I am unable to concur in this optimistic view...
Extract from Government Geologist's report 1949"

I suggested we had probably walked that far along now that it was probably just worth our time continuing the entire loop track, which was now beginning a steep-uphill climb, not great fun to walk in jeans and converse (or for my poor Wife who was sick.). 

As we continued uphill, stopping occasionally for both water and to all breathe deeply (I don't think I have yet fully recovered from covid). and I pointed to a huge slug crawling over a log that had a red triangle marking on its body, which everybody found cool.

Red Triangle Slug 'Triboniophorus graeffei' the largest Australian slug

We continued on, completing the loop track (and apologising to my Wife who was very ill), and we headed back to Nathan's to walk down to a cafe to get something to each for lunch, with my Wife feeling like hot chips.

We put our stuff down at Nathan's where I realised I had forgotten to place an NSW Rock down on Mount Coot-tha, deciding to take one with me now and drop it off along the way to the cafe (I ended up placing it in someone's pebbled garden).

Nathan took us to Blue Bear Coffee House, where I got the Brisket Burger and a side of hot chips for my Wife and got her the fresh pressed juice 'Ruby Tuesday' which was watermelon, lime, pear and rhubarb. I couldn't resist and got myself a Celtic Red Ale.

We headed back to Nathan's where we continued just, hanging out, recommended some shows to each other, and getting him to try the British comedy series 'Friday Night Dinner', before the time had come to head to the airport.

Nathan dropped us off and we thanked him for the time and looked forward to catching up again in the future. "Maybe at a potential wedding." I hinted to him.

We boarded out flight back to Sydney, before a long and tedious train trip back down south, that took even longer than the flight.

The following morning, my Wife was feeling really ill. Having the day off work, I took her to the doctors, and it turned out she had tonsilitis and a burst eardrum from the flight.
I took her to buy some antibiotics, and she had the rest of the week off, while I got back into the grind of work, already eager for another holiday, and to get back out on the trails.

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Thanks for reading! - Steven