Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Walking By The Sea

Tuesday we left Dana in Adelaide and flew to Brisbane. Here we are staying with John and Gail Brady, who we met when they stayed at the house next to ours in Puivert.

They live at Woody Point on the Redcliffe Peninsula, north of Brisbane. This morning we went for a lovely walk with them along the seafront. For a change, we were in the company of lots of walkers, going in both directions, plus some runners and the odd cyclist. The walk, which extends for about 13 kilometres, is marked off clearly every 100 metres, leaving nobody in doubt as to the distance they have covered. We walked out and back for a total of 10 kilometres and ended up with about 18 kms for the day.

John tells us there are frequently dolphins visible, and manatees or dugongs not so visible because they are bottom feeders. But we saw neither today. There are also whales, in season, behind the visible Moreton island. That same island is protecting the area where we were walking from the terrible damage done by an oil spill which happened a couple of months ago when a ship foolishly ventured into the path of a cyclone.

It is much warmer and more humid here than in South Australia. Also much greener, because they have had plenty of rainfall since the beginning of the year, unlike SA, which looks like a desert because they have had so many years of near drought - a big problem for local agriculture and the wineries which abound there.

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