'Home' Diary

During the past few years of our retirement, after every trip we would say 'we should explore our own home town more' than we have.
This time we are actually making a start with our Brisbane Riverwalk.

6-5-2015 Wednesday
Brisbane Riverwalk (May)

A lovely Autumn day. We first had a visit to the Melanoma clinic where we were pretty much all clear except for a very precautionary  treatment for Joy.

Lunch by the river sounded nice so we parked the car at New Farm (Merthyr Rd) and walked the brand new walkway suspended over the river bank approx 2km to the city centre. A nice discovery walk for us and an excellent lunch at the Bavarian Bier Cafe - luckily everything before and after lunch was free because Dave's bucket of bier was $22. City restaurants were pretty busy with a number advertising 'half price' lunches. To return to the car we took the pleasant (free) ferry ride on 'CityHopper', one of the refurbished old style river crossing ferries.

14-6-2015 Sunday
To Broadwater Tourist Park at Southport for one week. It's a lovely park right on the water and has a boat ramp inside the park for customers and permanent residents. Overcast and showery. Dave drove the motorhome and Joy drove the commodore towing the boat.

15-6-2015 Monday
Dave repaired the motorhome awning this morning, tested out his new gadget/toy, a Drone, then we had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf Tavern which was pleasant as it was a lovely sunny day. While lunching we had a view of the marina which was full of millions of dollars worth of yachts - such concentrated opulence!

16-6-2015 Tuesday
Raining for the whole day. Picked up some beautiful fresh prawns off the trawler boat this morning and did a trip to Harvey Norman. Otherwise relaxed for the rest of the day. Les and Sheral have arrived today, staying until Saturday. We quite coincidentally decided to come to this park at the same time.

17-6-2015 Wednesday
Overcast again today but didn't rain til the mid afternoon. We took the boat out to catch some fish but no luck. We drove past the area where they're building the set of the latest Johnny Depp movie, close to Sea World - didn't see him though. When we came back, we got the boat back out of the water, got changed and drove (about 20 mins) to Jupiters Casino for a nice buffet lunch. It was raining on the drive back. Just enough time for a nap so we're both (?) fresh for the 2nd State of Origin tonight.

In the mornings, when the fishermen from the park bring their catch back and clean/fillet them near the boat ramp, there are lots of seagulls and pelicans waiting/fighting for the scraps.

18-6-2015 Thursday
Lovely sunny day today. We drove down to the Seaway and walked out along the long rock wall. Everyone was out today boating, fishing, surfing, swimming and walking their dogs.

19-6-2015 Friday Joy's 60th Birthday
It was another beautiful sunny day, just perfect for my birthday. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at Fishermans Wharf Tavern with Les and Sheral who were already here at the park, and Kerry and Andrew who drove down from Brisbane to join us. It was a most enjoyable day.

20-6-2015 Saturday
Another lovely sunny day, a little windy but still ok to go out in the boat. We fished for a short time with no success, only fed the toadfish, so we went for a drive up through the canals and all the multi-million dollar houses with their expensive boats tied up to their private pontoons. We then drove up one of the short canals to the Island of Capri, tied up to the shopping centre's pontoon and had lunch at the Edgewater Dining Restaurant. It overlooked the pontoon and we could keep an eye on the boat - another enjoyable day.