Fortitude

Fortitude Valley is the traditional food and entertainment area just to the north of Brisbane's central area. It hadn't quite recovered yet from Covid lockdown when I was there last week, but I'm sure it's back in business by now.

Brisvegas

Travelling north again

Last week we headed off up north for a week in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast. I like a good road trip, and we took our time, breaking our journey each ay, at Sawtell, and at Coffs Harbour. Sawtell has to be one of the very finest spots, though there are plenty of rivals.

At the Hoey Moey pub in Coffs Harbour I had my first proper pub dinner since the recent Covid lockdown easing in NSW. They were doing it here in a properly socially-distanced way. Not always the case, I've noticed.

Where are we indeed? This aeroplane-loving car passenger had been decidedly dubious about such a big road trip. Then, several hours into the journey, wonder of wonders, there's the plane! She ran over to inspect it, and alas, it's only painted on the side of a truck. Which drove off. She'd missed the flight after all!

The Queensland border was to be a challenge. It was still closed, despite neither NSW nor Queensland having had any community-transmission Covid cases for quite a while. But there were exemptions, such as attendance at a funeral, and we made it through.

A day or two later it all changed at the border. They started a 'search-and-repel' policy for Victorians, that state having suddenly experienced an enormous Covid uptick. We noticed on the return journey that the queue had massively expanded, and northbound drivers were no longer being waved through.

Banks' Botany Bay botany

Views from the nature trails of the Kamay Botany Bay National Park the other day. I retraced the steps of historic botanist extraordinaire, Joseph Banks.

Below: termites tackling a Sydney red gum/smooth barked apple (Angophora costata) & a very scribbly scribbly gum (Eucalyptus haemastona)

Above: the trunk of a very tall cabbage-tree palm (Livingstona australis)

Another bleeding angophora.

Some burnt-out black boys/southern grasstrees (Xanthorrhoea australis)

Solander Point - whales galore!

Is it a bird?

Is it a bird?........ Is it Superman?.........     No.    IT'S A PLANE

(Used to be lots of those around!)

Nicely re-interpreted

I revisited the Kamay Botany Bay National Park at Kurnell the other day, generally known as Captain Cook's Landing Place. It's been a while.

There's much debate about tearing down statues of historical bad guy colonialists (or in this case, master navigators with secret orders). They've done a good job here of showing how it can be done properly: keep the history, but also put it into a better context.

Here's the tiny creek that provided an adequate water supply for the 1770 expeditioners. (A different story of course when the First Fleet turned up 18 years later, and were severely disappointed by the drought-stricken ditch it had become.)

There are some fine new sculptures now, created for the 250th anniversary. There's a group of whales, plus an intriguing abstract that's to do with both the ribs of the HMB Endeavour and some whale bones.

And the park is a rather lovely spot too. It's also the starting point for the little botanical bushwalks that lead you to the ocean and one of the finest spots for watching live whales.