Brisbane

All packed and ready to leave, next stop Maclean for morning tea.

Maclean is a town in Clarence Valley in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. It is on the Clarence River and very near the Pacific Highway.  It is a small town with a population of around 3000. Its industries are tourism, sugar cane production, farming, and river-prawn trawling.   Maclean now has national and international recognition as 'The Scottish Town' in Australia.

Many street signs are written in English and Scottish Gaelic, power poles are painted with tartan patterns, and a stone cairn has been erected in Herb Stanford Park.

The Tourism shop plays Scottish music all day long, I do pity the butcher next door - I hope he is Scottish.  We are here because it was recommended by Janice, who travelled here with her husband Don, and she had such fond memories of the town and the area and the wonderful time they had here.  Don passed away a few weeks ago, so we had a coffee and cake in his memory.

Next stop, Brisbane - where we will base ourselves for the next 3 nights.  Good driving experience, John and George are getting the hang of the lane changing, no jerky movements - although we did experience a fault with the Autopilot.  John's favourite new phrase.  All through yesterday there was some unreasonable braking going on, I am prone to car sickness - jerky rides and me are not a great combination.  John kept defending himself saying "that wasn't me" - I was thinking "yeah yeah yeah!"

Today we were on autopilot and we went around a bend and there were some overhanging bushes.  They weren't in the road, but the car saw it as an obstacle and went from 115 kph and George braked to 83 kph, quite sudden if there is a car up your bum!  I then looked it up and there is a fault with the program, and there are many reports of "phantom braking", now every time the car jerks, I get this look out of the corner of Johns eye and the phrase "phantom braking"!

We are staying right in the centre of town, very convenient.  As we have done our road triops we get fussier and fussier with accommodation, must have a Washing machine, dishwasher, aircon, wifi etc..  I now have to add - now where near a train line.  We are on the 25th floor but right next to the train line and it feels like they are coming right into your apartment.  We do have the doors open as the apartment smelled a little fishy when we came in.  I sure hope the soundproofing is good, as Johnny boy may not be a happy bunny tomorrow.  I have ear plugs, so I do not hear a thing.

I haven't painted the apartment in the nicest light, smelling of fish and the like.  But is it really nice, great view, very central.  Hopefully we feel the same way tomorrow.

Out for a walk around the area, we are staying on the South Bank right next to Fish Lane Arts Precinct - which i have to say was surprisingly wonderful.  We have had a lovely evening, reminiscing about holidays and life in general - what would we do differently, what would we change, when the answer is "not much" you know that you are doing okay.  I had to stop at one Mojito, as I think it contained a bottle of rum and without dinner, it was a bit dangerous.  We stopped at this bar, which is below our apartment under the railway overpass.  Really amazing to take a space that would be derelict underutilised and change it into a hip and trendy eatery and bar.  Obviously,  the music has to be SUPER LOUD for when the trains went by.  The twinkly lights and the buzz of the business of the restaurants all made for a very trendy vibe.  Almost all the walls have murals, just gorgeous.  We will have to visit during the daytime - but here are some night time photos.  We wandered through the Fish Lane Arts precinct and then back via a pub and home to be lulled into restful sleep by the screeching of the trains on the bend in the track below us!

I am pleased to report that John slept well, obviously enough alcohol to dull away the train noise.  Today we are off to play Brookwater Golf Course, which is an Augusta National like course, designed by Greg Norman and Ash Barty's home course.  We are playing with 2 members, Brad and Ken.  Brad was the Ops Manager at Brookwater and they are both very very friendly and welcoming.  There are 2 x Tesla chargers here, but sadly they are all taken, our battery is on low and nowhere to charge.  When I say low, it is 15%...  Brookwater is one of the best golf courses, so challenging and majestic.  In very good condition as well. Ash Barty's house is at the end of the first hole, Gary her husband used to work for Brad.  Gary was in the garden and Brad shouted over - Congrats and are you getting any sleep, I am pleased to report that the sleep is getting better.

After nine we went to see if the chargers were free - no, such luck, but luckily after 18 one of them was free - so we got a bit of a top up - but we need to visit a supercharger.  There is one down the road at Indooroopily Shopping centre.  A few drinks with Brad, who was really interesting - he had been working with LIV as a front man for the Camera crew.  Apparently you walk with a group and let the producer know how they are doing and then the producer gets the broadcast team to go live to that hole with the information you have given them.

Now off to the Supercharger, just as I was saying how simple the navigation was, we took a wrong turn and landed up going to the Gold Coast.  Shit!  You watch the percentage sign get less and less and your battery symbol is orange.   We are due at a ticketed exhibition at 5pm, so no time to charge -eeeek!  Off home, for a quick shower then out again.  This time to see the Banksy exhibition which is on in Brisbane.  Banksy is probably the most famous and also the most mysterious graffiti artist in the world. The Art of Banksy: Without Limits shows more than 150 of the artist’s works, such as his original art, prints on different kinds of materials, photos, sculptures, and much more.  Some photos below;

An evening stroll home, across the river and then we went in search of a supercharger, which is at Indooroopilly, about 10 mins away.  There is a big shopping centre there with restaurants, movies etc.  The car was fully charged to 100% in about 45 mins, which gave us enough time to have dinner.  Then home for a rest, it has felt like we have been rushie-rushie all day.  You also get charged idle time on some chargers, so we went back to the car early as we didn't want to pay any unneccesary fees.  John watched Newcastle vs Tottenham game on Youtube.  He loved that!

John's first attempt at summoning the car.  He doesnt go very far, not that trusting.

John watching YouTube whilst waiting for the car to charge.

Another good night's rest and off again, more rushie rushie up first thing to play Royal Queensland.  We are playing with Elaine and Jenny, very nice ladies.  John played really well, just no putts dropped in.  he had a few holes where he struggled and then nearly sunk a very very long putt on the last hole.  That was his day, even when we are home, enjoying a coffee - the coffee cup lid was not vented properly and he was making this clicking noise as the cup was being sucked in.  I am wondering what on earth is going on and he informs me that he cannot get his coffee out of the cup, he needs to suck it out.  That summed up his day!  My golf was not that great, drove the ball well but couldn't hit an iron shot.  Royal Queensland is tough and the pin positions were ridiculously hard, even the members were complaining.  I just kept thinking about how well Grace played around the course.

The trees were a stark contrast to Brookwater where there were towering gums, here there are lollipop trees, majestic Morton Bay Figs, just gorgeous.  But very noisy, with planes and traffic.  Not like the serenity at The Dale.  Below are some photos of the course today.  Tonight we are out to dinner with a friend whom I used to share a room with when I first went to London in 1991 - 32 years ago.  So excited to see her again.

This is goodbye from Brisbane.  Tomorrow we leave early to start our walk.  John and I are so tired already, we were walking down the stairs of the golf club - looking at each other thinking what on earth have we got ourselves into.