March is a busy month of celebration for JT and me as we both have birthdays and a wedding anniversary on St Patrick's day; this year being our 20th. For JT's birthday we had a weekend in Brisbane, staying at the Stamford Plaza and enjoying some excellent retail therapy, good food and two nights of blackjack at the Treasury Casino. There may be a financial crisis on but you wouldn't be able to tell from the full restaurants, shops and a packed casino. We had a fantastic time but just loved hitting the wonderful Coolum coastline on our return.
Above and below, views from our hotel room at The Stamford Plaza
It seems not many of our non-Australian friends were aware of the huge storm we had here on The Sunshine Coast. During the height of the storm a container ship off the coast of Brisbane lost 30 containers overboard, all containing dangerous chemicals. One container pierced the ships side and over 200,000 litres of oil discharged into the sea.
The oil slicks came ashore from Brisbane and a hundred kilometres north with the Coolum Beach being the most northern place effected. Our beach was lucky as the sludge you see in these photos being minor compared with further south and being cleaned up over a few days.
Further south, even at Mudjimba just 5 K's away, the beaches have been closed now for over a week whilst the clean up continues. This has been a major disaster in an area known for its pristine sandy beaches.
