Ian spent the morning putting the final pieces of window tinting on Ethel. She may look the part now, but she's still playing up, and so it took another push start to get her going to Mount Coot-tha. We'd seen pictures of the city taken from this place in many of the souvenir books and wanted to go see it for ourselves. Only 7km west of the city, it was clearly sign-posted and easy to find.
The view of the city from Mount Coot-tha is great - a real vista that takes in the high-rise buildings in the CBD and right out to Moreton Island in the distance. The city is a lot further out than I expected but it is still picturesque and worth seeing all the same. It's at times like these that I wish I'd brought along my SLR camera with the powerful zoom lens but I guess this is not practical for a traveller to lug around! Had to make do with my happy-snapper!
The view of the CBD from Mount Coot-tha.
Back to the van, key in the ignition - did she start? No, she wouldn't budge a single inch again. Ethel is getting cantankerous in her old age! Ian enlisted the help of a guy and they both pushed whilst I steered her out of the tight parking spot. Half way, the guy just disappeared. Rats deserting a sinking ship, me thinks! My turn to push while Ian tried to start the thing. I was surprised when a lady in her 60s ran over to help and in no time, we were up-and-running again. Girl power!
I've made quite a few acquaintances in the last few days as a result of the old dear needing a good push! Apparently, the starter motor is on its way out (so we've been told by the RACQ guy). This problem has been intermittent since the beginning and we just need to get Ethel to a garage and have the part replaced. Fingers crossed that'll fix it for good.
Next stop was the Sunday Market on Riverside Walk, Southbank. The market sells mainly clothes and jewellery. We watched a charicature artist at work as he etched his way through a couple of sittings. This guy is good and has an acute eye - at the same time, his art is flattering too. I noticed he left out things like crows feet and the like! At $6.50, it wasn't expensive and Ian wanted to give it a go. Unfortunately, the guy wanted to take a break as he'd been working 3 hours non-stop in the scorching heat. With only a 1 hour parking spot, we could not wait and Ian had to give it a miss.
Duly fed and watered, we went back to the van. Did Ethel start? Nope. Ian disappeared for a while and came back with some help. I was about to help push her with the latest recruit when I saw the catchment - in the form of three tanned burly men. Result (as in for Ethel, that is!)! They weren't going to need my help. She started almost straight away. Ian told me later that these guys were the best candidates as they seemed to want to show off their muscles (none of them were wearing vests) and were keen to impress their girlfriends. Perfect!
We're going to need to get Ethel to a garage soon - can't keep pushing the old dear everywhere we go, that's for sure!