Just back from a long weekend in Brisbane and it’s good to be back in Mount Isa after an enjoyable break.
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Because I’m involved in the Steptember campaign raising money and awareness for cerebral palsy, I’ve been doing a lot of walking – the target is 10,000 steps a day.
So when I got to Brisbane Airport last week I had this mad idea to walk to Toombul Shopping Centre.
In theory this was easily doable, as I was travelling with hand luggage only and it was a journey of about 6km on foot which is a distance I’ve often walked before and I was in no hurry.
The reality is it became somewhat of an adventure as the way out of the airport is not geared up to deal with pedestrians.
It seemed easy enough at the beginning and there was a path linking the domestic and international terminals.
But there was no clear path out of the international airport and I was forced to negotiate a couple of lane shoulders before I found a path on Qantas Drive past all the freight offices (I was tempted to call in on Qantas freight and ask them about their problems getting the North West Star on the plane but thought better of it).
On the other side of Lomandra Drive I found another path through the immenseness of the DFO / Skygate complex (which I’d never been to) and was amazed at the number of government offices in the region.
But the path got difficult again as I attempted to find a way to Toombul and I ended up on the hard shoulder of Airport Drive before finding the turning lane to the shoppoing centre.
If this wasn’t hard enough, it was at this point that Brisbane’s weather intervened and the heavens opened.
I got saturated and now write these words with a heavy cold, though I did make it to the shopping centre after an hour’s walk and after doing my business there, I got the train to my final destination.
I’m not sure what the moral of all this is except, maybe, “healthy stuff is bad for you” but it did make it clear how pedestrian unfriendly our cities are becoming.
It’s great to have motorways and tunnels, but we must give other road users good options too. DB