Sold the Bike, and Other Stories
~plus bigger pictures!!~

From the top of Mt. Tamborine

Yep, I sold the bike. I got a whopping $2800 for it, plus Mark, the owner of Leading Edge Motorcycles , who was very nice, also bought my use equipment for another $100. I'm fine with the deal, but fell like I just sold my best travel buddy. Today I'm actually a little depressed about it, but that has happened with every bike I've had to let go. *heavy sigh* I want to say that the folks at Leading Edge were fantastic and accommodated me very well. First I needed to have cash so Mark took me to the bank to cash a check made out to Cash so that there wouldn't be any issues and then took me to the train station to catch the next one back to the city (the shop was way the hell up North).

About a week ago I went the Natural Bridge State Park. (The State Parks in Australia are just fantastic and every one that I have been to was free). I was making my way from Byron Bay and decided to stop here and go for a nice walk. It took only about 1 hour to walk the whole circuit. It was a really nice and sunny day, but it had rained that morning so the little river was flowing pretty well. The park is located in a rain forest, so that in itself was cool.

Under the Natural Bridge.

Also at this park was a great example of a Strangler Fig.

But, I'm still in Brisbane and I found out that I am staying very close to the Castlemaine Brewery and decided right then to book into the brewery tour! It cost $16 but you got a punch card for 4 beers at the end of the tour! Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside the brewery so I got pictures at the Ale House.

This is Christa from Toronto. Two yummy things in one photo (the Canadians are all over Australia) and she is drinking the XXXX (Fourex) Bitter. I really like this beer. It has a great malty smell and I'm not sure why they call it bitter, because it's not really that bitter to me. I found it smooth and very quafable and it goes well with Oysters.

I also tried the Stout, which tasted like they left the lid off the keg. It tasted flat, not that it wasn't bubbly, just very flat flavors; some anise, a little coffee, but bleh.

This is the XXX (Triplex) 125 Anniversary Ale only sold at the Ale House at the brewery. This was a great beer. Nice amber color, a nice creamy head, and it had nice malt and caramel overtones. I would buy a lot of this stuff. A lot. I'm still in Brisbane so I think I'll go and have one right now. Later.