'gabba to herston via bike paths

Went for a 20km ride on Saturday - 'gabba to Herston via the Brisbane cycle paths. It's a really good ride, get to go over a lovely walk/ride bridge into the city then through a tunnel and into the Roma St park lands. The rest of the trip follows the rail line and over a garden on an over pass and into yet another park land area. We turned left and into the Uni from there, but you can go a lot further north along the creek.

Not many photos - need to figure out a way to take them without stopping all the time.. takes too long to get anywhere with the camera in my bag.

It's great having my bike back in action - thanks to the HUGE effort of TK at Bike Obsession in Albert St.. nothing is standard on this bike he tells me... not a single bolt or nut. ;)

Some more photos here:

Garden update

Haven't gone anywhere lately... oh wait! we went to Sydney last weekend - which was great, but no photos sadly. Was so good to see every one again. :)

The garden on the other hand is going places for sure! Lots of tomatoes and peas and even managed to grow to some brocolini.. thanks to the possum proof fence.

The sunflowers are the highlight though - I planted them along the back fence. They're so tall!

Hopefully going for a bike tour over the Christmas holiday... either in Stanthorpe or Tassie.. can't wait

making the most of the burbs

So, here I am inner city burbs again. I love living close to work and close to the city.

I now have the best workroom yet. Nate made the work bench for me our of reclaimed timber. It's very light and reddish - so might be cedar. The Bunka dummy came from Japan. I've got a box full of stuff that's been waiting for 4 years to be used. :)

The ride the to work is awesome. Bike paths all the way and off the road, even get to ride over 2 foot bridges and one over the river.

The landlord's given permission for chickens which I'll get once the garden grows a bit, but they'll have to compete with the ravenous possums who live in the backyard - they've eaten all the coriander and anything else they can get their paws on.

It's not too bad in the burbs, even after the dazzling heights of London, Europe and Townsville ;)

tiny gecko

There's a heap of these little geckos around at the moment. This one lives indoors.

Sea Kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands

Last Easter Nate, Dana, C'zarke and I were hiking in the Scottish Highlands.. this easter we decided to do something at sea level. We went sea kayaking in the Whitsunday Islands - off the coast of Airlie Beach.

On Friday Nate and I paddled east from Shute Harbour to Paddle Bay on South Molle Island camped overnight. Crossing over to South Molle was a little bit hairy as the tide was going out and we wanted to head east not north (rapidly). Paddle Bay camping site is really beautiful - there's a toilet (pit) and picnic tables. No water though. Butterflies everywhere! Not sure why but they were all bravely flying out a metre above the water to the islands. Next day we waited for slack water and headed off to Planton Island where we were meeting Dana and C'zarke. We had the island all to ourselves - national parks only allow 4 people on at a time. It was great fun, even though it rained a bit and so cool having our own beach. The toilet on Planton Island has three sides and no roof or door... still at least there's a toilet and no roof means no nice snake to greet you in the middle of the night.

I didn't realise how stable sea kayaks are - they're great fun and not that hard to paddle. We rented ours from Salty Dog at Shute Harbour and 100% recommend them.

The water was really warm and a lovely light milky blue but still cloudy from the cyclone a fortnight ago - so no great underwater pictures of coral reef this time. Maybe in a few weeks when we go Misson Beach.

Here's some more pics

Magnetic Island with Miranda

Another trip to the Island this weekend, this time with Miranda - up from Sydney. Lots of fun. Was hoping the sea would get too rough for the ferry on Sunday (on account of the cyclone that missed Townsville) and we'd all get stuck there for another day, but sadly it was not to be.

Beautiful sunset on the way over and once the wind shifted to the north the water turned an amazing luminous light blue. We took the risk of no stinger nets and went swimming in Alma Bay. I tried out my new waterproof bag for the camera, hoping to get a snap of some fish, but the water was very cloudy so I took photos of Nate swimming instead.

Managed to get a photo of a Sunbird this time - they have bright yellow bellies and kind of peep. On the way back we watched a massive container ship being manouvered by two tug boats.

The place we stayed in was so good - kind of Ballanese, wooden floors, great kitchen and a fantastic pool. Even provided a bbq. If I could I'd live on the island instead of Townsville. :)

Here's some more pics

Ross River Dam Ride

Big ride yesterday - 65km return trip to the Ross River Dam. Now I appreciate why Townsville doesn't run out of water during the long dry season.

The bike path along the river is one of the best I've been on. It's paved, wide enough for 3 bikes most of the way and away from traffic. The weather was perfect - overcast and raining. And on the way back there's a perfectly placed pub for lunch with a spectacular view of the river and one of the weirs.

The wild life here is amazing. Yesterday we saw a Blue Winged Kookaburra, Rainbow Bee Eater, Rock Wallabies, a lost Galah sitting by the road and the two Jabiru who live in the wet lands in Townsville. They're huge black headed storks and we got to see them doing all their Jabiru things, one caught a huge fish, the other flew over head carrying a stick for their nest. They're big birds and walk in a funny kind of unhurried way.

It's a beautiful ride, and strangely we were the only people on the path most of the time.

Here's some pics