“Gubun Gubun Awesome”

While it is our final push to bring the bear to home in northern New South Wales, we decide an unscheduled stop in Brisbane. We have already crossed several times the capital of Queensland but never really visit.

A room found in a small bed & Breakfast located just north of the Central Business District allows us to leave we walk on foot. Crossing the Victoria Bridge, we walk on Southbank, the charming southern bank of the Brisbane River which allows us to preview the CBD at sunset. In case you have any doubt as to the city in front of you, his name is installed from 2016 in large letters over two meters high. Originally this for a G20 summit, the sign was made again in a more robust material to withstand the Queensland weather. Each letter has been decorated by different groups.

B by the Brisbane Pride Festival ; R by Brisbane Youth Service, a group providing assistance to homeless and disadvantaged young people in the city ; I by the Queensland branch of Amnesty International, the group wanted to recreate the AI ​​candle to highlight the freedom and equality ; S by students in Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art Griffith University, delighted to have the S represents the sovereignty and saying sorry – s’excuser ; the second B by Multicap Association ; A by the Multicultural Development Association of Queensland, the group helps newly arrived refugees to settle in Brisbane, Rockhampton et Toowoomba ; N by the Queensland Children's Week, the group wanted to show what the children like Brisbane, celebrating the uniqueness and importance of children ; and finally the E by the Queensland Country Women's Association who has seen the day 1922 and continues to help those living in the countryside and in town.

A little further we can compare the city across the river to its versions 1835, then 1965. More we sink in the green areas of Southbank, the more we are delighted. Parklands These were originally built for the Universal Exhibition 1988, we cross the Nepalese Peace Pagoda, also built for the Universal Exhibition, a path lined with bougainvillea, an artificial beach, gardens of all kinds, Tropical in the aromatic, Art in all its forms, Confucius…

Night falls and doucettement Brisbane lights as we take the way back. After a stop at Sushi Hub which offers vegan options and frankly respectable size of sushi for the price, I return to our household gods while my eral leave skim a few local pubs.

Monday 21 more, we stop briefly in the area surrounding the city of Gold Coast, which, knows why, seems to attract so many tourists by its name and its location, but many have to leave disappointed when they realize that this is just a skyscraper clusters. Our Ours is no exception whatever appreciate the trip to the Hard Rock Cafe Surfers Paradise. After a final sightseeing for him Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the largest reserve of existing koalas in the world since 1927, we swallow the last kilometers to be back at Ocean Shores to happy hour.

Aperitif we take with our adoptive Australian parents that we are very happy to be back. They welcome the Bear with open arms and it is more than welcome to spend his last days in Australia on the sofa in our little house we have invested again. After a fire in Australian dimension joy, we taste tacos on the patio, telling our journey in Queensland.

The last four days, we take the Bears in the nearby cities, he discovers a region he expected to find in Gold Coast : villages relaxed oceanfront. Ballina south we go the coastal road to Byron Bay through the cities of Lennox Head, Suffolk Park…
Byron Bay lighthouse we have the incredible luck and surprise of observing a school of dolphins close to having fun surfing in the waves – Sorry for the video quality when you can only guess dolphins !
A tower in the town of Mullumbimby a little more inland, a last dinner with our hosts and Friday 25 more, Bear flies from Brisbane to return to France.
As for us, we are for the coming months settled in this little paradise which I would share some photos before we were leaving by next year…

PS. : Title of the article means Travel safely or “have a nice trip” in the language of Djabugay.

Le char d’assaut à tenu le coup… jusque là. Après quatre-mille kilomètres de highway, montagnes et de pistes australiennes, une vibration se fait sentir au freinage, nous démontons les roues, rien d’apparent, on finira les dernières heures de route tout en douceur.

 

Pour conclure cet époustouflant, épique et pimenté épisode australien, je ramène l’ourson à son albatros à hublots. Non pas sans une dernière frayeur : l’aéroport international n’est pas l’endroit où l’on fait le check-in pour aller de Brisbane à Sydney 🙂

 

Nous arriverons quand même à temps au terminal domestique. Sayonara l’ami !