This week in South East Queensland
17 - 23 December
QUEENSLAND does not have daylight saving, so even now at the solstice in the height of summer the sky is dark by 7:15PM (or even a lot earlier if there is an afternoon storm). Perhaps to make up for the lack of evening light, many people get right into the Christmas spirit spending multiple weekends putting up lights all over their houses and yards making entire neighbourhoods spectacular at this time of year.
Today's hike takes me downstream from Ipswich. There are very few views of the river all day until at sunset due to passing a large industrial and prison area. Eventually I do glimpse the river again before discovering several streets of spectacularly decorated houses in the evening.
Today's Journey
Distance hiked today: 16.2km
Total distance hiked to date: 475.2km
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03:31 - Reaching the park above the Bremer River before first light. The air is still and very humid but it is very quiet here with no traffic on the bridge or on either side of the river. |
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03:32 - Brightly coloured lights unnaturally illuminate the foliage. |
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03:36 - Railway bridge with decorated Christmas lights. |
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03:38 - View downstream from the boardwalk at first light. Parkland has been built on either side of the river due to the enormous floods coming through here once every few decades. |
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03:52 - Following the boardwalk above the mirror smooth river. |
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03:55 - Heading under the road bridge as the sky lightens. |
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03:59 - Looking back upstream as the lights reflect perfectly in the mirror smooth water on this muggy morning. |
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04:05 - Following the illuminated paths along the river bank. The bank has been well landscaped, but much of the gardens would wash away during the floods when the river sometimes rises over twenty metres above its normal level. The lower path comes to an abrupt end after a short distance, so I take the upper path. |
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04:19 - Looking through a gap in the fig trees at the perfectly still river. |
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04:24 - Looking downstream along the river's forested banks where it starts winding down towards the Brisbane River. I've never seen the river so smooth, but perhaps this is common this far inland away from the sea breezes by day and land breezes by night. It is already getting wider and deeper to help with navigation through few boats come this far upstream these days. |
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04:26 - Thick natural forest on the other side of the river. This is what it would have looked like before settlement. There are houses behind the trees, on ground high enough to avoid most floods. |
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04:37 - Final view upstream as I turn the corner to continue heading downstream. I can imagine the old steam boats heading up here to as far as Ipswich before the river becomes too shallow. |
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04:38 - Looking further downstream before the track diverts away from the river. |
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04:47 - A paddling pool in a large playground park above the river as the sun dimly rises to the east. |
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05:45 - From the park the track follows a couple of roads for a few kilometres before I find a small park overlooking the river down in the bottom of the valley. |
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06:30 - Houses line the banks of the river so the glimpses are only occasional over the following few kilometres. Eventually the track completely leaves the river. |
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09:02 - Finally after a few more kilometres a side road heads to the river, to cross on a small ferry similar to the one I used to cross the Noosa River. This road isn't frequented enough to justify building a bridge, so the ferry service continues to this day. |
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09:27 - A little further downstream I get a clear view of the ferry crossing the river. The Brisbane and Bremer Rivers have met a kilometre or two upstream. The dirty waters of the Bremer muddy up the clear waters of the Brisbane River. The water is almost opaque at this time of year with the rainy season, but clears a lot during winter. |
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12:30 - From the ferry, there are no roads following close enough to the river to see it for many kilometres. I spend much of the rest of the day following paths across the plains and over peninsulas without having any views of the river. |
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15:31 - Tracks go around residential areas, but there is a large area occupied by prisons where all the naughty people go. These prisons take up riverfront land, so the detours around them are quite long and distant from the river. |
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18:43 - I eventually reach the river just on sunset up at the top of Westlakes. This is almost directly opposite Belbowrie where I started from yesterday morning. |
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18:50 - A path above the river leads easily downstream, passing under some large power lines. |
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18:57 - The grass and vines of the riverbank are very overgrown thanks to all the recent rain as it typical for this time of year. |
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19:01 - At the end of the park the track doubles back into a residential area. |
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19:20 - Some of the houses are brightly decorated with Christmas decorations. |
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19:26 - Glimpse of the river at last light. The summer solstice occurs this week, but because this is a subtropical location, and due to the absence of daylight saving in Queensland, it is dark by 7:15PM at this time of year. |
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19:33 - The early onset of night at these latitudes encourages people to put out the Christmas lights to make up for the lack of evening sunlight. |
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19:41 - Some people put out a lot of lights. Fortunately the LEDs are not too expensive to run. |
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19:54 - Some people go all out though, taking quite a long time to put them up over their eaves and wiring them through their trees. |
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19:58 - Some almost go overboard attracting lots of attention. Clearly the owners of this house are happy to have lots of strangers looking in the total darkness of night. |
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19:59 - Some streets have a lot of competition going on, and others don't have any decorations at all. This street is obviously one of those ones where just about everyone decorates their house. |
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20:00 - These streets attract a lot of people wandering around in the darkness to admire them. Some people drive from far and wide to view these streets. |
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20:12 - Other houses stand isolated shining the Christmas spirit into the otherwise dark street. |
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20:13 - Bright lights all around this otherwise very dark moonless night. |
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20:24 - Well decorated hedge on another brightly lit street. Some of these streets are so brightly lit that only one or two houses stand in darkness - probably the ones that don't want to attract attention. |
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20:36 - Another street gone crazy with the decorations. The power companies obviously like these streets. |
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20:47 - More spectacular decorations. Some of these houses take weeks to get these decorations set up - all during our dangerous storm season. |
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21:00 - Probably the most spectacular house in the area. The house itself is quite ordinary, but the decorations here are amazing. |
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21:01 - Colourful gardens and double garage in an otherwise hidden house. |
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21:03 - Going overboard on the decorations in the garage. At least there they can be sheltered from any dangerous storms. Fortunately this year has been relatively kind in the storm department. |
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21:04 - Simple garden design which probably only took one weekend to set up. |
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21:05 - Elaborate house decorations. |
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21:09 - More spectacular decorations on a house on a downward slope. |
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21:49 - The last decorated house I see approaching today's destination at Mount Ommaney. |
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