It's Animal-tastic mate

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A long, long time ago in a country far, far away man encountered nature. Upon this first meeting it was decided that nature in it's vast and infinite glory must be studied and classified. At first many ideas were considered and many great and glorious thinkers worked long into the night devising a method. Finally, after months of toil they had cracked it and so was born the 'Wombat', 'Not Wombat' method.

However, despite the clear superiority of this system over the others of the day 'Animal', 'Not Animal' and 'Moving', "Not Moving' it still had it's flaws. Firstly, they are many cute 'Not Wombats' which because of the aforementioned cuteness were difficult not to place in the 'Wombat' category. Also while some 'Not Wombats' made a good meal, others would attempt to eat the poor person who was simply out looking for 'Wombats'.

But this as they say is history, Australia doesn't have much history hence we offer them this one to do with as they please. What they do have are Wombats! and Koalas and Tassy Devils and Cassowary and Dingos and Enchiladas (ish) and Roos and Wallabies and many, many other things that will happily have you for lunch.

Our whistle stop tour around Australia's East Coast can be thought of more as one giant safari. Desperate to see as much nature as we can before it dies out. Unfortunately this is the message you here everywhere in Australia - 'only in zoos' here and 'almost extinct' that. Thankfully many of them are obsessive animal lovers and sanctuaries and zoos are everywhere. Offering Koala cuddles and Roo feeding frenzies that allow you to get up close and personnel in a way missing everywhere else - Nic is loving it.

This place is awash with wildlife although you get a weird chill every time a spider crawls near you in the park. Can it kill me,one ponders. The answer 'Of course it can - Welcome to Australia'. Actually I'm beginning to think that even the grass could probably kill me given the propensity of deadly beasts in this part of the world. No-where else would a two or three inch-wide spider straddling lampposts outside a McDonalds not cause a stir but in Australia. As Nic runs to the other side of the street and cowers like a em ... girl, Aussies pass calmly underneath seeming oblivious to the swinging harbinger of death gently perched above them. You have to love this place, just not sure I'd want to live here.

Our animal oddessy also took in a stop at the home of the now sadly former 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin - Australia Zoo. This place is different from all the other zoos in Australia because it's bigger. More crocs, more koalas, more merchandise and of course more Elephants ... hang on. Yes this bastion of Australian wildlife is the proud home of 3 Asian elephants which they cunningly forget to mention aren't often found in Australia.

However, even after all of our animal spotting I think I may have to begin traveling with Scarlet (see photo) as Nic is pretty determined to explore every inch of the bush in her deliriously happy attempt to scream each animals name at them. WOMBAT! I'm not sure that would be too bad a thing really as I'm sure Scarlet would help me meet plenty of new women, just look at her - so cute.

With our next stop a relaxing getaway in the decidedly British-temperture-esque Island of Tasmania we're expecting even more chance for some animal antics. Although hopefully not as a result of our driving abilities.



P.S. Yes, we visited the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in Sydney, however, lets be honest they're just buildings. Sure quite pretty buildings, but buildings all the same. We also came to the sad realisation that our photos were not going to be anywhere near as good as any postcard we could buy from the hundreds of shops there and so left rather sharpish,- just in case there were any spiders around.

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