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This month I travelled out of Canberra to Queensland a state in northern Australia. I travelled to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland for three days and then flew further north onto Yeppoon which is a town on the coast of Queensland. The reason for my visit was to see friends and have time away from the cold of Canberra so I hopped on a plane and an hour and a half later landed in Brisbane but to make the trip more comfortable, I used my Qantas Frequent Flyer points and travelled in Business Class!

A couple of my friends had recently moved to Brisbane from Canberra so once I was picked up from the airport I went to their home where Vanessa and I enjoyed a glass of champagne overlooking the Brisbane River; the river unfortunately being very brown from the recent torrential rain, but still a stunning view.

On one of my days, my friends and I went to a rather new hotel in Brisbane called The Emporium located on the South Bank river and parklands precinct. Our lunch was at the rooftop bar and restaurant and as the rain had stopped we had lovely blue skies and great views of the city skyline.

Sharon chose our beverage and we started off with a very tasty champagne (feeling there is a theme to this visit) and then we all enjoyed a leisurely lunch. My four friends shared two seafood platters and I ordered spring rolls and a tomato salad. It was a lovely way to catch up with great friends I had not seen for some time. And at the same time enjoying those outside views and also the interior of the bar which is very modern and quite glamorous.

Whilst I was in Brisbane it was National Volunteers Week being Australia’s largest celebration of volunteering. One evening my friend Sandy and I walked home from dinner over The Storey Bridge a steel cantilever bridge that spans the Brisbane River, which was lit red to support National Volunteers Week to commemorate the work carried out by volunteers. And wow…it was so beautiful! And whilst the bridge is very lovely during the day, when it was lit red it was spectacular.

After three days it was time to leave Brisbane for Yeppoon. I had to take a plane to Rockhampton which is about a trip of just over an hour then my friend of 45 years came to collect me. I hadn’t been up to Rockhampton nor Yeppoon before and I hadn’t seen Tracey for quite some years so it was going to be a lovely few days visiting in her new home.

Our first day we went for a leisurely walk with her two beautiful dogs along one of the dog friendly beaches. We had woken early and the sun was just rising with a forecast for the day of mid twenties (degrees) so lovely weather to walk early.

That day we also took advantage of the blue skies and weather and walked along the promenade in town. So glad we did as the next two days the rain has not stopped and it’s become torrential.

Today, we did drive down to the beach with the dogs to see if the rain would stop as yesterday we were fortunate to be able to walk for half an hour; today not so. So we took a long drive for me to see some of Yeppoon; what a pretty place with lovely countryside and beautiful beaches. Beaches look so different without sun and blue skies; but still lovely.

One sight Tracey showed me was of a luxury boat (said to be worth $2m AUD) that had smashed into rocks after wild seas at Statue Bay, taken on water and eventually ripped its anchor resulting in it landing at Lammermoore Beach. I was told the owner of the boat does not have insurance!!! (big mistake) and it was his friend who was bringing the boat to Yeppoon on his behalf. There is a moral to this story and it’s something about if you have multi million dollar luxury boat – buy insurance!!

source: abc.net.au

And locals are said to be angry about the environmental issues (plastics and foam being consumed by turtles/fish), the time the owner is taking to remove the boat and about the amount of rubbish from the boat that is in the water and on the beach – don’t blame them!

So this has been my lovely trip away, one more day to go then back to Canberra where it’s temperature is in the low teens; chilly!