Brisbane

I'm back! For the last few months we've had no phone line and so no internet at home but we finally got it fixed last week and so I'm back online at last.

The long road north

In the interim the summer has come and gone and in that time I've not been up to very much as it's just way too hot for me. We did manage a couple of trips though and back at the end of January I thought I'd put the car through it's paces and road-trip it to Brisbane. I picked Brisbane because there's a wetland at the Port of Brisbane that's set up to protect migratory waders. What's more there were no fewer than 4 potential ticks reported from said wetland that had been hanging round there since early December.

Locked out

Paul joined Emily and myself for the journey and with much anticipation we headed north. The best part of two days later we rocked up at the Port of Brisbane to discover that the wetland wasn't open to the public! They hadn't mentioned that in any of the reports. We did our best to peer through the fence and I think I probably did see Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Asian Dowitcher but we were just too far away to be sure. Security then turned up and put a very official end to proceedings!

Big Banana

A long way to go for nothing but road trips are always fun and I did find my new favourite coastal town. Coff's Harbour is quiet and pleasant and not only has a Big Banana and a bizarre model Dutch village but the little harbour was full of dolphins and turtles and also a smashing Wobbegong shark.

Wobbegong

I tried a bit of fishing off the pier as well but without any real bait we had to resort to left-over pizza which just didn't do the job. The turtles seemed quite keen on it though!

As far as 'big' things go the Big Prawn at Ballina is my favourite