The Great Outdoors Around Brisbane

Carol and I recently decided to go for a walk after work, like we often do. Brisbane is such a walkable city with paths and plenty of nice scenery. Of course, the amazing weather helps too. We decided to take a slightly different route than usual to try and seek out the Roma Street Parklands, which are just at the edge of the CBD, about 15 minutes walking from our apartment.

When we got there, we really weren’t exactly sure what to expect. Having been to the botanic gardens many times already, I was told the Roma Street Parklands were more formal and all around supposed to be better kept. It didn’t take us more than a few minutes of walking around to realize just how absolutely beautiful the park is! The park is long and not too wide but has a rather large change in elevation from the top to the bottom. We started at the top where you’ll find plenty of formal gardens, themed gardens, plants from all over the world and statues. Even the lawns looked like they were neatly tended by the Augusta greenskeeper.

Wandering down from there are several more layers of slightly larger and thicker gardens, an amphitheater easily seating a few hundred and some deeper forested areas. Carol and I decided it was time to head into the big trees in the “Fern Gully”. (Yes, that’s right, there are actually signs everywhere that call it the Fern Gully. Anyone else remember the scene where they all sing Land of 1,000 Dances? Man it took a long time to stop thinking about that…) Considering it was dusk, we walked our way down the bridges and paths, through the huge overhanging leaves, meanwhile, debating who was going to walk first because neither of us wanted spider webs in our face. And the spiders here are HUGE. Once we got out of that area, which actually became quite nerve wracking as the sun pretty much set with huge thick greenery over our heads and we couldn’t see where we were going, we started to check out the assortment of ponds that dot the bottom portion of the park. At the very bottom is a large open grassy field which looks absolutely perfect for a touch football game. Down in this area we must have seen at least half a dozen different groups of people working out. Some of the groups were pretty large (15-20 people) and most looked like there was a trainer or leader. Right next to this area was a number of public barbeques (i.e. - grills) and quite a few people who decided it was a great night to have a barbie.

What a wonderful city! We’re finding out more about it all the time. The outdoorsy feeling here is very much like Chicago in the summer, only I have the feeling it lasts much longer than about three months here. We use our balcony nearly every day – often for dinner but sometimes to just relax after work with a frosty beverage. The outdoor culture lends itself very well to sports, with tennis courts, swimming pools, rugby fields, cricket grounds, and golf courses found all over the area and open year round. I’ve played golf the last two weekends (take that golfers back home! two rounds for the year and it’s February!) and the courses here seem to be in good shape and are relatively quite affordable. I picked up a decent set of used clubs today for dirt cheap and plan to use them all year long.

We keep seeing wildlife around the city, which is honestly a bit odd for as metropolitan as Brisbane is. Here is a small running list:
-Ibis
-Kookaburras
-Possum (an unrelated and far better looking version of the opossum)
-Bush turkeys
-Big lizards, medium lizards, small lizards, leaping lizards…
-Flying foxes (huge fruit bats)
-Kangaroos (ok, not really in the city but just outside)
-Turtles
-Cockatoos (so loud and annoying in the middle of your backswing)
-Big frogs

and…

-BIG ASS SPIDERS

We’ll keep adding more as we see them.