Sunday Afternoon at Kangaroo Point

I cannot even recall the last time that I just went for a walk around Kangaroo Point. There have been times that I have parked and walked to the ferry, but last Sunday I took a little bit of a look around. I must say it was not a detailed walk, but I just wanted to share a little from the walk including a few pictures.

My visit to the area was to attend a stop on Chris Guillebeau’s book tour for his new book. The new book is called Side Hustle and takes you through a 27 step journey to starting a side hustle yourself. The point to meet was at Riverlife which is in the old Naval Stores on the banks of the Brisbane River.

Getting to Riverlife can be a challenge, as there is no real dedicated parking. The most common places to park would be the top of Kangaroo Point Cliffs and walk down. Alternatively, you might get lucky and find a parking spot on Lower River Tce which has limited car parking. The option I choose though was to park near the Story Bridge Hotel on Main Street.

My Walk

I took two walks from where I parked the car today. The first was a walk across the Story Bridge to collect a Geocache. The second walk was down Main Street to Captain Burke Park and back along the Brisbane River to Riverlife.

Geocaching

Geocaching has been a hobby of mine for almost five years now. Often when I find myself somewhere with a little time to fill in, I will open up the Geocaching Application and see if there is any nearby.

Sunday afternoon was one of those times with a little time, and just took a look at what was around. It turned out that there was a reasonably new Virtual Geocache on the Story Bridge. The Geocache was called A Story About a Bridge (you might need to be a member of Geocaching to view this page) and just needed a little walk and a photo to be able to log a find.

Story Bridge Hotel

The second walk was to get me to the venue for the book tour meet up this evening. After leaving the car the first spot that I passed by is the Story Bridge Hotel. The hotel built in 1886 with the name Kangaroo Point Hotel. However, was renamed to the Story Bridge Hotel in 1940 to coincide with the opening of the Story Bridge.

The Story Bridge Hotel is one of only seven hotels in Queensland from this ear to have three stories. I did not quite capture the front of the hotel, but it is a nice building to take a look at if you are int he area. You can see the roadway approach to the Story Bridge running behind the hotel in this photo.

Story Bridge

The most prominent feature at the northern end of Kangaroo Point is the Story Bridge. The bridge is the eastern of five crossing over the Brisbane River near the Brisbane CBD. The bridge was built in 1940 and operated as a toll road until 1947. Constructed of the steel cantilever style with six lanes for vehicle traffic and footpaths on both wides for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

The bridge received a Historic Engineering Marker from Engineers Australia in 1988. Additionally, the bridge was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992. Finally in 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the bridge was announced as one of Q150 Icons of Queensland.

Holman Street Ferry Terminal

The Holman Street Ferry Terminal is a great spot to head across the river to the Brisbane CBD. The Cityhopper ferry operates from this terminal and travels between North Quay and New Farm with a total of eight stops. The stops include North Quay, South Bank 3, Maritime Museum, Thornton Street, Eagle Street Pier, Holman Street, Dockside and Sydney Street terminals.

City Skyline View

Walking along the edge of the Brisbane River towards my destination there is a view of the Brisbane City skyline. One thing that I find interesting is just how different the look of the skyline can be from different angles. Even just the difference between the top of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs and the river bank. Unfortunately, I don’t have a comparison today, but the view is still lovely from this point.

Riverlife

The destination for my walk today is Riverlife that is operated from the old Naval Stores. The building was constructed between 1886 and 1888. Subsequently, they were added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.

Riverlife which was started in 2005 operates from this heritage building and has quite an extensive offering. From tours both on and off the water to event spaces both in and out of doors. Which coincidently is why I was here for an event.

Side Hustle Book Tour

For around six months now I have been listening to a daily podcast called Side Hustle School by Chris Guillebeau. Then towards the end of September 2017, he released his book called Side Hustle School. As part of launching the book, Chris is looking to visit 100 cities showcasing the book and the concept of a side hustle.

Even though I had been listening to the podcast and had purchased the book on Audible, I almost missed the tour stop in Brisbane. It was only due to a friend posting about it on Facebook that I knew it was happening. I am delighted that I did not hear about it after the fact as hearing Chris speak about the side hustle concept in person was compelling.

Check Out Kangaroo Point

While I had a specific purpose of visiting the area today, there is more than enough to spend some time just taking a walk. In fact, the area that I walked is only a small fraction of Kangaroo Point that you can explore. So if you are visiting Brisbane or even live in Brisbane and have not been to Kangaroo Point, why not go and take a look.