[The Glasshouse Mountains]

Today we're seeing the area where Iain's been before, when he was ten, and where Iain's mother spent many holidays. We go out at 9am, as we have a lot of things to see. First stop is at a property owned by friends of the Shaws, near a small town called Melaney, just north of Brisbane. Bill McKintock's dairy farm is being replanted in places as a rainforest corridor connecting two islands of rainforest, and isolating the animals. It has a wonderful view over the Glasshouse Mountains, 12 strange shaped volcanic plugs which we saw briefly in the dark on our way into Brisbane. Outside the gate John points out a dead black snake lying on the ground. Alive, it's potentially fatal, one of the world's deadliest. He rates it at three to four minutes. Speaking of which, we passed Steve Irwin's zoo earlier.

We visit Pam's parents for morning tea, Melva and Charles Davidson. They've been reading our diary, and it's strange, but nice, to think they know everything we've done, although we've never met them before. Apparently they've enjoyed reading it, as it's bought back memories of trips they've made in the past. Their house overlooks a green hilly area, beautiful but unfortunately earmarked for development. They make us very welcome, and we have a tour of the garden, where we're warned to look out for snakes - there's a six foot black one around. We see a bower bird nest - the female hunts blue things to put into her nest and attract a mate. It's stolen a few of Melva's clothes pegs.

Next stop is the Mary Cairncross Park, a lookout over the Glasshouse Mountains. Then we drive down to the Melaney coastline and see Bribie and Moreton islands over the bay, 60km away, past Caloundra and Pumicestone Passage (great name, after the pumicestone found in this volcanic region).

We drive down to Caloundra, past the property Iain's mother Margot's parents first bought in the 1950s. At that time there were only a few houses in Caloundra, now it's a major tourist resort, with ever-increasing high-rise buildings. Ships pass Caloundra within 400m of the beach, as the bay area is so shallow. Many have been wrecked failing to take short cuts.

[Caloundra]

[Caloundra]

[Lyndon Lee]

Some of Caloundra is similar to as John and Pam recall it years ago; there's a dug-out rock pool created by soldiers returned form WWII for safe swimming off the sea. We drive to Happy Valley, and the boardwalk at Bullcock Beach. Margot and John used to come here for weekends and holidays. John and Pam now own an apartment here, though they're renting it out at the moment. We pass Lyndon Lee, Margot's family's next property, which is now one of the oldest buildings around in this newly-redeveloped area.

[Military Jetty]

[Pelican on lamppost]

We have a picnic lunch at Military Jetty, once used to test torpedoes, and watch the boat and wildlife traffic on the bay.

On the way home we stop at the Ettamooga Pub, an Australiana cliche, based on a series of cartoons capturing Australian stereotypes publicised in newspapers here over the years. Someone's built the pub which appeared in every cartoon and turned it into a theme park. It's every cliche you heard about Australia somehow rolled into one area.

[Storey Bridge]

[Storey Bridge]

John drives us on a tour around Brisbane, past the Storey Bridge which Iain's Grandfather Mick Shepherd supervised building, earlier in the twentieth century. We walk near the Kangaroo Cliffs overlooking the river (there are abseilers but no kangaroos) and have a view over South Bank and the Botanical Gardens. We see a bit more of Mount Ommaney also, the suburb that John and Pam live in, some family history like schools and scout huts.

We ought to have an early night, since we have a 5.30am check-in tomorrow, but somehow diary writing and a reluctance to leave means we're up until 11pm. I wish we could stay here longer.