Brisbane, Australia March 2

We arrive in Moreton Bay at 3:30 AM, load the pilot, and are docked by 8:00 AM at Fisherman’s Island. Queen Elizabeth is too large to sail into Brisbine, as it would be unable to dock, or turn around in the river. As a result we are docked in a grain terminal - about 25 Km from the city. We are taking a tour this morning, so there is no need to take a shuttle bus into the city.




Our first stop is a koala sanctuary - which also has many of the other animals of Australia. Sumner has his picture taken with a Koala. The Koala’s name is Bart (or Burt) - hard to tell due to the Australian accent. They weigh about as much as our cat Tiger Lilly (who is rather ample for a cat). We spend time in a field of kangaroos - Jean actually pets one (although it would rather have been fed).




We are educated about kangaroos from our guide. A kangaroo when born is about the size of a human thumb. It is blind and hairless. When it comes out of the birth canal, it needs to crawl up the front and into the pouch. There it attaches itself to a nipple, and will stay attached. It will probably find another - 6 month old kangaroo in the pouch. The older kangaroo will go in and out of the pouch. The mother kangaroo manages to provide two different formulas for the offspring.

We watch an Australian sheep dog in action. Sheep dogs manage a flock of sheep from the front of  the animals. They should not nip at the heals. This is in contrast to dogs, who do nip the heals of the cows. Some of the animals in the sanctuary are difficult to see. We see the feet and part of the bill of a platypus, floating behind a log. There are lots of koalas. They eat eucalyptus leaves (but only certain varieties).  Because the leaves are toxic, they manage to process the moisture, and exude the toxin through their pores while they’re sleeping. They sleep most of the time, due to the toxins.

The temperature today is in the 90s, and it is good to return to the air-conditioned bus. We visit Coot-tha (one-tree) hill, for a view of the city. After that we get a tour of the city. Brisbane is a modern city, with very few old historical buildings. It has grown to a population of about 1.9 million people. Many high rise apartments and office buildings are in the city center.

It is 2:00 PM before the tour is over. We decide to return to the ship, rather than wander in the downtown in the heat and catch the shuttle back to the ship. We are quite thirsty when we get back - the bottles of water each of us took having been used up several hours earlier.  So we go up to the Garden Lounge, where we get some sandwiches (British tea sandwiches).  Jean has a half pint of beer and Sumner has a Mai Tai in memory of drinks we enjoyed when we were in the Philippines and Tokyo, years ago.  The ship should sail at 5:30 PM, once everyone has returned. We will have a two day run up the coast to Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef, our next port of call.