Our drive down the East Coast has been very interesting as we watch the countryside change from tropical forest to drier range land. We have seen mango orchards heavy with fruit, fields of huge watermelons and pineapples, macadamia orchards and of course fields and fields of sugar cane. There are even special cane railway lines that are such small gauge that I can place a foot on each rail. Maybe you have to see the photo to see what I mean. There have also been lots of roadside fruit stands selling pineapples (2/$3), mangos ($10 a dozen) and so on. We have had fresh mangos, mango smoothies and mango ice cream. When we stayed in Rockhampton (called Rocky by the locals) one night we were told “that in Rocky we had to have steak for our dinner”. We went to the Bush Inn Bar and Grill and had two fabulous steaks – cooked to perfection.

We continue to get in some good walks every day. We’ve walked a few boardwalks through mangrove forests, along numerous sandy beaches and have found that every town has a waterfront (river or ocean) walkway to explore. We have been surprised at the large number of well preserved heritage buildings we’ve seen in small as well as large towns. Beautiful! At Maryborough, we went for a city tour offered by local volunteers and besides learning about some of the specific heritage buildings, we also heard lots about the town’s early history as an immigration centre and as Australia’s 2nd busiest port. Since this city lies in a flood prone area we also heard about the impact of flooding on the town’s siting and development. Even today, many of the homes are likely to be flooded every 5 years.

In order to see some of Australia’s wildlife, we went to Steve Irwin’s Australian Zoo. It is quite well done and it gives you an opportunity to mingle with some of the animals such as kangaroos, wallabies, and koala bears. We also saw a couple of shows that brought snakes and birds into the audience and demonstrated how to interact with a crocodile. The snakes were huge, the birds were beautiful and the crocodiles are just plain scary.

We had two busy days in Brisbane and the temperature dropped to the low 30s, but it was still hot to us. We took a river cruise/tour, did some Christmas shopping and enjoyed the City’s youthful, effervescent spirit. At night as we walked back to our hotel, a taxi driver stopped to ask our help with directions. He’d forgotten his glasses and couldn’t read his city map, so we helped him find his destination.

G’day and Cheers.