J is for Jaunty

So, I'm failing fairly terribly at the finding a word of the right letter that describes the day 'game'. However on this occasion co-pilot helped me out. 

The day started with moving from the apartment I stayed in last night to the hotel I booked through work. Bonus 1: happened to turn up as the same time as others from Bristol/Cardiff. Bonus 2: we could check-in when we arrived (around 10:30am). Bonus 3: I got a room on the waterfront. 

We went out and found a iced latte around the corner in this garden hidden in the middle of the block. 

Next door to the Hillsong City campus - which turns out to be 190m from my hotel!

This afternoon I went up to Mt Coot-tha for a view across Brisbane. 

This is the ~ 160° view.

This is looking South (ish) 

Moving towards the East

And this is the central business district 

This is a bit closer in. My hotel and conference are around the big wheel. 

Following this I popped into the Botanical Gardens for a few hours. It was very vibrant and bright!

I particularly enjoyed the cacti. 

This one is an Eurphorbia ingens

I also met a few creatures ... This is a slightly fuzzy photo of a bushturkey. 

This is a water dragon (front and back)

Some bees

And... trigger warning for spiders!

A Golden Orb-Weaving Spider (female) surrounded by little red spiders (males) 

I got back to the hotel in time to catch the last of the light. 

Tomorrow is day 11 of my trip and letter K and we all know what K stands for...

            ... Koala day! 

                            Koala day! 

                                           Koala day!

I is for in-transit

Today I left Cairns behind for Brisbane, in-transit was the best I could come up with though it feels like cheating to hyphenate! Just as a reminder, I was going to do this journey by train, then by bus, when the train was cancelled, then decided to fly today by plane (as opposed to dragon!) so I could fit in the opportunity to be ill at the great barrier reef 😂(if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?). 

It was a fairly grey day, again, in Cairns, but still insanely hot!

I'm not sure if these flowers fell here naturally of if someone arranged them but they were too pretty to ignore. 

For those who don't know, I love flying. My first transatlantic flight I took over 50 photos of clouds, and that was in the days of film cameras :) I have edited the following considerably!

As we got on the flight it looked like someone had lined the baggage hatches with dry-ice! The person behind me said 'is it safe to get on?' the steward replied that yes this was normal.

Taking off from Cairns Airport

This is Fitzroy island which I visited on Wednesday.

This is the great barrier reef from the plane. My camera kept focusing on the window!

This is the arrival in Brisbane. 

I caught the Airtrain into the center of Brisbane. Still a 30 degree (celsius) day, less humid than Cairns. 

Got a bit turned around at the station and walked the wrong way for a bit but did see these White Ibises which I found fun, but apparently Australians call them "bin chickens". 

This tall building is where I'm staying. On the 15th floor. 

And this is Brisbane, around sunset. 

This is the view from one side of my apartment.

Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow yet, as my glow worm trip has been postponed due to lack of numbers. But on Sunday it is Koala Day at long last! 😀