BRISBANE

Again we have been so lucky with the weather, especially when you consider what Brisbane was like a short while ago.  We docked in beautiful sunshine, but the cruise into the port showed upturned small craft, some jammed into the river bank, and marks on the shore side where the water had risen.  P&O laid on a shuttle bus to take us into the centre of Brisbane, and the driver told us his bus is 4.3m high, and if he had driven it into the city centre, like we were doing, then it would have been completely under water.

We stopped in a shopping mall for a coffee and were able to get wifi so I could check emais etc.  We had a look around the shops, the malls are very like Cribbs Causeway or Cabot Circus, but the prices are much higher than at home. 

We had lunch out, our first since we embarked at Southampton, and had two glasses of wine each, some grilled Moreton Bay Bugs (like crayfish) together with king prawns – all in their shells – and a couple of scallops.  A green salad accompanied it and we ended the meal with a coffee each.  The bill came to $A136, which with a 10% tip came to just under £100!  This was in a café down the middle of the shopping area, so dread to think what we would have paid in a restaurant!

We then went for a walk into a park where Ian pointed out a ‘lizard’ on a tree.  Difficult to give you scale on a photo, but his tail was just about a foot long and his body the same, so glad he was some distance away!

We are now GMT +11 and it is 1100 on Monday here.  I am sitting on the balcony typing this, the sun is shining and the sea is flat calm.  We can just see the coast of Australia some 19 miles distant, but we are really looking forward to our sail in tomorrow morning past the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  That will mean a really early start, probably soon after 0500, but definitely worth getting up early!

We have two days in Sydney, so will update the blog towards the end of the week.