To Brisbane

Tuesday March 10th – to Brisbane

Did some shopping in Adelaide, then drove to airport and dropped car, a Hyundai Elantra. The flight to Brisbane was run by Qantas and was very pleasant. When we could see through the cloud cover, the outback was not as dry as we expected. There were large fields of arid reddish pasture, but also huge areas, probably 100 square miles at a time, of forestry.

We had a problem picking up the car at Brisbane. I'd booked a 4 door car through an agency that provides insurance against rental excesses, but the car supplied was a Getz which being a small 2 door hadn't the boot capacity for our two suitcases. After a discussion with the dispatch lady at Thrifty, we got a 'free upgrade' to the size of car originally ordered! Now we have a Ford Focus for the next 10 days.

Drove to Brisbane and found our hotel, the Sapphire Resort in South Brisbane probably more easily than we should have. I think we had a lot of luck as our maps weren't good. The hotel is comfortable enough but seems security obsessed and we assume this part of the city has troubles. However we wandered about the local streets to find dinner and only met friendly people.