SUNDAY OUTING - Part 1

Saturday night was a mite chilly at around 6 degrees but, as with our usual August weather, Sunday was a bright sparkly day with a forecast temperature of 25 degrees.
Just the weather for a river walk into the city.

I know I've taken you  on this walk before but there is always something new to see in a city that was only born in 1842 when it changed from a goal for difficult convicts from New South Wales and was opened up to free settlers.

As usual we drove to the CityCat terminal near Queensland University so we could travel across the river to start our walk.

It wasn't long before one came speeding up the river......

and we were qickly off to the other side of the river.

From here we set off towards the city through the parkland that lines the river.

Families were out and about with children making good use of all the lovely play equipment provided and Mums and Dads had the BBQs fired up with sausages, steak and onions sizzling.

There were several birthday parties along the way too....

....like this one where the little boys were all dressed up with swords and shields to fight a couple of the Dads dressed up as knights !!

We walked along, sometimes in sunlight, sometimes in welcome shade.

This section of the Brisbane river is tidal and salty and those trees you can see growing along the banks are mangroves which are very important to the ecology of the river.

Usually the river bed is muddy but occasionally you come to little sandy sections too.

As we neared the city there were more and more people out on the river enjoying the sunshine.

Just fooling around ....

water ski-ing ....

and kayaking.

We have a new bridge recently opened to relieve traffic congestion but not well used yet because it is a toll bridge.......

but it has lovely sweeping lines, don't you think?

We walked under an older bridge with an interesting mural adorning it ...

before heading towards another new bridge, this time for pedestrians only.

This is a favourite of mine as it is designed to remind you of the rigging on tall ships.

The path continues on towards Southbank parklands past the new Gallery of Modern Art and the State Library .....

but we walked across the Kurilpa Bridge and into the city......

....taking in some lovely views of our very modern city as we walked.

Once in the city we were just in time to witness quite a large protest rally - a " Save the Planet" type of affair

 which ended in our new, very ugly city square.

I'm glad you can't see what the "new " square is like for all the people, but let me just say that all progress is not good and our old square was much nicer than this bare replacement !!!

The city was very busy with all the shops doing a roaring trade especially the food ones. ( Don't people eat out a lot these days ?)

We chose noodles for lunch and rested a while before setting out on the second part of our walk.

More tomorrow.

Cheers