For my overseas friends, who may not have heard, our strawberry industry has been sabotaged by some, as yet, unknown *%#*. Numerous punnets of strawberries, have been found to be contaminated with needles, but the public have been most responsive in getting behind the farmers. ‘Cut them up, don’t cut them out’, has been a slogan people are taking to heart.
Our meeting point for this week's walk was King George Square, which turned out to be a fine place to start the day. A fund raising event to support the strawberry farmers was underway with strawberry sundaes for sale. The sundaes have never gone beyond the Ekka showgrounds before this, so there was great excitement about. Of course we had to do our bit to help the farmers and in the process had a few minutes of fame on radio and TV. We heard later that by mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the pop-up stall organised by the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation in Brisbane's King George Square had sold out of sundaes, selling more than 14,000, and using up 700 kilograms of strawberries. For my overseas friends, who may not have heard, our strawberry industry has been sabotaged by some, as yet, unknown *%#*. Numerous punnets of strawberries, have been found to be contaminated with needles, but the public have been most responsive in getting behind the farmers. ‘Cut them up, don’t cut them out’, has been a slogan people are taking to heart. After ice-cream we began our city walk and headed first to the Roma Street Parklands to enjoy the spring blooms. Then it was on to Paddington to enjoy some city views, some lovely old Queensland homes, quaint shops and interesting art galleries. Paddington is located on a number of steep ridges and hills. It was settled in the 1860s and many original and distinctive Queenslander homes line the streets. Quite a few have been converted to shops or art galleries. After lunch we walked back to the city via the Suncorp Stadium and through the Barracks, peeking into a few dress shops on the way and posing with heroes or as heroes. All in all, those leisurely 10 kilometres we clocked up today were most enjoyable.
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Glorious spring weather, a beautiful Gold Coast Beach, and enticing sculptures are a swell reason for a beach hike, so that was what we did this week. These are just some of the sculptures we saw. Don't forget to click on the images to enlarge them for a better view. The SWELL Sculpture Festival, held annually on Currumbin Beach in early September, is now in its fifteenth year. The ten-day festival brings over 50 works by nationally and internationally renowned artists to a free public outdoor exhibition. Some sculptures were confusing, some intriguing, some ingenious some highly intricate, but all were enhanced by their amazing backdrop of sand, sea, sky and space. We had a fabulous time trekking between them admiring them, discussing them, posing with them and pondering their construction and meaning. But first ... there was food. We started late afternoon so we could see the sculptures in the light and in the night. Wine and snacks seemed the right thing to begin with. Then it was off to the sculptures spread along the sand. As night fell we took a short break to dine on fish and chips by the water, before retracing our steps to view the sculptures lit up. This year's festival is over, but don't forget to look out next year. We'll definitely be paying another visit.
As I have been away a few weeks I was happy to be rejoining the Hungry Hikers to follow the Fassifern Rail Trail this week. We drove to Boonah, taking over an hour due to quite a bit of roadworks along the way, but it was still a pleasant drive and we hardly noticed the time as there is always plenty of chatter going on. After morning tea at the pleasant park beside the Visitor Information Centre we had a chat to the people in the centre. We were advised not to hike the rail trail as they said it was overgrown and not well maintained. Luckily we decided to climb the hill behind the park to check out the beginning of the trail. It looked fine to us, so we decided to tackle it as far as was possible. It turned out to be a fabulous track, well maintained, easy to follow and providing some gorgeous views along the way. The Fassifern Rail Trail follows the disused railway line on the outskirts of Boonah. The former rail line was known as the Dugandan railway line and linked Boonah to Ipswich about 50km to the north. This railway was reported to be the first branch line in Queensland and the first section (to Harrisville opened in 1882 and reached Dugandan in 1887. The line was closed in 1964. Evidence of the railway between Boonah and Ipswich can be seen in various locations along the former route especially in the villages such as Harrisville and Peak Crossing. Bicentennial Park was a great place to start. It has shaded picnic tables, barbecues, and toilet facilities. The Visitor Information Centre has plenty of maps and information, and despite the incorrect information we received, the people manning it were very friendly and helpful with a variety of information about other walks in the area. Once on the trail, we passed through a variety of scenery. An old cemetery provided an interesting stop where we read the headstones of pioneers from an earlier time. There were a few gates to pass through or climb over, a hill or two with good views from the top, and then a walk through town to complete the loop.
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