Thursday, August 28, 2014

Bluebird over the Mountain

Returned to the scene of last week's late start - the Bunyaville parkrun. As I explained previously it's much more like a short fell race than the other Australian parkruns that I've competed in, it's all off road and hilly and, although this photo doesn't seem to illustrate it very well, I'm coming full pelt down a long slope towards the end of the race. In third place but I'm looking annoyed because I'd hung on in second for much of the race but got blown away by a young lad who, fair play, seemed to have judged the pace perfectly.

Have now found a race at a place called Numinbah Valley that looks more like my cup of tea in September - off road, 11 miles with around 2500 foot of climbing, I suspect that there's nothing too technical about it but we shall see! It's a there and back over the Wunburra range and has two good climbs in it. Anyway until then it's parkruns and the Bridge to Brisbane run (abbreviated to the B2B which everyone seems to know all about including non runners.)



This is an example of a Queensland Bottle Tree - it has a bulky trunk intended to store water in drought conditions - it also looks a bit like something I seem to remember from Dr Who in the 1960's - if I hang around too long in this position and Vicky turns her back for a couple of seconds, I'll suddenly get absorbed by the tree leaving nothing behind apart from a size 13 New Balance running shoe. Australia has a wonderful resource called the National Register of Significant Trees and I found that there is one of these Bottle Trees in Toowoomba that is over 3 metres in diameter. Unfortunately we left Toowoomba last week and won't be there again this trip! We did find a London Plane Tree in Spring Bluff with a height of over 40 metres - these are the trees commonly found on London streets that have flaky bark that peels off in sheets about the size of your hand - very resistant to pollution in London which explains their widespread planting but the cockneys  who brought them to Australia found that they were also very tolerant of heat and drought!

Bird of the day is the Blue Faced Honeyeater - spotted a pair of them this afternoon on a fence just round the corner in suburban Brisbane. They were sitting in the sun and the blue bit on their faces was startlingly iridescent. Since we've been here I've logged nearly 50 Australian species of bird and until now I didn't think I was a twitcher.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Beware the Rabbit Inspector!


Interesting road signs in Australia include the expected roadside Koalas and Kangaroos crossing notices but we've seen warning signs for crocodiles and camels. This rabbit signage illustrates the concern Aussies have about rabbits, which have caused extensive ecological harm over the years. So no you can't keep pet rabbits in Queensland - this sign we saw yesterday tells bunny fanciers what to expect!

We drove out to Toowoomba which is 80 miles inland from Brisbane - it's large enough, getting on for 100 000 inhabitants with a university, but it feels a bit more like you'd expect mainstream Australia to feel with a small town centre, lots of big trucks and a real focus on agriculture. Not quite the outback of Crocodile Dundee but nowhere near as cosmopolitan as the major cities.
As already mentioned we stayed in an apartment (the Glen Ellen B and B) which used to be a dentist's surgery. Excellent accommodation, close to the town centre - walking distance to good places for beer and food (especially the National which has been recently revamped https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Hotel-Toowoomba). Beer of the night for me was Cavalier Smoked Rye Beer but the Hopinator from Holgate Brewery and the Newstead Primitif were also top notch. We're beginning to find some fabulous beer over here (no it's not just that we've been away from the UK for so long!)

On our way into town in the early evening we came across a sight that we recognised -  this being a group of about a dozen or so of the local club Toowoomba Road Runners spread out with a couple of speed merchants at the front and some gentle joggers at the back. This sound familiar?



 This fella is a Grey Butcherbird which sat on a branch close to us while we had a picnic at Crow's Nest. Didn't seem to be bothered with us at all and must have been there for twenty minutes - we left before he did. We also spotted an Eastern Yellow Robin and a Red Browed Finch while we had a cream tea at Spring Bluff railway station, I managed to snap all three of these with our pocket digital camera - not best quality but at least I'm remembering to actually bring the camera along.







Tuesday, August 19, 2014

We were late mate!


She's game!


