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Published: September 2nd 2006
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After some disastrous attempts to stand up on a glorified ironing board, and a couple more nights at the pub watching the locals get trashed and fight each other, we were beginning to feel very much at home in Lennox. After realising our intended 2 nights had crept silently up to 4, the decision was made to move on as we needed to get our butts in gear to see all of the east coast highlights in a mere 3 weeks. We arrived in Brisbane and found ourselves checking into a very cheap dorm room. The reason for the cheapness of the accommodation became quickly apparent when we were struck with the reality that we would be spending the night in the company of 14 other strangers. Not uncommon if you happen to be called Hugh Hefner, but the close quarters and lack of cleanliness of our new room mates ensured that as little time as possible would be spent in our room. After a walk around the city centre we headed back to the hostel where we were happy to discover that the bar next door was just beginning it's nightly happy hour, where by crossing the bar tender's palm
with a dollar you receive a 'pot' of beer and a free slice of pizza. Unfortunately a pot didn't mean a small bucket, but can be more closely related to a half pint. We woke up the next morning to the news that someone had got back to our dorm late that night, started spitting everywhere and urinated out of the patio doors before crashing out unconscious on the floor. After chatting to the guys who witnessed the soiling we were unable to establish a time frame by which we were too in the dorm, meaning if we were indeed present and unwoken by our midnight caller, the pots had worked a treat. We spent one full day in Brisbane mainly congregating in the offices of Peterpans travel agency trying to sort out some trips to Fraser Island and the Whitsundays further up the coast. Brisbane is a very clean city with some picturesque botanical gardens where a couple of hours were spent fumbling through adverts for Fraser Island trips, and provided a great rest bite from the bustle of the city centre.
We left Brisbane with no further visits from the mystery pee-er and jumped on the Greyhound
heading for Noosa. Noosa is a tiny town nestled amongst some national park land, and we stayed in a place just south that had a beach stretching for miles along the coast. We thought it only courteous to buy some incredibly cheap wine and get to know our room-mates a bit better over a few drinks. The town was a fair walk away and with socialising at any of the local bars was pretty much out of the question, a good old red wine induced 'putting the world to rights' with Frank and Yvonne would have to suffice. We took a trip into town on the bus the next day with all good intentions to take a walk around the national park, eventually leading back to the beach where we were staying, but due to the previous nights over-indulgence, a walk in the hot sun was more than Dave's throbbing head could cope with. Due to this situation, the simpliest option to stop Daves moaning was to get back on the bus after buying some food to make lunch and dinner and go for a picnic on the beach. The next day we awoke bright and early for our 8
o'clock rendezvous with the courtesy bus to Steve Irwin's world famous Australia Zoo. There was a video laid on for us that promised 'unseen' footage from Steve's younger days as a crocodile hunter, and everyone was pleased to see he was as over the top when he was a nipper as he is on his T.V documentaries now. The Zoo itself is a fantastic insight into all the different beasties that can be found all over the Australian continent. It's so much more than a crocodile farm and is home to the 10 most venomous Snakes in the world, free roaming Kangaroos, Elephants, Wombats, a variety of Birds, Tigers, and of course the icon of Aussie wildlife, the Koala bear. There are a couple of places around the Zoo where you are free to pet the Koalas under the watchful eye of one of the park rangers to stop children from pulling them around like toys, and to stop blonde english girls trying to sneak one into their backpacks. We watched the 2 hour long show that takes place everyday in the arena and educates people about Birds, Snakes and Crocodiles. There was the highlight of the day with the
Crocs Live! show where the Crocodile keepers demonstrate how not to be eaten by one of these dinosaur-like reptiles. We spent plenty of time in the Kangaroo inclosure watching the roo's bounce all over the place whilst fighting the urge to try and chase and catch one. A great day was had at the Zoo but unfortunately we left without seeing Steve who was apparently endangering his life somewhere up in north Queensland. We also left without any nasty bites or stings, and unfortunately for Lucy, without adopting any Koala bears.
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Kez Dave
Out of the Rock!!
Oh my god Steve Irwin Dead
Oh my god can you believe it, an aussie legend, gone!!!! nice blog but how spooky as you were just at australia zoo. hope you guys keep having a great time in my country. your country is nice, but the weather is average, not freezing though!!!!. oh and we are working, how crap!!! bye