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Published: June 18th 2006
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Ok, so it seems like ages ago that i posted my last entry (no, it WAS ages ago!) but i thought i wouldn't have much to tell you while i was at the sanctuary without boring you with animal stories and pics. ( I have plenty of pics to bore you with when i get home though!) Have actually done quite a bit when i haven't been at the sanctuary though (and some cool stuff at the sanctuary).
So here's some highlights of my month:
- Naomi (fab lady i stayed with in Bellbowrie, head keeper in raptors) took me to the Brisbane Forest Park and Mount Glorious on one of our days off. Saw a platypus at the forest parks (those guys are a lot smaller than i imagined but incredibly cute in a weird sort of way). Also saw some wild whip-tailed wallabies with pouch-young poking out and a laughing kookaburra sitting high up in a tree (must make a correction to a previous email - blue-winged are found in the north of east coast and laughing are more common and are widespread along east coast but more towards south!). Then drove through all the eucalypt forests
Burleigh Heads
The beach at Burleigh Heads with Surfers Paradise just visible in the distance. and stopped at some lookouts along the way to check out the views and then headed to Mount Glorious which is an area of rainforest and also beautiful but so different from the nearby surrounding eucalypt forests.
- Went to a school quiz night and wasn't much help because most of the questions related to aussie things but had a good time all the same. Also its good to do things like that cos you get more of a feel for a local community.
- Naomi and I held a dinner party/get together for some people from work!Was nice to utilise my hostess skills again although i had the added pressure that i was put in charge of cooking the 'chook' cos naomi is veggie and not used to cooking meat. Didn't really want to be remembered as the volunteer that gave everyone food poisoning!!Night was a complete success though and after dinner we continued drinking and finished off the evening with a game of pictionary - v.amusing!!
- Went to the gold coast for the day with one of the guys from the sanctuary, Manuel (and before any of you get any ideas, we're just mates!).
Surfers Paradise
Dusk on the beach at Surfers Visited Burleigh Heads and Surfers Paradise. Burleigh Heads was sooooo beautiful and I got my first chance to dip my toes in the sea(which was lovely and warm) and stroll along a proper Australian beach. Good preparation for the next few months cos i'll be spending a lot of time on the beach. I plan to spend my first few days in Byron Bay down at the beach, doing nothing - bliss 😊 . Also walked round the Burleigh Heads National Park around the headland and could see nsw in the distance! I thought Surfers Paradise was a bit overated and my brief visit was probably enough - i've been there, walked along Surfers beach and had my pic taken under the big archway so i feel i can tick it off my list of things to see and do this year.
-Have been up to Mount Coot-tha twice, once during the day and once at night. Mount Coot-tha is a lookout where you get views over the whole of Brisbane and can see as far as the sea on one side and mountains on the other. It is so pretty up there and the views were amazing. During
Mount Coot-tha
The view during the day... the day it was interesting&fun to have places and things pointed out to me but at night it becomes this magical view with twinkling lights as far as the eye can see under a backdrop of black skies and bright stars.
- Watched game 2 from the state of origin series on a big screen at southbank with the two american girls, Ashley and Maddy, who came to stay at naomi's during my last week. The 'State of Origin' is a yearly rugby league comp between queensland (the maroons) and nsw (the blues) which involves 3 games. So far each team has won one game so the final game should be exciting and i'll have to find a bar to watch that one when its on. Only bad aspect of the evening was trying to get back to Bellbowrie. Went to get catch the bus back - was listed on the screen so we took a seat and waited then 5mins after its supposed to arrive there's an announcement saying that some services have been diverted to the stadium and won't be stopping here. So we check it out and ours was one of them but we didn't have
Mount Coot-tha
...and at night(bit blurry but some annoying kid kept banging on the railing i was steadying the camera on!!!) time to get to another stop and the next bus (an hour later) would be stopping there so got comfy and waited. Yep, you've guessed it, it didn't show either and this was the last bus! So we got on the next bus that would get us to Indooroopilly (half way to Bellbowrie) and then got a taxi from there. It was about 12.30 by the time we made it back.
- Went out on bit of a bar crawl on friday night with Ashley, Maddy and one of the other volunteers from work. We had a really great night and were all ready for a few drinks and a damn good boogie. Its a shame that they only arrived last week cos we all got on really well and i'm sure we would have had loads more fun nights if we'd had more time.
- Have also done/seen some pretty cool things at the sanctuary. Have had the chance to hold a croc but don't worry it had a band round its snout so couldn't eat me! One of the echidnas was a bit poorly this week so got to see them treating it and also got
Koala mum and joey
'Hey mum, i'm just hanging out!' to tickle its tummy (the only area not covered in huge spines!) I got to fly one of the barn owls in the birds of prey show last weekend. A couple of baby possums were brought in to the hospital cos there mum's had been run over 😞 so one of the keepers is now hand raising them and i got to cuddle them while she was feeding them. She's named them 'stinky' and 'whizzer'!Plenty of opportunities to cuddle koalas as well and at the moment lots of the babies are starting to come out of their mum's pouches 😊 During my last week was given more responsibilites cos the keepers knew i knew the routines etc so one afternoon i fed the entire macropod section cos the keeper had to leave early!
Was quite sad to have to say my goodbyes on fri; have met so many lovely people whilst volunteering there and because i was staying with naomi i saw quite a lot of them socially too. I'm hoping to pop back for a few days if i have time at the end. Also have a couple of contact details for people so will try to keep in
Me, Wendy and Fitzroy
This was the first outing for the T-shirt (see, I promised)! touch with them. Also sad saying goodbye to the other 'vollys' because we all got on so well and always managed to have a good giggle 😊
That's pretty much all the unusual/exciting things i've done but am so excited about moving on tomorrow and beginning the next leg of my big adventure. Have booked my bus for byron bay and at 11.30 tomorrow i'll be setting off. Also booked all my major trips for the east coast yesterday - a 3 day 4wd self drive camping trip on fraser island (a big island made entirely of sand!), a 3 day sailing trip around the whitsunday islands and my 5 day diving course at the great barrier reef where i'll get to spend 3 days living above the reef in a boat. I cannot wait for all these things to happen and i'm SO EXCITED 😊
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Anne
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Im soooo Impressed
Hey I'm so Impressed that the t-shirt has had its first airing! Is that a twinkling of long earrings I see too! Your not cracking are you?! Looks and sounds like your having a fab time! Keep us all up to date Anne