Virginia Palms Resort & Conference Center Brisbane

... the tree was that had lots of huge potato-like things hanging from it. We tried to find it on the internet but just found someone else’s photo with the caption Magic Hawaiian Hanging Potato Tree’, which we like but suspect is not the real name. I’m relying on Jo and Rob, our nature experts, to come up with identification for us, although I think they may be relatively rare in Nottinghamshire.

Our culture for the day (other than the potato tree) was a visit to ...

... nice,
good place to chill out....and get married, it seemed, as a pair of
erratic china men with cameras were directing a bride and groom
around the place for their wedding pictures.



Then we popped back into town for a
spot of shopping. Dean phoned his parents and we got ready to go out
for dinner and a few drinks. We ended up in a British bar surrounded
by Irish people who still seem to be everywhere! ....and now, an
invasion of Scots ...

... the afternoon was out. Great fun playing along side three ten year old girls who could actually backhand. I mean we struggled to get it over the ruddy net and actually get a rally going let alone a forehand. After the embarrassing win I had over Meals we took a quick freezing dip in the pool before cooking dinner. We got chatting to a fellow traveller who has toured around Aus for two years now with his wife and covered over 175,000km. Pretty good going ...

... etc. Anne got to cuddle a koala and may have squeezed to hard. As for the kangaroos, they appear to have no awareness of how they should act in public. I mean we even caught on camera (purely for evidence), one couple at it. They seem to be well designed for it anyhow. I'll not get started on Mr Kanga Rooos equipment. That night we went to an AFl game at the Gabba. Go on the lions. WE beat the ...

... and bus services provide easy access to most tourist sites around the city. Mount Coot-tha is the highest point giving brilliant views over the cityscape, its also only a short distant from the botanical gardens which I'm informed is well worth a visit, and judging from the sheer amount of people getting off at this stop it's obviously well regarded, unfortunately our time is limited so we'll have to go next time (if indeed there's a ...

we landed in Brisbane on Wednesday. the rest of the day was spent checking out the ferris wheel and the oriental gardens, the bamboo forests, and pagoda. we counted lizards and i tried catching them but no luck they are fast little buggers. Sara's vision is on perminet spidy vision. she is really good at spotting them since she is terrified of the lot of 'em. We even encountered a few deadly ...

Back home we started working out the logistics of moving in together and merging two blended families. With two children each we were almost the Brady Bunch!

In July we officially merged our families and now Barb is nudging me for a wedding ...

... to miss familys that much. i mean of course I did, but I thought it would be worse. I have 2 days left in brisbane. I'm flying up to cairns on the 1st of january. It feels alitle weird leaving this place. I kinda felt like home aleady. well I'm excited to travel again though! I wish you a Happy New Year!! loads and loads of love

... Mt Isa so we pull into a free camp on the roadside for the night. While I'm getting the last couple of tent pegs in, Harold announces that "the chef's invited you over for dinner". Ah! F'n sweet dude! Pasta, veges and a melt-in-your-mouth steak were followed by yoghurt with peaches and a hot cuppa. This beats the **** out of pedaling hard all day, getting nowhere in the icy wind, and rewarding my efforts with spaghetti sandwiches, washed down by strange tasting locally sourced ...