Biking in Brisbane

-


Brisbane!  This vibrant city on the coast is the third largest in Australia, with 2.4 million  people in the metropolitan area.  And they all seemed to be downtown when we visited!  Seriously, we had visited Brisbane in 2009 (for the 29th Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation), and we already knew this was a big city.  We also knew what we wanted to do... go cycling!  

We were dropped off by bus in the city center next to Central Station, and about 3 blocks away we found a bike shop, Bike Obsession.  Caroline and I hired 2 nice Fuji bikes, and we were off, first to the City Botanic Garden (shared paths) and then up and down the Brisbane River (mostly dedicated bike lanes).  You have to get used to the bikes in Australia... the rear wheel brake is on the left handlebar, not the right as in the US.  
The bikes lanes were in great shape.  There was catastrophic flooding in Brisbane in 2011 or 2012, and some of the path’s condition might be attributed to relatively recent repairs.  I love the green bike lanes... they are easy to follow, and their distinctiveness seems to keep pedestrians and strollers off.



We pedaled about 27 miles overall.  We crossed 2 bridges, and once took a ferry (CityCat) from 1 side of the river to another.  That ferry ride was short because the boats are fast and efficient.  I mean, I could have held my breath from the time the boat left to when it arrived.  It was so fast that the deck hand didn’t even bother collecting our fares... he just nodded to Caroline and pointed us in the right direction!


There is a lot to see along the river.  We found the rock climbing and rappelling cliffs (we need another trip to check these out), the University of Queensland, many cafes and sculptures, the Queensland University of Technology (right on the botanic gardens), the city’s convention center, and more.  No cats, and only 1 rat bait station was seen.

We didn’t see a single dockless bike, but there were docked bikes all over (1 model and company).  In general, half or less of the docks had a bike in them, so I assume they are in use.  Some of the bikes had a helmet in the basket, but most did not.

 It was a hot day, and we got back to the City Botanic Gardens about 1 PM.  We got back to the ship, showered, had a Guinness, and then ate a great dinner with new friends Deb and Stewart from NZ.  We had to go to bed early, because we lost an hour (new time zone), and since Caroline has to get up at 4 to get to work, it would feel like getting up at 3!  I, on the other hand, get up at 5 so I can deliver a cup of coffee to Caroline at about 5:30.  And big disappointment this morning... I brought Caroline her coffee (I walk the stairs from Deck 7 to Deck 14, then down to Deck 2), Caroline takes a sip, and about gags... the coffee is lukewarm.  So I go back up (Deck 2 to 14 and back to 2... we see a lot of stairs) to tell Caroline that the coffee straight out of the pot , with the “Brew completed” light on, is still lukewarm.  Oh well... at 7 she can order from room service!
•••










Comments

  1. brunsonmJanuary 12, 2018 at 9:33 PM

    This brings back so many great memories of time spent in Brisbane in 1999. We also visited the City Botanic Garden, rode on the CityCat many times. One vivid memory is sacred ibis as urban birds in the town hall square - not at all like our Utah white-faced ibis.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robert SchmidtJanuary 14, 2018 at 3:04 AM

    We will be visiting Brisbane at least one more time. Suggestions for something to see or do?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Tale of the Maui Mystery Cat

-
Image
In 2003, a jaguar was suspected of terrorizing residents of the Olinda area, Maui. Photo of a jaguar attacking a cayman in the Pantanal, Brazil, by Frank Schoen. Copyright: https://www.123rf.com/profile_djambi1969 . Used with permission.      In 2003, I was sitting in a Starbucks across from the Honolulu Zoo in Waikiki, reading the Honolulu Advertiser , when I came across an article about the sighting of a large, cat-like creature on Maui. I don't have that initial article, but I did find an archived copy of an article from Hawaii News Now on the topic: Wildlife officials are planning to intensify efforts today to capture a large catlike animal spotted in the lower Olinda area of Upcountry Maui. A search team sent out yesterday found evidence the animal does exist. They discovered tree trunks with deep scratch marks and a number of doves that appeared to be killed by a catlike paw. Wildlife experts plan to bait an existing trap today and add four more traps. Officials say they be
Read more

The one, the only... Chobe National Park, Botswana!

-
Image
We were on our way to the famous Chobe National Park, in northern Botswana.  This visit was somewhat troubling for me.  In May, Botswana's president had announced an  end  to a five year ban on elephant hunting.  Elephant hunting?  There were calls for a boycott against Botswana.  Botswana is a bright spot for African savannah elephants, with over 100,000 in the country.  The proposal was to permit around 400 elephants to be killed by trophy hunters, who presumably would pay $30-50 thousand dollars to kill each of these animals (at $40,000 each, that would come out to $16 million).  There's roughly an equal number of elephants being poached for their ivory each year in Botswana.   I'm going to editorialize on hunting elephants for a moment.  Just scroll down to the white rhino photo below to skip my ramblings. But the overall populations of both forest and savannah elephants in Africa are in steep decline (especially with forest elephants ). And did you catch th
Read more

Cougars killing and eating people. Why?

-
Image
This cougar was killed after  attacking two mountain bikers in Washington, killing one.   On May 19, two mountain bikers were riding near North Bend, Washington, when they noticed a mountain lion (also called a cougar or puma) was following them.  I don't have the full details, but I've read that they stopped, yelled, put their bikes between them and the lion... things that almost all lion experts recommend to discourage an attack.  The lion persisted, however, grabbing one cyclist by the head, then chasing the other cyclist as that cyclist ran away.   T he first cyclist attacked got back on his bike, escaped, and called for help.  The second cyclist, Sonja J. Brooks, tragically, was found dead. “They stopped to confront the cougar, they did everything right, everything that we counsel people to do,” WDFW Captain Alan Myers said . “Do not play dead — fight back. Fight back with everything you’ve got,” he said. “In most instances, people survive attacks f
Read more