Day 76

Start:  Woodridge Station

Finish:  Brisbane Central Station

Distance:  15

Total:  1211

Today I completed my walk from Melbourne in the south of Australia to Brisbane on Australia’s Pacific coast. It was a good day of walking through suburban and inner city neighborhoods with overcast skies and moderate temperatures. 

I was anxious to get going this morning so I had breakfast at the hotel and then caught the 7:30 train for a 45 minute ride to the Woodridge Station.  Unlike my train rides the previous two days which were express trains, today’s train route stopped at every single station between Central Station where I got on in downtown Brisbane and Woodridge where I got off. We must have stopped at 20 stations in a distance of only 15 miles. No wonder it took 45 minutes to get there. 

Once I got started, I was walking on sidewalks in business districts and right through residential neighborhoods. Once I reached my halfway point, I was on a four lane street that lead straight downtown. With two miles to go I could see the tall buildings coming up and knew I would be crossing a river using a pedestrian bridge as I walked the final half mile into the city. So at that point I called a time out for lunch. 

There was a cafe advertising itself as a real Texas barbecue brisket restaurant right on my route. So I thought OK; we’ll just see about that.  I had a BBQ brisket sandwich. We can stop right there. No Texas BBQ brisket joint with any credibility puts coleslaw on a brisket sandwich. I know they do in other states, but I personally have not seen it in Texas. But this Aussie BBQ brisket joint laid on the coleslaw like there was no tomorrow. It turned out OK because I was hungry, but these guys need to come to Camp Brisket at Texas A&M sometime in the future. 

After lunch there was only one thing left and that was to walk down the street, over the bridge, and finish my trek. The bridge actually feeds right into the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens which was a nice finishing touch; it had a sort of calming effect before hitting the hustle of the streets just ahead. I finally made it to the Central Station to wrap up my walk. It’s only a few blocks from my hotel. 

Tomorrow I fly home. I leave here Saturday morning but I gain a day enroute so even though it takes 1 1/2 days to get home to San Antonio I still get there Saturday night. 

In closing I want to thank all of you for following along with my journal entries this time around. It really is a motivator to know people are interested. In the next few days I’ll post an epilogue entry to summarize my thoughts for this trip. Please watch for that. Also, I have posted one last video that can be viewed by tapping on the video tab on this website or you can watch it on YouTube. JB.