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Published: February 28th 2008
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brisbane...
..the park we eventually got to!! Woo… so our time in Byron is over, its been amazing, but I am defiantly glad to be on the move again!…
On the 21st February, we woke early (albeit with slightly sore heads!) and got the remainder of our stuff together ready for Gail’s inspection.. Considering she is such a dragon, this was actually quite a daunting prospect! She came round to our house1 hour late.. and ostracized all of our meticulous dusting and hovering… huh how very rude!! But as she was late we kind of had an excuse to leave quickly, so we said a goodbye to all of our housemates, loaded our suitcases into the boys car and with just a small backpack, went to the bus stop.
The two hour bus ride to Brisbane passed quickly and we soon found ourselves in the concrete middle of the hustle and bustle of the transit centre. Unsure what to do we headed for KFC!! Byron has no fast food places and we were starving so we thought we would push the boat out and treat ourselves!! Yummy!
We decided that as we were in Brisbane we might as well have a little look around, it was the
first hot day for ages, and as we traipsed around, our tiny backpacks suddenly seemed to contain lead!
We sat by the river and after studying the map, realised we were quite a way from the centre. There were the botanical gardens nearby so we decided to take a stroll there, however, we managed to get stuck between the river and the road and we just couldn’t find the way! We finally found the park and chilled out for a while before heading back to the train station.
Sitting at the train station was one of the funniest times we have had for ages… coming from Byron, where everyone is young and pretty.. we suddenly felt like we were in the middle of the latest fat camp!!
We eventually got on the train, only to realise it was the wrong one!!! We got off and waited at the next station for a while… it was so crowded, but as luck seems to follow us, we managed to get seats while everyone else stood!! After 45 minutes, we arrived at Caboolture station. We had arranged to meet Irene and Edward (Gemmas great auntie and uncle) outside the station, and as
Gemma hasn’t seen them for 15 years, it was quite amusing trying to guess who they may possibly be!!
We were also quite excited as we had heard they had two young chaps on the farm, Andy and Paul.. we imagined they would be fit, tanned farm boys and promptly decided they would be the men of our dreams!! (It actually turned out that Andy was about 40 and 5 ft tall, and Paul who was about 70, was nicknamed ‘Wally the worthog’ and for good reason! He he!! But they were both lovely chaps who made us very welcome… just not our type ;-) !!)
Eventually Edward and Irene arrived and luckily spotted us! We had a coffee at a cafe opposite the station and introduced ourselves. They seemed lovely and I was really excited about spending a couple of days on a real Australian ranch! We got in their camper van and drove a few minutes to the ranch, as we pulled up at they house, me and Gem just looked at each other and grinned… it looked amazing! They have 50 acres of land, horses, cows, dogs, cats and ‘chucks’! We dumped our stuff in
our room and like children at Christmas, went to explore the ranch…!
Irene had cooked real corn beef for dinner, and we were joined at the table by Suzie (their daughter), Skip (her boyfriend), and Andy and Paul (who live on caravans on their land). So it was quite a fun meal! Me and Gemma were both shattered so we went to bed early that night.
The next morning, Irene dropped us off at Australia Zoo, I’ve been wanting to go there for ages, and they only live 20 minutes away. We arrived at 10ish, and didn’t leave till 5.. it was defiantly a fun filled day! The whole zoo was a real shrine to Steve Irwin, and it was a lovely, the animals had big enclosures and we got to fed elephants with our hands, cuddle kangaroos and stroke a baby alligator!!!
They’re was a bus which took you all around the zoo, and we stopped at one point at the “crocuseum” which was a big 5,000 seat arena. They bought alligators, birds and snakes out, but the coolest part was that they had a competition at the beginning where everyone in the audience had to
act like a monkey. Well me and gemma took full advantage of the opportunity to act like fools and pranced around arms dangling… just as we were getting in full swing, we realised we were infact basically the only people doing it!! so therefore we won!! We got one poster of Steve Irwin with a alligator..!!
The zoo was brilliant, the animals are not just in one cage, they have whole areas dedicated to them with buildings full of information and amazing surroundings. The design of the tiger temple was inspired by the ruins of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple and the architecture really set the scene for the animals and made the whole atmosphere far superior to other zoos.
So after we had seen every single animal and had been brainwashed to think Steve Irwin was actually God, it was time to leave. Irene came to pick us up, and we were welcomed home by a barbeque and cans of rum!! We peeled the shrimps before they were cooked.. (well, actually, the others peeled them… I couldn’t handle all their green brains squishing out on my fingers!!) We had steak, salad, shrimps and fruit sitting outside on the
veranda, it was lovely and the best food we have eaten for months!! There were thousands of mosquitoes though.. you could actually do dot to dot with the bites on my back!!
After dinner, me, Gemma, Skip and Andy took some drinks down to the creek, which runs alongside their house, and chilled out under the stars... these are actually ozzies that use "fair dinkum" in their everyday language... its awesome!!
Early next morning Andy and Skip took us to Briny Island, where we went surfing! It was a really sweet beach, the waves weren’t much, but it was the last time we were going to see the sea for a while, so im glad we made the most of it!!
When we got back to the ranch, Gem went with Skip to the shops and I went to have a shower. I was just getting out when Irene came to the door all of a flutter. “help, help” she was saying.. it turned out that Edward, who has alzheimer’s had gone missing, they couldn’t find him anywhere. We created a little search party, split up and walked the boundary of the ranch.. it was a boiling hot day
buzzzzz...
the scary wasps nest behind a picture in our room!!! and Irene was scared he had got too hot and collapsed. They others got back from the ranch about half an hour later, with the search still in full swing! I jumped in the jeep with them and we drove across the fields all around the ranch, despite the situation, it was brilliant, we got to see all the animals and scenery!
It turned out Edward had gone to visit his neighbour and was absolutely fine, so alls well that ends well!
We spent the next few hours around the ranch, playing with the dogs who were awesome and chatting to everyone! Skip got the one man canoe out for us, and me and gemma both got in and rowed down the creek! We took a couple of out beers with us and had quite a little adventure.. it was awesome!! In fact being back on the ranch was like a childhood dream!
Irene made some sandwiches for us and then, that evening, it was time to say goodbye as the boys turned up to start the road trip!!…………..
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