Inspired by the success of our Saturday outing to Brisbane Forest Park, we decided a beach adventure was in order fro Sunday. Now from Brisbane, which is actually situated on a river not the ocean, there are several options, none of which unfortunately are all that conveniently close to our house. For those of you who don’t know, Mark works at the Amberly RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) base west, inland, of Brisbane, so although a house on the beach would be wonderful for Erik and me, the commute would be quite hideous for Mark.
The closest ocean beach area for us is probably Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast. However, this is also the most developed and built up beach as well, kind of Waikiki, Miami and Las Vegas rolled into one. Apparently, there have gotten to be so many high rises that they block the sun. Needless to say, it hasn’t been on the top of our list of places to go, but I suppose we’ll need to give it a fair shake some time soon.
For a slightly more laid back but still quite civilized beach experience, there is the Sunshine Coast, of which Noosa (see the link on the right) is a part. This area reminds us of sort of a tropical Whistler, lots of shops, restaurants, and new condo construction, all very tastefully done but maybe getting a bit too crowded.
Then is the Morton Bay shore, which has wetlands, an airport, a major marina, an industrial shipping facility and a few stretches of beaches. Not having explored it all, it’s hard to make a fair judgment, but it protected by a series of islands and is more of a protected shallow muddy bay than an open ocean beach.
Finally, there are quite a few islands off shore, North and South Stradbroke, Morton, and Bribie, being the major ones. Looking for a more natural beach experience without the hassles of a ferry, I selected Bribie as our destination, which we only reached because of Mark’s perseverance and equally horrendous traffic heading back towards Brisbane. Still being new to navigating our way around the city, I had foolishly chosen the shortest route that seemed to be on arterials through the city. The combination of traffic lights every few blocks and a smash (accident to you and me), made for painfully slow progress for the first 20 miles of the trip. It was so long and slow that we had to stop for lunch and a bathroom break while we were still in the suburbs. We had been in the car for over an hour and hadn’t even gotten close to the motorway. Luckily, we had nothing else to do and desperately wanted to go somewhere other than the Chermside Mac Donald’s Playland, so we continued on our way. Then magically aw we worked our way north, we were able to increase our speed ten fold and were routed on to the motorway where the kilometers clicked by effortlessly. However, there was a dark cloud on the horizon and heavy on coming traffic, masses of cars with their lights and windshield wipers on. Had we crawled our way through the seeming endless suburbs just to turn around and willingly enter into another traffic jam because of some precipitation? No, being Seattleites, we’d take our chances, walking in the rain if necessary. As it turned out, when we got to the beach, the sky had cleared and we spent what was left of the day building sand castles, playing in the waves, and enjoying the quiet natural setting. Too bad I forgot the card for my camera and had to use my cell phone to take pictures. It’s nearly impossible to see the screen in the bright sun, so most of the pictures are off center or slightly blurred, but you can get the general idea from what’s posted above.
The trip home was mercifully uneventful. We stopped for Chinese food before hitting the motorway, strategically avoiding any potential traffic. Erik tried using chopsticks for the first time and was very entertained by their alternate uses, light sabers for example. We wisely took the motorway all the way around the city rather than taking the supposedly shorter route through it, resulting in an hour and twenty minute return trip compared to a two an a half hour slog on the way out. Live and learn; it’s all part of the adventure.
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