Foffing about in the Waves (FINALLY!!)

We just arrived in Brisbane. In the span of two days, we’ve seen the expanse and sparseness of the outback, the bright red soil of the sugarcane area, the lush greenery as we arrived to the coast, the brightness of the full moon over the ocean, and the highway and traffic that reminded us of the lower mainland as we approached Brisbane. We left Longreach two days ago and just ate the miles (stopping at some sights along the way) eventually making our way to Duaringa (a little ‘nothing is really there town, but nothing else is really close, so I guess we’re staying here for the night’ kind of place). From Duaringa, we made our way to Bunderburg (home of the famous Bunderburg rum or “Bundy” as it’s more affectionately known here) making a stop at Agnes Beach and 1770 where we got to swim in the ocean (FINALLY!!!). From Bunderburg we pressed on to Rainbow Beach where we stayed the night so that we could get in some beach, body surfing and swimming time. We enjoyed the beach and ocean as much as we could before finally making our way to Brisbane.

Before we left, a friend of ours was telling me about her experiences with Australian cities. For her, Melbourne could be equated to Montreal, Sydney to Vancouver and she lumped Cairns and Brisbane together to be equated with Windsor. Even though I don’t come from Ontario, and don’t know a lot about the smaller eastern cities, I still know this means it’s not necessarily good. I would agree with her on Cairns, but the little we’ve seen of Brisbane and the markets and things we plan to see in the next couple days, I don’t know that I’d lump Cairns and Brisbane together. Guess we’ll let you know in a couple of days!

A couple things we forgot to mention last time. First, we drove along the Tropic of Cancer. Next, if you look really closely at B’s lip, you will see one of the annoyances of life in the outback. As one Indian girl who is now living in Longreach described them, these flies stick to you. It’s as if they are trying to annoy you. They are on your lip, in your ears, up your nose, in your mouth, on your eyeball. Where ever you don’t want them, that’s exactly where they go and where they continue to go no matter how much you wave them away.

We came across this sculpture (The Tree of Knowledge) on our way. We thought it was quite beautiful, but apparently it’s a thorn in the side of the town. Some people think it’s a complete eyesore. The interesting thing, it was a 150-200 year old gum tree that was used as the meeting place in the 1890s when the Australian Labour Party was formed, but poisoned in 2006. The plot to get rid of the thing led to the current sculpture, incorporating the original, now deceased gum tree.

Came across a cattle drive.

Got a wave from a cow girl, and watched a hard working cattle dog ’round up some bo-vine, accept one, which was bootin’ it down the highway a couple of kms down the road.

Starting to see some greenery.

Wow! This is so cool!

The lush greenery was a stark contrast to the outback.

We made it . . . arrived at the ocean in Agnes Waters.

Other people were swimming. I guess there are no saltwater crocs and no one seemed to be concerned about the box jellyfish, so you bet I’m diving in!

A few people have asked me what a drop bear is.

It has to do with the mascot for Bunderburg Rum (which just happens to be a polar bear!) Apparently this little guy gets into a lot of trouble and fell into a girl’s campsite once. It was from this commercial that a national joke was born! I had to force B-Rod to get his picture taken with Bundy.

[edit] If you google it, it is an Aussie gag that they like to play on tourists. They’ll tell you it has to do with a carnivorous marsupial, that will drop out of trees onto unsuspecting drunks. There are a number of embarrassing things tourists are told are successful deterrents.