Climbing Mt. Coot-tha
Well, not exactly climbing. Most mountains in Australia would be considered hills elsewhere, and we didn't actually climb......
It was another lovely, sunny day in Brisbane today. It wasn't hot, though, at least in part due to the breezes. And there are no bugs around yet, neither mozzies nor midges. An ideal time to visit southern Queensland.
Jane and I did errands this morning, along with an affable baby Jonathan, but decided to have a bit of fun this afternoon, and drove a short distance to Mt. Coot-tha, site of the new botanical gardens. The original botanical gardens in Brisbane were located near the central business district, on a peninsula which juts into the Brisbane river. It is a lovely site, and there is a nice park there, but, after numerous floods (with subsequent loss of valuable plant specimens), it was decided to move the actual botanical gardens to higher ground. And so a patch of bush near the base of Mt. Coot-tha became a botanical wonderland.
We had visited the foreign gardens earlier this week, on Friday, only to be confronted by lots of tourists and schoolchildren. (Schoolchildren in Australia apparently never actually attend school, but go from outing to outing. How else to explain the huge numbers of them constantly underfoot?) Today we meant to visit the (newer) Australian sections.
Jane and Jonathan
We stopped first at the Freedom Wall. On 15 August 1995, Australia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Victory in the Pacific, and the wall was built to celebrate the 50 years of freedom. It was a quiet, pleasant place, and walkway with plaques on the walls among native trees and bushes. The names were not those of the fallen, but of those who had fought to defend freedom; well, those who fought freedom and had paid for a plaque.
We had a lovely time in the gardens. There were lots of grevilleas to greet us,
and then we had a nice, quiet walk around a lake through a forest of palms, eucalypts, acacias, and other native trees.
We ended up admiring a variety of kangaroo paws.
On the way home we stopped briefly in the bougainvillea garden to glimpse at Brisbane at the overlook. It was a marvelous sight.
We went to overlook at the top of the mountain, where I found lots more postcards for Kalyna, but the views weren't as picturesque, although they were more expansive. I could see Moreton Bay, trace the course of the Brisbane River, and glimpse the far-off the dividing range.
(As always, click on th ephotos for a larger view.)
It was another lovely, sunny day in Brisbane today. It wasn't hot, though, at least in part due to the breezes. And there are no bugs around yet, neither mozzies nor midges. An ideal time to visit southern Queensland.
Jane and I did errands this morning, along with an affable baby Jonathan, but decided to have a bit of fun this afternoon, and drove a short distance to Mt. Coot-tha, site of the new botanical gardens. The original botanical gardens in Brisbane were located near the central business district, on a peninsula which juts into the Brisbane river. It is a lovely site, and there is a nice park there, but, after numerous floods (with subsequent loss of valuable plant specimens), it was decided to move the actual botanical gardens to higher ground. And so a patch of bush near the base of Mt. Coot-tha became a botanical wonderland.
We had visited the foreign gardens earlier this week, on Friday, only to be confronted by lots of tourists and schoolchildren. (Schoolchildren in Australia apparently never actually attend school, but go from outing to outing. How else to explain the huge numbers of them constantly underfoot?) Today we meant to visit the (newer) Australian sections.
Jane and JonathanWe stopped first at the Freedom Wall. On 15 August 1995, Australia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Victory in the Pacific, and the wall was built to celebrate the 50 years of freedom. It was a quiet, pleasant place, and walkway with plaques on the walls among native trees and bushes. The names were not those of the fallen, but of those who had fought to defend freedom; well, those who fought freedom and had paid for a plaque.
We had a lovely time in the gardens. There were lots of grevilleas to greet us,
and then we had a nice, quiet walk around a lake through a forest of palms, eucalypts, acacias, and other native trees.
We ended up admiring a variety of kangaroo paws.
On the way home we stopped briefly in the bougainvillea garden to glimpse at Brisbane at the overlook. It was a marvelous sight.
We went to overlook at the top of the mountain, where I found lots more postcards for Kalyna, but the views weren't as picturesque, although they were more expansive. I could see Moreton Bay, trace the course of the Brisbane River, and glimpse the far-off the dividing range.
(As always, click on th ephotos for a larger view.)
posted by Luba at 7:29 PM
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