Brisbane, Australia

We encountered a very strong current during the night and were an hour late getting into port in Brisbane. We were docked far from the city at the grain terminal. They have some tents erected at this dock for cruise passengers (think DIA). Since we were on a tour it didn’t make much difference to us, but it did mean that there was a 45 minute shuttle ride to the city center for those going on their own.
Brisbane is another beautiful city; it’s very young, the average age is just 33 and the city reflects that. There are not many old buildings - it’s mostly new glass skyscrapers.

We had booked an afternoon tour to the Koala Park, but it was canceled and we were moved to the morning tour. We usually book afternoon tours as they are less full - this time it wasn’t full enough to happen. Oh well. Since the ship was an hour late into port we only had an hour at the Koala park which wasn’t enough time but the schedule was dictated by having to catch our “riverboat” for a cruise back to the city.

All in all I give this tour a C- ; pretty much what I usually expect of a ship tour. The park was very commercial and most of the Koalas and other animals were sleeping. I did pay the $$ to hold a koala and have my picture taken - she was pretty cute. (BTW those aren’t wrinkles on my face… they are funny shadows). The river cruise lasted about 1 ½ hours and just passed many multi-million dollar houses bordering the river.

Ben- My hiking and bridge climbing days are probably over. I had an accident a couple years ago that shattered my pelvis and has left me somewhat disabled. I thought you might have noticed the cane in a couple of the pictures.