Saturday in the city

So what can I tell you about Brisbane? It was named after somebody whose surname was Brisbane and the Brisbane River runs through it. Apparently, it will be the second biggest city in Australia (after Dubbo) by 2020. I think you can sense it’s a pretty new place, a work still in progress but progressing very well. Financed by the over-inflated price of bananas or something, there is plenty of recent glitzy construction and fancy riverside apartments. The CBD is pretty much like any other Australian city, same old shops and food courts and somewhere for me to buy a new phone after mine went a bit crazy and started vibrating on its own accord.

After some shopping I walked through the Botanic Gardens which included a mangrove boardwalk (those pesky mangrove boardwalks yet again!) and then crossed the river to South Bank. This is one of those recently developed glitzy areas I was telling you about. What they have done down here which is quite good though is made a little beach and swimming area, great for hot summer days like these.

In the afternoon I caught a bus out to Mount Coot Tha which overlooks the city and surroundings. You could see all the way to the coast and a long way south to the jagged mountain ranges which I also saw whilst travelling to exotic locations like Nerang in the Gold Coast.





As I had an hour or so up here, I wondered off to check out some waterfalls which were totally dry! Walking back to the lookout I noticed this huge spiders web and a rather sizeable spider on there. I had a feeling he was harmless for some reason but I guess any spider in Australia should be considered with caution, especially that size! I think he was a golden orb spider, similar to ones evident in Florida.

The same ticket (cost=£1.50) which took me up the mountain also took me along the Brisbane river and back. This opened up some of the views and the sun dipping on the horizon made for a really pleasant way to spend an hour or so.


It was a nice end to the day and whilst I can say Brisbane didn’t wow me the same as some other places, those banana benders haven’t done a bad job.