Mount Coot-Tha

Although Brisbane is built on the floodplain (obviously) of an estuary, there is are quite a few large hills right in the city, and we are really quite close to the mountains to both the north and south of the city.  Only a five minute drive from our house is a natural area called Mount Coot-Tha.  The area is full

 of trails, picnic areas and gardens. 

Walking trail on Mount Coot-Tha

We walked up the hill on Easter Sunday.  The set trail is about 2km and goes past lots of creeks and mini waterfalls.  There aren't too many views on the way up, as the trail is almost entirely through the forest.  Once we got to the top however, we had a fantastic view of the city.  There is a restaurant at the top and we will definitely be going there for an evening meal to take in the night-time views (which start at about 6pm now that we are in winter!)

View of Brisbane from the top of Mount Coot-Tha

We also went to the Anzac Day parade.  There are ceremonies all over Australia to commemorate the Battle of Gallipoli, almost everywhere there are services with bugle and marching at 4:35am, the time that the soldiers launched their attack in 1915.  In Gallipolli itself there is a sunrise ceremony, honouring the soldiers from both sides who died in the battle.

We did not attend the 4:35am parade but we did go to the Anzac Day parade that started at 10am.  It was really quite impressive.  There were a few WWII vets and many representatives from those who fought in Korea and Vietnam.  We saw marchers from the Army Corps, the Navy, many schools that have a military slant, the Salvation Army and two different types of Army Engineers. (Why are there no Army Geologists?  No, the Geologist can't launch the rock at the enemy, but without the Geologist the Engineer might try to use pumice as fodder instead of granite.  What good would pumice do unless the enemy had really rough heels and needed to exfoliate?  Maybe not a Geologist Corps, but a couple of singles who travelled from troop to troop might be helpful.)

The biggest surprise of the day was that no-one can have a drink in a bar until 1:00 in the afternoon (we're not sure why...maybe this is what time the first day of fighting ended?)  Most people had been standing for 2 - 3 hours to watch the parade, it was warm and it felt like it was a good time for a beer.  No such luck!