50-cent Fun - Milton ...

A few days after our Chelmer adventure, I booked for today's Milton Greet. The weather prediction didn't look great last night (or when we set off this morning) but we decided to go anyway, cos we'd coped with worse as Victorians!

Although there was some blue sky at home, all was quite overcast at Milton, where we met our guide and two other other participants.

Even though we became QLDers in 2017, we haven't really explored many of the Brisbane suburbs in depth, so there was lot of new information to take in.  We enjoyed seeing some very interesting places as we walked, chatting along the way.

We drive through the main part of Milton at times but it was fun to explore on foot, excellently guided by Charlie.

Suncorp Stadium is a landmark of the suburb and not somewhere we'd usually go.  There were so many currawongs in the area, calling to each other - lovely to see!  

We were near the stadium when all the dogs walked past.  Such a happy sight!  

A lady on her way to work commented the dog-walking was a daily event and lots of people paused in their activities to awww over the dogs!

It rained at different points of our walk, but not enough to dampen our spirits.  

It was only toward the end that the rain really set in.  We were near the river by that stage, so farewelled the rest of the party and made our way to Milton ferry terminal.

We sat undercover to eat some lunch, waiting for the rain to ease - then walked back to a park we'd seen earlier, which appealed because of the in-theme train playground!

Our pocket rocket stove did great work and we appreciated having tea/coffee with cake, sitting under cover.  The rain seemed to have stopped when we packed up and set off to Auchenflower station.  Hah!

Oh, we were truly saturated by the time we got to the station!  Our shared umbrella hadn't provided much coverage at all!

Hot showers and dry clothes were our first priority once home.  

We walked 8.5km in total, so were glad of our lounge chairs.  

The folding hiking cushions are being well used though and we're very pleased we bought them. I can leave mine partly folded, so it works a little like my regular seat wedge.

Today's total fare cost was $2.00 - 50c each way, for each of us. Bargain!

The distance from home to Milton 35.8km. Local diesel is $2.21 per litre today. A return drive would have cost around $15.80.  I'm not sure about parking! 

50-cent Fun - Chelmer to Graceville ...

The weeks are flying along and it's nearly a month since our wonderful Walter Taylor Bridge tour.  

In speaking with today's guide, tours of the bridge are not currently available due to remedial building works being undertaken - so it was lucky we went when we did!

I booked today's tour the day after we our Walter Taylor Bridge visit - because there were some links between the two.

There's currently some industrial action impacting train services and I had wondered if we might have to drive but everything clicked into place.  

Our morning train smelled like it had just been deep cleaned!

It was my custom bag's first 50-cent adventure and it worked very well.  I really like that my GoCard lives in a front pocket, where it is easily accessed to tap on/off.

We met our lovely Greeter guide, Rick, and thoroughly enjoyed learning of the area as we walked along.  

Our first stop was the Chelmer Community Centre (former School of Arts) building.  We fluked a look inside and admired the theatre area.

We saw so many beautiful homes! Two that had been designed (and occupied) by Walter Taylor - as well as his other buildings.  

Our favourite of these sites was the Graceville Uniting Church, though I was also very taken with the idea of him building a garage turntable which meant no reversing!

There are Greeter volunteers all around the world, offering free 2-3 hour walks in their home cities. Such a great iniative!

We walked about 5.5km in total, looping back almost to our starting point at Chelmer Station.  We farewelled Rick and thanked him for his time / company.  

Nick and I had our picnic lunch with a view of St David's Anglican Church (and the station) - entertained by many cockies and a couple of galahs, digging in the dirt for grass roots. Of course, our lunch was far superior! We had pasta frittata, some fruit and salted cashews as well as double-choc muffins. The pocket rocket stove did super-quick work of boiling water for our tea/coffee.  

Today's total fare cost was $2.00 - 50c each way, for each of us. Hooray!

The distance from home to Chelmer is just under 31km.  Local diesel was $2.27 per litre this afternoon.  A return drive would have cost just over $14.00, though parking would have been free.