We arrived in sunny Brisbane, reunited with my cousin after not seeing each other since Christmas, we caught up on the past 6 months and old times. We where lucky enough to stay inside at my cousin’s house where we spent the next couple of days spending time with her young family and checking out Brisbane CBD.

Our first full day we didn’t venture too far from where my cousin lived and we were in the beautiful D’Aguilar National Park where we enjoyed a picnic lunch and a 4km walk through the rainforest which lead us to some waterfalls.

Friday morning, after dropping my cousin’s eldest daughter at school and after watching a few episodes on Netflix Michael and I got ready to head into the city. We caught the bus just from the end of the street and we were lucky to get a free fare due to the bus drivers striking. We got off at the Roma St station and spent the afternoon roaming around the city and Southbank.

After enjoying a drink at a rooftop bar looking over the Brisbane river we then caught the water ferry to the suburb of Hamilton. Here we met my cousin and her family at Eat Street. Eat Street was a market place, filled with many food and drink stalls offering cuisines from all over the world. The vendors where mainly all serving out of recycled shipping containers which they had turned into kitchens and shops fronts along with Kombis vans which had been converted into food vans. We started our food and drink experience by sharing and appetiser of salt and pepper squid and I got a passionfruit and strawberry mocktail while Michael got a XXXX gold beer. Then for mains I got pork dumplings with Japanese chicken and rice as Michael enjoyed his Indian butter chicken. I was too full to fit anything else in but Michael still had room to try a cookie dough ice cream sandwich for sweets. We rolled out of there, with all our bellies full, a fun night had by all.

Saturday had come around and it was a  day Michael has been waiting for. After years of being a devoted Brisbane Lions supporter, the time had finally come where he could watch his team play a home game at the Gabba. After a sleep in from our food coma the night before, in the late morning we headed back into the city again via public transport, this time also free as we had our game tickets. Before the game, we had a cheap game day special lunch at the Wooloongabba hotel then we walked across the road to the Gabba. Arriving extremely early to the 4:15pm game, I had time for a nap while Michael watched the pre-game of the lion’s reserves team. The time had come around to bounce down and the game was on, for the whole 3 and ½ quarters until unfortunately in about the last 10 minutes the bulldogs won the game. Michael was still very happy to have gone and experience the lions playing at the Gabba.

Our final day in Brisbane we visited the nearby Engoggera Reservoir where we enjoyed the morning watching the kids have a dip and walked around the bush track.

Late afternoon we said our goodbyes as we were on our way again, this time heading towards The Australia Zoo. We found ourselves parked up at the Caboolture show grounds, thinking we would just spend the one night while we visited the zoo the next day. We ended up staying a week, as the show ground offered a pay for 5 night’s stay 7, so it was $75 for the week.

On the Tuesday we spent the whole day at Australia Zoo. Looking at all the animals from Koalas and Wombats to giraffes and snakes and of course Crocodiles. As we were walking around there was many memoirs around the zoo of the famously known Crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin.

After a day at the zoo we were back at the Caboolture show grounds where we made good friends with our neighbours, another young couple travelling around Australia. There was always something going on at the show grounds for most of the week there was an Equestrian competition going on, also most mornings and evenings there was a nearby shooting range. When there wasn’t much going on at the show grounds we ventured out to the nearby beach for a walk and we attempted but did not succeed the vertical glass house mountain walk. On Saturday after an unsuccessful day fishing at the Caboolture river mouth we went to the local RSL to watch the football and have a feed while spending the rest of the night watching the rock and roll dancers and band. Sunday morning we were up early to get our fresh local produce at the showgrounds farmers markets to stock up for our next outback adventure.

Read next week as we slowly make our way from Caboolture to Birdsville! We are going to the annual Birdsville races where we are volunteering in the hospitality team at the main event.

( p.s I will upload more photos once i get better reception/ wifi)