Hervey Bay & Brisbane

6.4.

I’m aware that we ended the last post with a bit of a cliffhanger, but at least we don’t take 11 years to release a sequel (yes, I’m looking at you George R.R. Martin… I’m waiting!!). On the morning after our carriage broke down we called its owner and told them the tale of the past night. They instructed us on our next steps which included to get back to our metal horse and call the road assistance service of these far lands. But as we are hobbits, we of course wouldn’t do any such things before a proper breakfast: Julia’s father could be declared a national hero in the shire. He made us a delicious porridge and fried eggs on toast for breakfast. In between everyone breaking their fast and us departing we also washed some of our travel stained clothes. Julia and Lorna (Julia’s mother) drove us back to our carriage then and we followed the instructions given to us earlier that morning. The roadside assistance told us someone would be coming from the next village and would be with us in 90 minutes. Why they would take that long to get here was a mystery to our hosts, as the next village was about 10 minutes away. Well we used that time to drive to said village and go to the local market there. It was a nice small market and was full of villagers presenting their goods and crafts. While Lorna was looking at an old coal engine Artey got a call which turned out to be our rescuer send by the roadside service. They had apparently not walked the way from the village we were currently in and thus had been a lot faster than we were told. When we got back to our carriage, we were worried that an annoyed Shreck when you walk into his swamp was waiting for us. However, we were positively surprised as our rescuer rather resembled the character of a friendly smurf. He kindly greeted us and looked at our carriage. He agreed with the theory of our expert friend we had called the previous night: the storage of invisible power was broken. It was apparently very old and it regularly happens that these things reach the end of their life. Our dread at these news turned quickly into delight when he magically transfigured a new version of these things out of thin air (apparently ecklectic things (or however they are called by muggles) are not part of the five exceptions to Gamps law of elemental transfiguration). He also fitted it neatly into our carriage without charging us as this was apparently part of the membership to this roadside service our carriage owner had. We drove then finished our quest from the previous day in full by driving our carriage to Hervey Bay. There we were greeted by Bob with lunch (like I said, he’d be a hero in the shire). The rest of the day was spend with wandering through this enchanted town together with Julia. We passed the school Artey visited for two months when she was here a decade ago and strolled the beach. We returned in time for dinner, which was perfection in our eyes, especially because apart from the amazing main course there was a delicious desert.

7.4.

This day was very uneventful and relaxed. We made some preparation and plans on how to successfully manage our grand quest to bring the one ring to Mordor. The power of the ring is gradually growing as we are getting closer and closer to the lands of Sauron, yet we are set to make it. Of course, an essential part of this is food, so we also went to fill up our rations for the following days.

8.4.

In the morning, we were greeted by some kangaroos in the garden who came to see us off. Shortly after breakfast we left the sanctuary of the home of Julia. Her family has taken so good care of us. It had been a haven of peace and we were sad to leave, but our quest beckoned us onwards. So we steered our carriage south. We took a break at a breathtaking scenic point with views over the surrounding countryside. It revealed the ocean in the distant on one side and some rocky hills on other. There we cleaned our carriage and refueled ourselves for the last few kilometers of this day journey. We also cleaned our carriage as we had to give it back that day. An hour later we arrived at our destination of the day: Brisbane. We left our carriage with its owners and took a metal worm into the center of the city. The heat of the day had caught up to us and when we finally reached our accommodation we were about as energetic as a sloth. It took a bit to revive us after which we needed to go get the ingredients for our dinner. We ate with a magnificent view of the Brisbane skyline set against the setting sun. To be able to enter the land of dreams, we wanted to use our hobbit feet before retiring. Hence, we ventured past the river for a bit before falling into a deep undisturbed sleep.

9.4.

Restful nine hours of sleep and a breakfast later we went off to properly explore the city. The atmosphere of Brisbane engulfed us, and we wandered around in between glass buildings, over bridges through green parks, and shopping districts. We passed by a potion shop to get a solution for Artey’s infected sunburn (souvenir from Bali) and had another shop at the market of all things. After lunch back at our youth inn we had a productive break. The day ended with another self-cooked dinner and the usual preparation for the following day. But that is the story of another time.