Wednesday 5th June
Weather cool 9 - 20 degrees, but at least the icy wind has dropped and we had some sunshine. A lazy day for me reading and Clive did the blog and June web pages. He really needs to do a bit each day or he won't keep on top of it all with such 'busy' days. He decided that he would go for a walk along Urangan Pier this morning. It's about a 15 minute drive from where we are staying to get to the Pier. The Pier is just over 800m long now and it was nice stroll out to the end and back. There are some serious fishermen out there too. These are the ones all set up with a stroller in which to carry their gear. Around the outside of the stroller are rod holders carrying around 6 rods and in the middle are the crab pots and gear for their adventure. Conversely the amateur fisherman is carrying a single rod and a bucket. Some don't even have any other tackle with them so what happens if they lose their bait or hooks ? I suppose it's just 'game over' and time to go home. Also along the Pier railings are Memorial Plaques to various people. They also had some markets on today and Clive found 2 hand towels for the kitchen for us. The Urangan Pier is a former deep-water, cargo-handling facility originally built to facilitate the export of sugar, timber and coal. The pier was used for the transfer of cargo between rail and ships. It was built between 1913 and 1917 originally to a length of 1107 metres. The pier was closed in 1985, and 239 metres of it was demolished. However, due to public outcry, 868 metres of the pier was left and restored. As the Botanic Gardens is just around the corner on Elizabeth Street, Clive went for another look at what we thought were oriental gardens. These turned out to be a Chinese Garden. Fraser Coast Regional City and Leshan, (China), share a sister city relationship and each has a reciprocal garden. This is a very peaceful area to sit and enjoy. While we were at the gardens the other day we noticed workmen building a kind of shelter. This was the picture Clive captioned 'OH and S'. Well on the news tonight they mentioned that this will become the new orchid house once it is completed. Something to return back to when we live here. We also found a couple of books to read that are kept in the laundry library so we swapped with some of ours.