Bribie revisited

 

The other day it was my first visit to Bribie Island in nearly 20 years, I just calculated. The developed area is still confined to the southern tip, but I think it's expanded a lot.

The eastern bit of this, at Woorim, is still largely as I remember it, and there's a nice beach, with views across to the even bigger Moreton Island.

(It's time I learned which is which of those large islands off SE Queensland. From north to south, it's K'gari/Fraser, Bribie, Moreton, and North Stradbroke. Fraser is the biggest, Bribie the smallest, but it's still pretty big.)

 

I think a lot of people visit Bribie Island, like a lot of other Queensland wild places, so they can hoon around in their 4WDs, terrorising beaches and sand dunes.

I prefer to just take in the fine views, like this one of the Glasshouse Mountains.

She 'popped a wheelie' (and nearly popped her head open)

A strange scraping noise as I was setting off on my morning walk today. It turned out to be a motorcyclist who'd just come off her brand spanking new powerful motorbike. I got to be one of those calling the ambulance for her.

I've called emergency services on previous occasions, and it's a strange experience. They're polite and grateful once they decide you're for real. But before that they're either robots, or people that sound like robots, while they work out where you are and whether you're a hoax.

 

Anyway, the ambulance station is only 2 minutes away, and the ambos were soon able to establish that she was probably going to be OK. "I popped a wheelie, and I lost it" was her probably very honest explanation. She'd landed on her brand new helmet's face shield, and it was very scratched. "First wheelie I've ever done!" So unfair.

Maroochydore might want to be a proud metropolitan future Olympic host city, but it's still full of country hoons.