East Coast Road Trip - Day 7 - Noosa

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I cannot believe it is June already, where has the time gone? Thankfully we have to check out early this morning as if I have to spend another minute in this hostel I might just cry. We make our way along the highway and stop at Australia Zoo- home to the legend the crocodile hunter. It’s a big part of our road trip, as it’s something Greg has been talking about doing since we first arrived in Australia. When we get there the sun is absolutely splitting the sky, but half an hour later it is pouring of rain! We look a bit sheepish in our flip flops and shorts taking shelter in the kids petting zoo area, but never mind. Thankfully it is only a shower so we manage to stay dry for the rest of the day. I can’t believe how many crocs they have in the zoo- some are absolutely massive, and they follow you with their beady eyes as you move around the cage. Quite scary and creepy. There are also loads of other things to see too including Tasmanian devils, possums, kangaroos, tigers, elephants, a camel and koalas. The highlight of the day is definitely going to the ‘crocoseum’ to witness one of the croc handlers feeding a large crocodile. He dangles a piece of meat from his hand over the edge of a pool of water and the next minute the crocodile jumps out of the water and snatches the food away. The sound of the jaws slamming together echoes around the whole theatre. After the show and still on a high, we walk over to the South East Asia part of the zoo so we can see the tigers and elephants. As we approach the elephant enclosure, they are setting up some ropes and temporary walkways so we stop for a minute to have a nosy and see what’s going on. The guy asks me to stand forward in front of the rope so I do. A few minutes later I notice people have started to line up behind me, and then one of the zoo keepers puts a bucket of bananas and pumpkin pieces down next to me and it all clicks into place- I am going to be feeding the elephant! Next minute I am thrust forward and a big sticky trunk picks a banana out of my hand. It’s a bit icky but exciting! Doubt I’ll ever have a chance to do that again.

By the late afternoon we’ve done and seen everything the zoo has to offer so we head off towards Noosa. The clouds look quite forbidding and that doesn’t really bode well for our kayaking and camping trip in a few days time, but we will see what happens. We find a hostel called Noosa Backpackers and decide to get ourselves a double room as they are quite cheap. It’s quite a small hostel with a bar, pool and a T.V room inside the kitchen, which is a bit of a strange set up. The room set ups are a bit weird too as our double room turns out to be inside, but separate from, an 8 bed dorm. We feel really snobby as we say hi to everyone in the dorm and then disappear into our own wee room. It turns out the other people in the dorm are really nice, mostly American but one brummie lad too. They are typical loud Americans who really don’t know the volume of their own voices. It’s really annoying listening to them from inside our room, but they soon invite us to join in with their drinking games and we figure we might as well join in. It’s been a while since we’ve had a night of hard drinking (we usually only make it to about 2/3 beers each before crashing out) and it’ll be nice to have some other company other than each other (24 hours a day/7 days a week is quite tough going, especially when we spend most of it cooped up in a car). We start off playing a game that consists of trying to flip coins into a cup filled with ‘goon’ (evil, evil cheap wine). Whoever doesn’t flip the coin into the cup fast enough has to drink the goon inside it. The goon in itself is bad enough, but everyone keeps dipping their little fingers into the cup to retrieve the dirty coins and Greg and I just look at each other- maybe it’s our age but there’s no way we are drinking the disgusting, manky stuff in those cups! So we opt inside to down some beer everytime we lose. Little do they know it is light beer we are drinking, so as the night progresses and everyone gets more and more drunk, we are relatively sane and feeling good. At about 11pm, a bunch of Germans appear out of nowhere to join the party. Greg nearly pees himself laughing when one of them asks Eric (the loudest and fattest American in the group) to “put some of that snoopy dog shit on” in his German accent. The party comes to an abrupt end about an hour later when the police actually turn up inside the hostel! The cop tells Eric that he doesn’t have to shout as he is standing right next to him. Eric looks perplexed and asks (or rather shouts) “I am a typical loud American?” Hmmm, just a tad. The officer thankfully takes it in good jest and puts him straight. All in all, a good random night of fun.

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Photos

Australia Zoo
Me feeding an elephant!

Australia Zoo
Bronze statue of the Irwins

Noosa
before things started to get messy

Noosa
The 'gang'