Australia

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and is the third largest city in Australia, with a metropolitan population of 1.8 million. It is a city set close to the Pacific Ocean, and is situated beside the Brisbane River.

I stayed with fiends I met 30 years ago in Afganistan, Lynsey and Anna lena. It was as if time had not passed and we got on so well. It always helps if you have simular interests which we did. We went for a weekend to Springbrood National Park and we hiked 17 km through unspoiled rainforest. Spectacular waterfalls, lush rainforest, ancient trees, impressive views, exceptional ecological importance and natural beauty make this World Heritage-listed park an outstanding place to visit.

In Brisbane I visited the Botanic Gardens - Mt Coot-tha. The Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha are Queensland's premier subtropical botanic gardens. They are 52 hectare gardens.

Plant collections at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens include a series of distinctly different gardens The recently developed Australian Plant Communities.It is well worth visiting, bring lots of water and plenthy of time!

We also visited Crystal Waters Permaculture Village - A community working toward balanced natural ecology. This will be the topic of my next article for seedmagazine.com

I also met some lovely Dutch people! Echt gezellig!