Dear Ms Rollins/Damion
I've had a really busy weekend here in Brisbane. On Saturday, I went to a Roller Derby bout.
Then on the way home we went to see some kangaroos but there were none out so I got my picture with a street sign
where my host lives instead.
The Redlands (the city where I'm staying
just east of Brisbane) has the largest Koala habitat in the world. There
are only around 20,000 koalas now so we have a few koala reservations
around here. We see them in the gum trees around the suburbs but not as
often as we used to. There are a lot of wallabies around this area
though. We had an early night because we had to get up really early the
next day to catch a barge over to North Stradbroke Island for breakfast
then a day at the beach swimming and fishing.
North Stradbroke Island (aka Straddie) is a 40 minute barge (car
carrying) ride from Cleveland. There is also a Water Taxi, but we needed
to take a car over this time. Cleveland is the suburb next to where I'm
staying. Here is some history on North Stradbroke Island - http://straddieonline.com.au/
We got over about 8am and went to Amity Point for a BBQ breakfast. I
wanted my picture taken on the barge on the way over because there was
another barge in the water going the other way.
There was a big ramp that gets lowered for the cars to drive off onto the island
At
Amity there was a big blue boat with nets off the back. They were
trawling for shrimp. They're called prawns here, ... I'm learning a lot
of new words here as well!
I saw a Galah hanging out with the seagulls. They are a pink and grey bird and squark a lot.
I
also saw another barge pull up with cars on it. This barge had come
over from Moreton Island to bring cars over to visit Straddie. There is
no other way to get there ... Unless you fly in a plane or helicopter.
It's nice that there is no bridge because it stops a lot of people
getting there and protects the island a bit too. A lot of the land is
still owned by the Aboriginal people and has been closed off to people
visiting. The Aboriginal people were the first people living on the bay
islands here.
After breakfast we went around to the surf side of the island for the day to swim, fish and hang out.
We
went for a walk up into the camping area to have a look at someone's
camp fire and in the tree was a Goanna. (ie. A really BIG lizard) He was
just sitting in the sun on the branch of the tree. There are a lot of
Goannas on the island and they sometimes get into your camping area to
steal food so everything has to be locked up tight!
I thought I'd climb a tree too
Tonight I met up with my host's friend who will be taking me to
Mumbai in India tomorrow. She said I might even get to meet one of the
captains flying the plane. I'm pretty excited about this trip to India
but I'll be back in Brisbane for a few more days afterwards before I
come back to the US.
Until next time
Stan
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