The Maritime Museum makes a big thing of the HMAS Diamantina, a naval frigate which they have captive in dry dock. And to be fair, it is quite impressive. Pretty much all of the boat is accessible. You have to admire the men who worked on her, in such cramped conditions. She saw only a few months service in WWII and then was involved in a lot of exploratory and survey work around Australia and in the Indian Ocean. Fascinating to me was the hierarchy on board ship, with the captain having almost a suite, the second in command his own room, officers shared reasonable quarters and it keeps getting worse until you're time-sharing space to hang your hammock above the table where dinner is served. That's if you manage to keep any of your dinner on the plate on the way back to the mess from the galley which is on a different level.
There were other vessels, including a pink boat sailed solo around the world (although sounded like a small circle near the bottom end of the globe) by a 16 year old girl, Jessica Watson. You can read about the controversy as to why it isn't an official record on wikipedia (where else?). There was one of those headset guide things but I must admit I was bit info'd out before the end! The museum is run mostly by volunteers and at times it does show. There's a lot of great stuff but it could do with a real brush-up and injection of oomph! Or just bringing into the 21st century. If you love boats and are passing by, do go and visit.
Would you want to cook in here?
Some coffee shop ibis I made friends with at lunchtime. Nobody else even seemed to notice them. I think they're like pigeons, only bigger.
Would you want to cook in here?
Some coffee shop ibis I made friends with at lunchtime. Nobody else even seemed to notice them. I think they're like pigeons, only bigger.
And on to the City Botanic Gardens. They were nice but more like an upmarket park than what I think of as botanic gardens. However, I made sure to try and cover all the various areas in case I found something exciting. It was a kookaburra, my first of this trip. Sitting in a fairly small tree, seemingly minding its own business, this poor thing was being hassled by several other smaller birds of another species. There didn't seem to be a nest nearby or anything, but they kept swooping past or dive-bombing the kookaburra who looked agitated but didn't leave his perch. All very odd. By this point my camera battery was having a repeat bout of botanic gardens syndrome ie it went flat so I have no pictures.
A rainbow lorikeet in a Colville's Glory tree.
Continuing on, I came across a pond with a statue of Jemmy Morrill and the Brolgas (aka Australian crane) on a plinth in the middle of the water. Ok, a bit modern for my tastes but I gave it a look. Then I noticed two water dragons basking below, on this little island - much more interesting! Although, of course, all they did was sit there, very occasionally blinking. Little did I know that a friend of theirs was only a metre or so away from where I was standing, so I turned my attention in his direction for a bit. I walked away to the adjacent pond to see what that had to offer, which wasn't much, when I heard a splash. Land-based lizard had jumped into the water and was swimming towards the island where his chums were sitting! However, the larger of those two didn't seem to want company and jumped in for a swim too and headed for shore. Number one struggled to climb up the concrete (which was amusing as you always think animals can do these things) so it swam around the back and climbed up a bit of wood which was presumably there for the purpose. He stopped half way up, moved his head about and was generally a hyper-active lizard. Meanwhile, number three water dragon (the smallest) also decided to get active and took a few steps, ate some insects. All brilliant fun. Who says botanic gardens are boring? (Excuse the wonky formatting, sometimes I don't understand ipads at all)
I went and had a look at the mangrove bit down by the river but it was having a quiet moment so I headed off to Coles and bought a SIM card. Tomorrow I hope to be able to tell you that it and my phone are working as one....
That's not a monkey puzzle tree...This is a monkey puzzle tree!
Paul and I had promised ourselves we would eat out at the pizza place over the road from our hostel so off we went. It was great! We ordered our garlic bread and pizzas and cracked open the first of our BYO beers. The staff were lovely and friendly. Lent us their bottle opener and even offered to put the other beers in the fridge. We had warmed up with a couple of sundowners, so we were happy.The garlic bread came, plenty of it and goodness, it was yummy. The pizzas didn't disappoint either. Mine was funghi - really tasty mushrooms and cheese, Paul had Nepal which I think was pumpkin, and erm some other ingredients but equally delicious. I think we'll be back.
Yesterday's grasshopper.
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