Tuesday 18th March

We were woken up ridiculously early, 6.15, with hammering outside – there are lots of road works around here, and were just dozing off again when – the fire alarm went off! Talk about a quick reaction – Tom was out the door and heading off to the stairs before I’d even got my nightie on! So much for women and children first…. We’re only on the third floor but by the time we got to street level, 2 fire engines were outside – brilliant response time (we found out later that the fire station is just around the corner!) and there were all these bleary eyed half dressed occupants being given some funny looks from the early morning office workers. Panic over, it had been a small fire in the kitchens so off we trooped to our rooms. No chance of getting back to sleep by then of course, so I finished off last night’s blog and we had an early breakfast.

We went to Australia Zoo today, Steve Irwin’s Zoo about 70kms north of here. The weather was dull again, so we took the waterproofs just in case. Although the traffic was heavy, it took us just under an hour. Just outside Brisbane, we passed our first sign for Cairns, 1699kms – about as far as from John O’ Groats to Land’s End – just in one state! We decided not to go there for the day! Again we passed some brilliant street and place names – Nudgee (we looked out for Winkee but didn’t see it) and Burpengary and Tom’s favourite of the day – Beerburrum, which he renamed Beery Bum.

Tom tested out the new rucksack by filling it with the waterproofs and my sandals. As you can imagine, there were lots of people but plenty of pay booths, so having got in, we made it to the Crocoseum in time for the show (a tiered stadium with a waterway in the middle). The keepers and handlers show and talk about the snakes, birds and crocodiles they look after, and handle some of the pythons and boa constrictors - NOT in the audience I’m very pleased to say; various birds fly round, then a crocodile comes in to the pool and does his thing. The main point of the show was to tell us how many species are in danger of extinction and what the zoo is trying to do to help some survive – educational but we didn’t find it particularly special. The croc was impressive, but I can imagine Steve Irwin making the whole thing so much more interesting because of the personality he was.

They are doing a vast amount of building work and according to one of the keepers we talked to, the plans are to increase the size to five times what it is now. They have quite a lot of creatures which are not on display because of the lack of space – cheetahs and platypus he named. It’s well laid out although with the work being carried on, some of the paths were closed and we did a LOT of walking. Although the cheetahs are not on display, they do take one of them for a walk every day and we tried to catch up with them – the walk is not planned but is directed by the cheetah and where he/she wants to go. This one, Echo, kept going in the opposite direction to where we were and there was no direct route for us to follow his path so we rushed back and forth through the rainforest bird cages and the red kangaroo area until one of the keepers took pity on us, took my camera and took some very nice pics of him for us. Tom managed to get some long range film of him – he’s a real beauty, Echo NOT Tom!

The tiger show was great. There were three cubs who played with one of their keepers in and out of a big pool for over half an hour. These cubs were as big as, if not bigger than him when standing on their back legs but didn’t scratch or bite him. It was lovely to see the relationship that they had. We missed the elephant feeding as we were chasing the cheetah, but did see them chewing on a few leaves and breaking up logs to eat – quite amazing.

The wombats are so cute. They too take it in turns to go for a walk every day in a special harness (perhaps there’s an opening here for a new CATAC product?!) and like it so much they vie for the privilege! One of the keepers was sitting cuddling one of them who kept nudging her when she stopped stroking him! I suppose it must be the same in most zoos, but the keepers here certainly seemed to have love and respect for the animals they’re responsible for and thoroughly enjoyed their jobs. The grounds are immaculate.

I steeled myself again to go in the reptile house, I’m getting really brave in my old age. It was a large area and I could view the snakes from some distance while Tom went up close. There were lots more poisonous ones here and big too. The biggest reticulated python they have is in a glass cage just outside the Crocoseum – he’s huge but very beautiful – never thought I’d say that about a snake and I did get up close to him – on the other side of the glass of course. Tom got even closer to a boa by having his photo taken with one! I felt quite faint when I had to take his photo – but I think that was hunger too!

On the way out, we stopped by the Tasmanian Devil enclosure. I don’t know whether they were very happy in there as they just kept running around in the same pattern. I read an article somewhere that said that type of behaviour is indicative of boredom and unhappiness. However, they looked plump and well cared for and they too are very cute. Purely by chance, we then found some Kookaburras sitting looking sad, as they seem to on any picture I’ve ever seen of them. Then we passed the large lizards, including a Komodo Dragon – big beast - on the way back to the exit.

As you can imagine, there are lots of pictures of Steve around and an area devoted to photos of him as I remember seeing him on his croc programmes. I hadn’t realised that the zoo was actually started by his parents who were reptile experts, and he and Terri took it over in 1992, and expanded it into what it is now with the addition of other endangered species. It’s very sad that there is now a family rift between Terri and Bob, Steve’s dad, about the running of the zoo and Bob has removed himself from having anything to do with it. We were there for over 5 hours and didn’t visit every part, so when it’s expanded, you’ll need 2 days to see everything – but the ticket is valid for 2 days anyway, which is very sensible. It wasn’t cheap at $49 each, but worth it.

We joined the rush hour traffic back into Brisbane – but nothing like rush hour in major cities of UK – and parked the car under the hotel. This car park has to be seen to be believed – neither of us has ever seen such a tight approach and entrance. We’ll try to take some pics but it still won’t give you the exact feel.
Cheap dinner again tonight to compensate for the overspend was kebabs, and they were just as good as the ones we had in Sydney. They’re served in thin Turkish bread and rolled up as opposed to the pitta bread we use in UK, with plenty of salad and loads of meat all from $6.50 - $9.50 – guess which one Tom had? We had another wander round the centre, admiring the buildings lit up at night and retired to bed at 10.30. Another day’s exciting adventure over, and let’s hope nobody sets the toast on fire tomorrow at some ungodly hour! Night all.