Brisbane

Well... after being blown away by a combination of amazing scenery and fantastic cities in the preceding days, Brisbane was a slight anti-climax.

The city was pleasant enough - a man-made beach (not as tacky as it sounds) and plenty of cafes & restaurants on the south bank of the river, the CBD on the north side, and a pretty good bar/club scene to the east in the Fortitude Valley area.

But it does seem a decade or so behind Melbourne & Victoria. The 'pommy-bashing' had now changed from friendly ribbing to a deeper form of hatred - as one of the standups testified at the Dockside comedy club: "I f***ing hate them", as we cowered silently at the back of the room. Even Kirst was labbelled a pom, with that obvious English accent she has!

Obviously this may all have been due to the Ashes first test that was taking place at the time. So on Friday we headed out to the Gabba to watch the 2nd days play, praying we could give the aussies a good hammering. Erm, You all know what happened next...

On the Thursday we took a river cruise up to a wildlife sanctuary, which was really cool. Hand-fed kangaroos (got to wander around their enclosure) and watched koalas, crocs, emus, etc.

Heading onto Byron Bay next, so will update again then...

J & K x

Pics:

- the first artificially inseminated baby koala!

- James feeding kangaroo (note the joey in pouch!)

- Kirsten feeding kangaroo

- Kirsten on cruise up the Brisbane river

- During England's capitulation James seeking solace in beer at the Gabba