a record or diary of my thoughts and experiences in this new phase of life. Join me on my physical and mental journey to see what is out there beyond the hamster wheel. I hope to navigate through, over and around the norm, away from the well trodden path, aside the tourist trap...........
we'll see
Caught the bus and train back to Brisbane - bus ride free (tapping in broken), Train ride 5p - Wow!.......but I'm told this was an election winner & these cheap prices are only in Queensland... 'vote bribe'.....I bet they get their money back by other means.........
Some nice scenery on the way - hard to catch from the train window - a national park called Glass House Mountains:
(Internet pick):
Then a few pics of Brisbane, the last one from Kangaroo point, before checking in to the hostel
Went to Coles - seems like the popular supermarket - for shopping. They have the Christmas stuff in
and the Halloween stuff on sale
...just like home, but feels weird in 27 degree heat........but then at 3pm ish
Making my way down the sunshine coast, I caught two busses to get to Mooloolaba - I only chose to come here because I liked the sound of the name!
It's a cheap way to travel as these buses have a tap on tap off service and when I checked the transaction for the first one it cost 10 cents!!....5p - My card wouldn't scan on the second one and he just waived me on anyway - I've seen many drivers allow people on for free
Mooloolaba has a tangle of little estuaries and a Marina, and beaches. I checked into a hostel. The guy said there was usually an age limit on the dorm rooms to stop locals and drug addicts but he said he could see I was a genuine backpacker and so let me in (I looked up, the age limit is 35)
Also he warned me that the room smelt of Marijuana as the guy in there works at a 'medicinal' marijuana place and some comes back smelling of it, and told me not to worry......I'm not worried, I said......but I wondered if he was having a joke
After checking in I headed for the beach
- which was nice but it soon clouded over and started to rain and later it became torrential!!
There are lots of people getting dressed up for halloween tonight - there's a $50 prize for the best costume.
I sat & watched Joker on my laptop. Wanted to watch The Shinning but couldn't get it for free.
The party went on quite late.....well ....the private party in the room next door - they sounded British - up to around 2am.
I didn't mind, I was so tired, but it obviously upset the ozzy neighbour in a motel next door, as at 6 am next morning he was shouting & raging about the 'noisy ' neighbours, yelling 'get up now' and sounding drunk.......and very cross
I checked out after Vegemite on toast & coffee for brekkie.......dodging the free Yoga session in reception and sat at the bus stop.
Reuben - a young lad started chatting to me at the bus stop. He was walking home after a night of partying. He had half a halloween costume on & a water bottle with vodka in it. His phone was dead & he had 2 km to walk home. He was amazed I was backpacking & we got chatting. He is 20 & works as a deck hand. He was a little hungover & I said I did similar stuff in my 20's. When I told him I had a 20 year old daughter he said, 'I'm interested in you daughter, tell me about her'. Some other random guy came along and gave him a protein bar....said he looked like he needed it after a heavy night. I thought - how kind!
It makes me laugh, they call off licences 'bottle shops '.......little differences.
Decided to come here on the recommendation of a couple of people at the Bunk Inn hostel.
It was a bustling little town with a seaside atmosphere. Lots of shops and a couple of beautiful beaches. I headed for the national park which had some trails through the forest and along the coast.
It was very peaceful and beautiful:
This was called Hell's gate - formed over millions of years
I spotted two turtles in the water from the cliff - getting good at seeing them now! There was a dolphin viewing point but I didn't see any of course!
It did remind me of the Cornish coastline - a bit (without the rain forest} - as the rocks in places were granite.
There were supposed to be koalas amongst the Eucalyptus trees but I didn't see any of those either ......only the trees
These are Tea Trees - hence the name of the bay here - Tea Tree Bay
But I did see a few of this fella called a Lace Monitor:
and these guys are everywhere including the towns - called Brush Turkeys:
This one was scavenging in the rubbish - fattening up for Christmas?? - poor thing
Stayed in the Nomads hostel - very busy and I am , once again, the only old person.