Best Ozzie Parkrun yet at Bunyaville. Lots of climb, all off road in the forest and would qualify as a short fell race back home. We both thoroughly enjoyed it very much and our fell running skills are not forgotten. However if we'd got there ten minutes earlier we'd have been able to start with everyone else. The traffic round here is fairly light at 6.30 in the morning on a Saturday but you can still waste a lot of time going round in circles!! We arrived with the other runners out of sight in the forest but we were able to follow the flags and caught the backmarkers fairly swiftly.  My recorded time was over half an hour but I timed myself at 24.23. Thank goodness I can have another go at it next week. The climbing will hopefully stand us in good stead as we've now seen the initial daunting climb at the Bridge to Brisbane 10K which we're both running in three weeks time. The first K is over the Sir Leo Heilscher bridge which is actually two huge bridges - they built one and it got too congested so they built another identical bridge parallel to it.
At the weekend we got to the final day of the EKKA which used to be known as the Royal Queensland Show. Imagine the Denbigh and Flints Show but much bigger - half a million visitors many of them from 'up-country' jumping on the rides at the huge fairground and snacking on delicacies such as Dagwood Dogs and cheese on a stick. Great entertainment in the main arena (an old stately cricket stadium) with utes with enormous wheels and horse trotting. Plus the best firework display we've ever seen.

Have a glug of this grog!
Fosters is bit of a joke among the Aussies. The Australians don't drink it and we've only seen it in one bar which was a backpackers' pub for British tourists. The big selling brands are Carlton and VB in Melbourne, Swan in Western Australia and Castlemaine XXXX in Brisbane. However last night we found a very hoppy Tasmanian beer called First Harvest brewed once a year with the first hops by  the Cascade Brewery, this was at the Spotted Cow in Toowoomba, Queensland. Cascade is  a curiosity as it's the oldest brewery in Australia, bought out by SAB Miller some years ago it has been more or less left to its own devices and makes a small amount of good ale.

Whilst in Toowoomba we're staying in an apartment that used to be a dentist's surgery - snoozing to the sound of the drill and the groaning ghosts of patients long gone.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

The Face of the Moon

Here's a good question for all you blogfollowers - we've already established that water flows out of sinks in the opposite direction to that back at home and revolving doors go the other way round - we've had a full moon here this week, so what do we see down under? Is it:

  1. exactly the same face as in the northern hemisphere
  2. the same  side upside down
  3. the other side of the moon?
You can post your comment at the end of this post! I'll add up the responses and let you know who's right.

I'm a Fairy Wren!
This morning's early run in the Bayside Parklands Park over the road from where we've been staying was my last as we're moving on today. I've really enjoyed these morning runs with the dog and have rarely seen another soul. Today I spotted a pair of Superb Fairy Wrens and managed to get just a couple of yards away from them, they're bit like blue tits but with much bigger fan shaped tails which they use in their remarkable fluttering flight - they fly just like big butterflies! Also a Willy Wagtail - yes that's it's official name! These guys wag their tails from side to side, unlike wagtails back home who wag 'em up and down. And came close up to a bunch of tiny Buttonquails. Unfortunately again I had no    camera so this is a google-snap of the Fairy Wren

 Went down to the Old Cleveland Lighthouse
I see no ships.
yesterday where we saw Welcome Swallows, Pelicans,  Little Pied Cormorants and an Osprey. The Welcome Swallow is not quite the same as the swallows we have back at home but the osprey is as it's one of the few birds to be found all over the world. It's not a big lighthouse but it's a very important one and was built exactly 100 years before I was born so in Australian terms it's ancient history. Cleveland Point was a seaport set to rival Brisbane 100 years ago and tons of wool was loaded onto ocean going cargo boats here. The tall trees in the background are Norfolk pines originally only found on a Pacific Island.


