Clear Mountain (Feb. 20)

This morning we went to the Botanic Garden at the foot of Mount Coot-tha (more of a hill really). The gardens were quite extensive with good variety. Celeste really enjoyed the Bonsai House, which had more than 60 bonsai plants, and the Japanese Garden, although it was not as spectacular as the much larger Chinese Garden in Sydney. I really liked the arid plant display of cacti and other succulents. We had lunch there, and then took the tourist drive up and around the mountain, stopping at the lookout for some pictures. We noted four TV station towers up there.


From the mountain, we went to the Queensland Museum. It was less extensive than some we have seen, but good in its specialty areas. They had a Queensland section about some of their specific issues and promoting things tourists should see. They had a good section on turtles and crocodiles and another on endangered birds and animals. They had a huge collection of artifacts and stuffed birds, animals, and fish that were displayed in cabinets rather than coordinated dioramas. Too bad. There is a lot of potential there. They did have a good kangaroo diorama and an interesting display of humpback whales hanging from the ceiling.




We emerged from the museum at 5 just in time to battle rush hour traffic while we tried to find our way out of downtown. It took a while to find the right route and to get out of the main crush, but things moved pretty well after that. Our hotel was a little further out of the way than we thought. It is about 15 km off the main road. The map in the hotel guide book wasn’t too detailed, so we thought we must have missed our turn. Just then, there it was. We continued into the countryside and up a mountain road that Tony Jones would love to a scenic and secluded site. The hotel is a little worn, but OK overall. We had hoped to stay another night at our previous place, but they were full for tonight. First time we have run into that.

It is noticeably cooler up here. Today was warm, but not as warm as yesterday and there was broken cloud most of the day, so we had some breaks from the sun. In the Botanic Garden we could duck into some shade and, of course, the museum was air conditioned. We had a good rain shower late in the evening.