Its nice enough - handy to have a kitchen etc. and this one has a pool too
The guys and girls in my room are all Brits, and at least they talk to me. There is a Scottish girl from Perth Scotland, working in Perh Australia, on holiday atm...she says she feels old in the hostels & she's 27!!
From what I'm hearing, there seems to be this 'prescribed' set of trips that all the young people follow, up or down the East coast of Australia, a bit like the ones in Indonesia. An example is a 3 day camping trip to Fraser Island that they were discussing last night.
And they all come with suitcases....not backpacks. At least, on the whole, they are respectful of noise and keeping tidy inside the dorm rooms, which is good.
Was feeling a bit down today - its nice travelling alone but it's sad there is nobody to share the experience with - I guess this is all part of the learning and experience process....trying to embrace it 😊
Lady Musgrave Island is a 14 hectares (35 acres) coral cay on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, with a 1,192 hectares (2,950 acres) surrounding reef. The island is the second southernmost island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands, the first (southernmost) being Lady Elliot Island. The Island is named after Lady Lucinda Musgrave, the wife of Sir Anthony Musgrave, a colonial governor of Queensland.
The island is part of the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area.
Lady Musgrave Island is referred to as Wallaginji by local Australian Aboriginal tribes. The name Wallaginji means 'beautiful reef'.
This was a boat trip out to the Island which sits in the southern great barrier reef. It took roughly 2 hours to get there by boat from Bundaberg harbour. I was supposed to do the trip yesterday but it was cancelled due to bad weather. I was then booked on for the 30th but that too got cancelled, as there wasn't enough people. It kind of worked out OK though as a girl from my hostel was also doing the trip and she has a car.......
........she was a bit odd, and as I guessed, she told me she was autistic, which made sense. She was nice enough - just needed to explain everything! - she asked me what music I wanted in the car and I said anything, so she put on this weird Asian 'high pitched speed music' is the only way I can describe it.
Her parents had bought her the car. She told me later that they had signed her up to a 'success' program which turned out to be a kind of cult. This program was supposed to ensure you became one of the top 1%........poor girl had been totally traumatised by it to the point of mental illness. She was sea sick on the boat, going out, which was horrible for her.
We were also with a party of year 10 school kids and their teacher - age 16 - the kids, not the teacher! We were split into groups and my group got to snorkel first which I was glad about as I do find snorkelling slightly stressful. We snorkelled off a pontoon, in the lagoon around the island which was sheltered from the ocean by the coral reef.
Snorkelling was OK, as I followed some ladies who stuck with me. There was a channel through the reef to get to a spot they call the 'aquarium'. The channel was beautiful, and full of fish and in the aquarium I saw two turtles which shot past, below me, they were really fast! We were told there were sharks too....slightly alarming......but then re-assured that they were only small 'harmless ' ones.....some don't even have any teeth.......
We then had a tour of the Island which is full of nesting White-capped Noddy terns - they were nesting in the trees and swooping over our heads as we walked carrying leaves. Apparently the males collect the leaves and bring them to the female who inspects the leaf and decides if it is good enough to be used for the nest. If it is rejected - which it often is - she tosses onto the floor. It was so funny to watch this!
There were also 'Bridal terns' that nest on the ground, as there are no predators on the island.
The island was beautiful and we walked through the trees and along the beach
As we walked along the shoreline there was a turtle just gently bobbing along, as though he was following us, and raising his head above the water every now and then. I managed to catch him on two - not very good - bits of video. I don't think I'll be getting a wildlife photography job any time soon!!
We went back on the glass bottom boat, to get a closer look at the different types of coral. I saw a few more turtles, but didn't manage to catch them in this video.....
Back at the hostel, lovely Rebel had made us a Thai green curry - it was delicious!
I had to say goodbye to my little family......I don't think the other hostels are going to be the same, sadly.
........ gonna visit the Art gallery today - having to 'stretch out' the fun a little.......
Rebel says it's good - she is an artist, specialising in ceramics, particularly ceramic bowls.