Who you lookin' at?
We had some very nice ice cream and sat by the seafront scoffing pistachio and apricot sorbet. A gaggle of seagulls started to gather hopefully and this one seemed to be the leader (very noisy) as he chased the others away and stood by demanding to be fed. At least they don't do what the seagulls do in Llandudno and dive bomb you to pinch your food. This was a Silver Gull which is just about the only seagull here - whereas in the UK we have lots of different types of gull (is it the Greater Black Backed Gull or the Herring Gull which dive bombs folk outside chipshops in Llandudno?)

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Quick update from the land of Oz


Results eventually published for our Parkrun and I managed my first sub twenty 5K since last year. Report and a photo are at http://www.parkrun.com.au/wynnum/news/ just look at those lovely trees which are planted to shelter the promenaders on the seafront from the searing midday sun.  There's me in the middle in my red Welsh Castles t-shirt, being a 'technical' t-shirt it helps me to run faster, shelters me from the rain and sun and means that I can see myself in the photos a mile away - yes I do have my Denbigh Harriers vest with me and will wear it next time! Vicky was slightly held back by a Kelpie Fox Terrier cross called Gizmo.

 
Very sad to see Robin 'na nu' 'Williams has died. Particularly 
impressed with him because, fair play, when he visited Billy Connolly at his Scottish highland estate he competed in the highland games hill run. Having done one of two of these I know they are a good match for some of our Welsh fell races. Impressed also that he didn't come in last. OK despite he wasn't Welsh he was still a quirky funny character. Billy Connolly was too, in a way, before he became famous, likewise Mike Harding before he became cuddly. All these guys had to make it or break it on the circuit in the 70's and 80's and if they couldn't handle the hecklers in workingmen's clubs on Friday nights they were doomed. Personally I thought they were sharper and more incisive all those years ago. Jasper Carrott was a case in point - he might have been a bit of a dork all along but when I saw him at Heaton Moor Rugby Club many many years ago he was a modest Brummie with an incisive wit. Vicky met him many years later, she had no idea who he was and he was quite insulted - what a dork!


Romiley Folk Club in the famous Stockport suburb of Romiley in 1969 was a real proving ground for up and coming funny men and I saw many folk who became superstars in later years. Another chap who passed away fairly recently was Bob Hoskins who appeared several times at Romiley with Sylvester McCoy as  part of the backing team for Ken Campbell's Roadshow - what a star Ken was, he along with McCoy was auditioned for the part of Dr Who some years later , McCoy got the part and he was good but Campbell would have been on another planet. Other legends who managed to successfully present their talents in front of 200 assorted folk groupies, under age drinkers (like my younger brother) and hangers on were Ralph McTell, the Oldham Tinkers, one or two solo Fairport Conventioners and the inimitable Bob Williamson who nobody seems to have heard of nowadays but was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining of the lot. Oh where is he now?


Sunday, August 10, 2014

Love the Pacific!


I can see my house from here.
Not seen one of these before - a 'Snakebird'!! Quite something to see  as we rounded a bend on a path in the bushland park over the road to see this Australian Darter sitting on the handrail of a small bridge over a creek. (Hope Jon and Victo are impressed with this sighting.) It's a cormorant type bird but somewhat larger and it was flexing its neck just like you'd expect a snake to do. We had left the camera at home and this is a shot I found on the internet. It flew up into a tree where it looked quite colossal and then we saw it fishing where it looked fairly small - however it seems that it swims with most of its body underwater. We got back to tell Pat over the road and he'd seen one this morning spreading it's wings to dry by the pond opposite (where Bandi hangs out) which is quite a sight as apparently it's wing span is nearly a  metre wide! Later today we went down to feed Bandi to find him already waiting for us - he's getting a bit too tame perhaps? Anyway we'll try to remember the camera for the darter next time and show you what it really looks like. Other birds we've seen include Noisy Friarbirds, Bazas, Pelicans, White Herons, Rainbow Lorikeets, Scaly Breasted Lorikeets


