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Published: October 29th 2007
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The 6ft long python we encountered on a day out. Our next stop was Yandina, which is very near Maroochydore and Maloolabar, both very pretty places with pristine beaches. Trevor has relations living in Nambour and we spent a very enjoyable day catching up with Joyce, Nev, Ivy and Colin. Trevor has always spun a tale about being related to royalty, being from the wrong side of the blanket. Imagine - those claims to fame appear to be true. Other long lost relations from Devon, in the UK, have been researching the family tree and have gone back to the infamous Lawrence Palk, Duke of Devonshire who took advantage of Trevor's great, great, great grandmother who was in service at his ancestoral home. Through the ages the Palk family have married into the Spencer family and it turns out that Diana, Princess of Wales is distantly related to Trevor and his family. Wow, can you imagine his reaction. We need to pay to speak to him now.We also caught up with our dear friends Alison and Dereck Clarke who live in a pretty place called Buderim, home of the famous ginger factory, which we visited and sampled their wares..The highlight of our stay has to be a visit to Australia Zoo,
A water dragon lizard.
These are wandering around the zoo among the visitors. a truly remarkable place. The animals did not appear to be in cages at all, their large clean enclosures resembled their natural habitat and all seemed to be completely relaxed. Huge water dragon lizards wander aound everywhere - and I can't say I really like them but I had to be brave. The famous show in the Crocoseum was brilliant, with the crocs doing what comes naturally, also snakes wriggling around and birds flying amongst the audience. It is truly a shrine to Steve Irwin and you can feel his presence, even the road leading to the Zoo has been renamed Steve Irwin Way.Talking about snakes, we were driving along a country lane and stopped to wait for a 6ft python to cross in front of us, we got out and photographed him, then he turned around and went back the way he had come. Scarey.We are now staying at Helensvale on the Gold Coast, about 50km south of Brisbane. We have visted Surfers Paradise by day and by night, so vastly different. The night visit took in a ride on the monorail through the shopping centre and over the main road then into Jupiters Casino, again a little flutter
Feeding frenzy.
They are so tame, and overfed !! but no gain. The mind boggles at the amount of people there and the vast sums of money being played with. Australia certainly looks a very wealthy country when viewed from the gaming tables.We took a drive up into Tamborine Mountain and O'Reillys lookout where you feel dizzy when you look down. It took us 1 hour to drive up the mountain to the lookout and at the top is a guest lodge, restaurant etc., even a herd of cows and how they got there is anyones guess. The road up is single lane most of the way and there was a sheer drop over the edge. Also at the top is a walk through the trees and on our walk we saw a Red Belly snake, apparently very poisonous. We fed the Rosella parrots with seed and laughed to see the Brush Turkeys chasing each other, obviously the mating season. It is one thing to have a parrot land on your head, another thing altogether to have a turkey try to do the same.Today was a visit into Brisbane, the usual hectic city traffic but luckily we have our trusty GPS who we have named Sat Nav Natalie, we
Home from home.
We settle in quickly when we get to a new site. thank her profusely at the end of every hair-raising journey, she never fails us. We had a cruise on the Brisbane River and had a great view of the city despite heavy rain. We have been in the Brisbane area for 4 days and have had 3 storms. We are excited at the prospect of our visit to Warner Bros World tomorrow, but will leave the Wet and Wild to those younger.Will continue soon ..............
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