..........it's interesting, as so much of art is decorational - which of course I understand - like the many art galleries around St Ives in Cornwall for example. **see my blog from the summer featured on my Cornwall blog.
But they are just full of the same old scenes of pretty beaches and coastline - it's nice to put on your wall - (and crazily expensive - priced for the rich visitors and second homers) - but it doesn't really 'say' anything or tell a story..........
I was telling Rebel about Jaki - the only interesting artist displaying in St Ives the day I went, as her art was a strange and beautiful portrayal of the female body.
.........and maybe art should say something - like maybe showing how the environment is being affected in these beautiful coastlines for example...........it got me thinking again because Rebel was telling me of the time she was homeless, living in a tent near the beach, and she would go along the beach picking up all the bits of micro plastic - in a day she picked up enough to fill one of her ceramic bowls.
The baby turtles see the plastic floating in the water and think it's food, so their bellies get full of plastic but they then starve to death .......
She said she wanted to make an art work from it - to demonstrate the effects of pollution and I said wow! .......this is exactly what I'm talking and thinking about.......perhaps - sometimes - this is what art could be...........
Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery
There was a featured exhibition by Dylan Sarra an Indigenous artist who comes from Bundaberg.
A thoughtful look on the 'First Nation' or 'blacks' perspective (their name for the Aborigine) and the 'whites' perspective of the land and how they see it.
For the indigenous peole it was a home a place they were part of and changes flowed.
It's interesting how they don't see the 'Southern Cross' constellation, They see the 'Emu's footprint'.
The settlers perspective was of a harsh land to battle with......naming places as 'purgatory' and 'pandemonium'
The indigenous people see them riding in with horses and goods etc. etc.....
It was a look into the human aspect.......
Art with a message
And a piece ( a film shot in 8mm) by Alana Hunt of a failed collinisation project and the disasttrous effects on the environment that attempts to control the water supply had made......
.... 'A little drop of water....'
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**excert from blog - Summer 2025
Thursday, 31 July 2025 Art
A trip to find some inspiring art and maybe a collaborator for my Medicines project Pre. St Ives, my thoughts as I dread the trip:
What is Art? To me art is expression. It is an outlet for your thoughts and feelings. So it can be joyful or sad or it can be expressing thoughts that want to express something or that want to protest against something.
Art is often benign, in that it exists to look pretty - but maybe the artist was feeling something when they created it, an outlet for their joy at the time. That kind of art can give pleasure to another person. Some art seems to capture a mood. It may not be the mood that the artist had at the time of creation but it might create a different mood in the mind of each person that views it.
In that way, I suppose artwork can be a portal or a conveyor to pass on a mood, a feeling or a thought which gets altered. Writing does this, but art is more subtle. One dimensional? or is it the converse to writing
Words can put pictures into your head. Art can put words into your head - if it says something
I am often sceptical when it comes to art. I look at a lot of artwork hung in galleries, with the prices underneath and think 'this is just being churned out to make money' Even the art that looks like its trying to be subversive. I think back to the art shop in Truro - The artist xxxx - had created a painting of King Charles with some amusing 'digs'. It seemed to be making fun of the monarchy. ironic. to me it felt a bit fake. Maybe that is a fault in me. My cynicism. Other art forms - film have more dimensions. We are given Words and pictures to invoke thoughts.
Drizzle in St Ives I am still alive
The light here is different they say but in what way?
Post: So we stroll down the hill towards the streets that are packed with people in a busy hellish hive of holiday makers consuming drinks and ice creams and useless crap from souvenir shops. We visit the art shops and they are all filled with beach scenes and beautiful paintings of the sea and the rocks and it is all so so boring. We meet a lady who tells us about a picture she remembers:
She directs us to the chapel where above we meet the young robot, almost Stepford in their frightened attitude - I see in her eyes the fear in the pit of her stomach. Then we meet the lady with her wonderful chaotic paintings that are so interesting. The first real art I have seen in Cornwall - what a gem
