27th, Well we are off today to stay closer to the big smoke Brisbane, we make our way down to a town at the foot of the hills we stayed at the Samford show grounds, they had hot showers, electicity and plenty of water and space very quiet and peaceful there was not a better way to stay so close to the inner city.
After we set up we went to Samford village to find out what the area had to offer, the village like a lot of villages here have most things anyone could want. As we were getting back to camp a storm was brewing the sky had turned purple it was so dark, the wind had really started to come up strong so we took the top of our gazebo, moved our chairs and table under a big veranda had dinner there as we watched the storm. Most of the storm bypassed us we had quite a bit of rain lots of thunder and lighting but nothing to what inner Brisbane had, the hail that was in the storm was big smashing car windows and windows in highrise buildings, shredding awnings and smashing trees and stripping plants of folage and flowers.
28th, We head off to the city today but decide to go by train, the nearest station is Ferny Gully that is where we parked up purchased our go card tickets got as much information as we thought we may need, we were going into the hospital to visit our friend Warren, the train went right to the back of hospital but we did need to change trains.
We found the trains very simple to use and very quiet to ride there was always someone at the stations ready to assist with enquiries.
We were at the hospital approx 1 1/2 hours then caught the train back to the city centre, walked down through Queen St mall and bought a 60th birthday present, after shopping we walked across the bridge to South Bank.
South Bank is a great part of Brisbane unfortunately the storm before smashed a lot of the lovely trees and stripped the flowers and leaves from the bougainvillea, there is a walkway several kms long, it has a sculpted frame all the way that acts like an arch that has bougainvillea growing on it, there is also a free swimming pool beautifully designed with a beach included, museum, art galleries, performing arts, markets, cafes and a university. We never saw half of what we would have liked to but we caught the train back to camp pretty worn out.
29th, A surprise birthday lunch for our freind Robyn today, Bill and Robyn are over from New Zealand staying with their daughter Caroline so Caroline and Bill have set up a surprise for Robyn. We arrived at Carolines place, it was quite a bit of a surprise for Robyn, after a coffee and catch up we all went with Caroline into the city where she had organized a river cruise with a buffet lunch on an old paddle steamer.
The boat had great atmosphere, the whole look, beautiful timber, design and the lunch was very tasty, the MC gave commentary on the history and buildings along the river then played piano accordion and sang happy birthday to various people, I did let him know it was Robyns birthday so of course she got the happy birthday song, the MC said she didn't look a day over 42 so we are going with that. When we got back to Carolines place Bill brought out a birthday cake, it was great to see our friends they were heading back to NZ the next morning.
30th, Today we head up through the hills to see if the 2 lakes that are close are ok for a paddle with the canoes, unfortunately when we got there canoes were not permitted but the water levels in the lakes was extremely low.
We had our picnic lunch and headed back. In the afternoon we went to the Samford Hotel met Jason and had a dinner of pizza and beer.
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