I like to ride my bicycle

The following two days I took full advantage of my newest possession. On Thursday I cycled North to the Tincha Tamba Reserve having heard the area is home to many a kangaroo. I fretted for a while, unable to spot any wildlife, however my fears were unfounded when a little step off the beaten track presented plenty of ‘roos! (Sadly it was a grey day and my photos did not turn out all that well...) I was pretty exhausted by the end of my 18 mile trip...

Kangaroo running away from me

Next day’s ride took me East to Nudgee Beach where I was particularly impressed by the trees (mangroves, which grow in mud flats) growing on the beach. Simple things... The nice cool breeze was enjoyable, until on my return journey I realised it was really a significant head wind. These excursions were very pleasant, especially considering the bike was completely free to me, and certainly much less painful than my previous cycling trip on a hired bike in rather dubious condition!

Mangrove tree at Nudgee

Diane and Lindsay, more of mum’s friends, picked me up on Saturday morning and we chatted on the drive back towards Brisbane, deciding to first stop at St John’s Cathedral, for whom Lindsay (an accountant) does some work. The Anglican architecture looked like it could have fitted in in England, and I found it rather spectacular. Next on the day’s itinerary was a tour of the University of Queensland (UQ; mum had studied here for an Arts Degree) to which I had previously been very close, but had not yet investigated. We stopped there for lunch, during which we needed to fight off aggressive turkeys and ibises! Diane’s sister Jenny, and her husband Richard welcomed us into their home for afternoon tea. (Diane showed a photo of Jenny and family visiting us in London in 2000.)

With Diane and Lindsay

Our late afternoon trek took in some places mum had lived as a university student (the house on STEEP Briggs Street, just above noisy Taringa Station, is no more) and then up Mount Coot’tha to observe the night view over the city. The final stop of the day was Westlake where I said goodbye to Diane and Lindsay and went to visit family friends. My new hosts, Lynda and Rowan, were familiar from visits to England, and will be spending three months in Warwick later this year; after dinner we spent a while talking and later Skyped my parents.  Their silver cat Sacha did not have much to say, but looked great on the video link!

Interior of St John's Cathedral

On Sunday morning (19 May - Happy Birthday Dad!) we attended the local church where I met another couple of mum’s friends, Russell and Lynette, with whom I exchanged contact details in the hope that we can meet longer in the future. After a long morning tea to mark the retirement of a pastor we rushed home to prepare what was an excellent late lunch of (traditional Australian) roast lamb. In the late afternoon we ventured over to Brookfield where Lynda and Rowan were pleased to again catch up with Max and Freda, and I collected a few things from the stash I had left there. Once we were done Rowan kindly drove me all the way back to Boondall! Brisbane tends to have sprawling suburbs, seemingly only limited by the coastline.

Lynda, Freda, Rowan and Max

Early next morning I Skyped home to 'personally' deliver birthday greetings as it was the first time that day (well, woring on UK time!) that neither dad nor I was asleep or out! Soon after Kim, a school friend mum had not seen since schooldays, arrived and took me on a tour of beautiful Bribie Island. It was still early in the day, and standing on a beach in my shorts, sheltered from the sun, it felt pretty fresh - I was unsure whether I might have to renege on my promise to myself that I would swim in the sea today! Following around the section of the island accessible by car took us to an area where hundreds of jellyfish were ‘swimming’ (a great excuse for not braving the sea), and then to the unsheltered, and usually choppy, side of the island which today was looking rather calm. I dipped my feet in the water and it wasn’t just too cold, but being a good citizen I was saving my swimming in the open sea for later, in a patrolled area! We continued up to Caloundra (pronounced a bit like Clown-dra!), the start of the Sunshine Coast, where we paused for lunch – I had a huge burger that was a struggle to fit in my mouth and largely required civilized use of knife and fork... We surveyed a few beaches and settled on one with a lifeguard and safe zone markers and the time for postponing the inevitable was past. There was only one other ‘crazy’ person in the water, but while I cannot pretend it was warm I would hardly have classified it as freezing – it was certainly warmer than the last two times I had been swimming in the sea in England in mid-summer...

Amazing (empty!) beach in Caloundra