Finding some excellent beer now we know where to look. In Melbourne there was a lot of Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, very refreshing and it's no wonder it's popular here. It's very pale, just the sort of thing to appeal to former lager drinkers but it's got plenty of taste, in this case a fruity, hoppy taste. Not sure what an equivalent UK beer might be, maybe a lighter version of Kelham Island's Pale Rider. Microbreweries have really started to take off in the last five years in Australia but not without a fight from the establishment. The vast majority of beer in Oz is made by breweries owned by either SAB Miller (the second biggest brewer in the world) or Lion Nathan, part of Kirin a huge Japanese brewing conglomeration. Both Kirin and SAB have been buying up the more successful microbrewers. The two big supermarket chains have also got in the act and distribute products that are packaged to look as if they've been made by microbrewers. But the breweries keep on coming and the consumers are gradually getting wise to it all.
Three top beers that we've had over here are as follows:


  • Stone and Wood Pacific Ale - an independent brewery in Byron Bay, New South Wales, we've seen their Pacific Ale in bars and bottles all over the place but it's good stuff and highly regarded.
  • Little Creatures India Pale Ale - a micro brewery that's expanded rapidly and is now part of Kirin, the Japanese giant but they still make excellent stuff - the IPA is strong and delicious.
  • Gage Roads Atomic Pale - a smallish craft brewery producing a lovely leafy hoppy beer (there are Citra hops in there) with a bite to it.

 We'll build up a top ten of favourites and publish it here.


Phew glad that one's over!




Finally here's a pic of Vicky at our latest 7 am parkrun on the shores of the Pacific at Wynnum. Results are not finalised yet as the provisional results are under review - but we both did well!


Saturday, August 2, 2014

Another Run in the Park




A few words about parkruns - once again the alarm went at 6 am and we were off this time to the Minnippi Parklands south of Brisbane. This is a lovely large parkland area with a river (creek!) running through it, fairly flat apart from a slight hill at the top end. This being our third parkrun venue visited since we've been here we thought we were well up to speed - we'd found the park itself the day before, so we thought we knew where we were going. We turned up at about twenty to seven to find no one there - oh heck! Just as we started to panic a runner dashed past telling us that we were in the wrong park, and we made it with a bit to spare - phew!

So the routine is this, the organiser gets up and introduces himself and the marshalls and explains what the course is like, he then makes a short speech to acknowledge the people who used to live here (i.e. aborigines) - at this event we also had another chap who got up and forced us all to do warm up exercises. And then we're off - for the first 1/2K of parkruns I'm usually in about 30th position but gradually start to haul them back. This time there weren't too many runners around me by halfway, in fact I couldn't see anyone else - oh dear, perhaps I should have listened more closely to that fella at the start! So I backtracked to find the next runner losing valuable seconds in the process - yes I was on the right track after all so I legged it like mad to try and make up for lost time - but in a 5K there's not a lot of making up you can do. Meanwhile Vicky steadily jogs round with the dog we're looking after, has to stop for a doggy pit stop and still manages to get her second best parkrun time yet.

parkrun positives -
  • nice surroundings, 
  • friendly folk, 
  • results on t'internet within the hour 
  • and they are FREE!
parkrunnegatives -
  • 7 am start, 
  • varied surfaces some not so good (this one was concrete - in Melbourne we ran on more forgiving dirt tracks!)

http://www.parkrun.com.au/minnippi/



By special request from several of our blogfollowers here's a photo of Bandi our tame Bandicoot who loves his peanuts straight out of their shells! Just to give you an idea of the size the paving stone it's sitting on is 1 metre long. So it wouldn't fit in your back pocket! We've all heard of wallabies, kangaroos and koalas but Oz is also full of all sorts of small odd insignificant marsupials like quolls, quokkas, bettongs, bilbies and bandicoots - all with backwards facing pouches for their Joeys or whatever                            you call baby bandicoots.


Got any popcorn?



Bird of the day - this is an Ibis - they're all over the place in Queensland and if you're having a picnic in the park they're quite liable to flock round and hoover up crumbs, etc. Bit like what pigeons do back home.