2009 is nearly over, so at last I'm getting round to the blog for Brisbane! See the photo albums for Brisbane City, Brisbane City CAT, Caloundra and Dave's Creek.

It's now about 3 weeks since I left Brisbane, and it seems longer. I was quite impressed with the way the city has developed (I had been before in 1984). Many thanks to all those who made my stay so enjoyable: Neville Patterson & family, plus Luis, Colleen, and Ben.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that Quenslanders are really early risers. I went for a morning walk once with Neville, and discovered that this involved getting up at 0515! After a short drive the walk was to the top of Mount Cootha (see photo album). To someone who can still count on my fingers the number of times I have actually seen the sun rise, it was a revelation to see that the park was full of walkers, runners and cyclists at that time. But the obvious reason is that it gets too hot later in the day, and also sunset is about 6.30 most of the year.

My arrival in Brisbane coincided with Neville's retirement, so he was able to take me on two trips: to his holiday house in Caloundra (to the north of Brisbane) where we got a bit of cycling done; and to Dave's Creek on the border with NSW where we went for a 16km trek through rainforest (dry at the time).

Neville kindly let me borrow his road bike, so on other occasions I was able to cycle around Brisbane city, and on one occasion went for an early morning ride with another keen cyclist (Ben) for about 70km around the villages to the south of Brisbane. Much as in Perth, I found the drivers were on the whole quite considerate, but the road trains were rather intimidating, and in the city some drivers passed far too close. But not so much shouting at cyclists goes on as in Yorkshire!

Frank