We set off for our first full day trip out and headed to the
Brisbane Botanic Gardens. They are just on the outskirts of Brisbane, but I had
to drive through town itself at one point. I am definitely getting better with
my lane positioning and signaling. I haven’t turned on the windshield wipers in
a while now! Shankar, Anoop, Rhys and I set out for a self-guided loop while we
waited for the rest of the party to arrive.
There wasn’t much in bloom as it is
winter here (highs have been between 21-25 ⁰C…), however, there was still tons
to see. We wound our way through the paths, stopping occasionally to read about
a tree. Rhys did quite well in the stroller until we passed a small waterfall
and creek… Mini meltdown ensued to the cries of “wawa, jump” as he loves
jumping in the water at the beach or pool. Any water we go by now seems to
elicit wails if it is not the appropriate venue! We visited a lovely Japanese
garden although we had to see it in shifts as Rhys was having a tantrum over
not being able to swim in the pond.
We met up with the rest of Anoop’s family and then visited
the fern gardens before stopping for lunch. We had a picnic in the cactus
garden where we saw birds drinking the nectar from some of the flowers in
bloom. We stopped off at the tropical dome which reminded us of Indonesia with
both the plant varieties and the humidity!
We then got back in the car to drive to the Australian
plants section of the garden. This loop wasn’t made up of several smaller
gardens, but rather was one large loop through the various types of vegetation
you would see in Australia.
They have been working on this section of the
garden for quite some time, but it is mostly plants from Queensland that are
found there at the moment. We wandered through eucalyptus and palm groves as
well as other treed areas. There was a smaller garden near where we parked
displaying plants you would find in local gardens. Here we found a few
flowering plants and I had fun taking a few pictures while Anoop continued
wandering a snoozing Rhys around.
After finishing at the gardens, we drove over to a nearby
viewpoint which offered up views of Brisbane itself. While one of us enjoyed
the view, the other chased Rhys around. He had seen a bus on the way up and
kept trying to make his way back to it so that he could “sit, bus, drive”.
We
then headed home, a tad slower than on the way in as we hit rush hour leaving
Brisbane. It didn’t add much to our trip and was certainly not like the slow
moving traffic we have at home.
james
2017-07-30
Great pics: thanks!
wendy
2017-08-03
There were some unique and interesting looking plants! Great pics all around!