Crikey! What a ripper!

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Day 65 - Aspley (North Brisbane) - Australia Zoo, Beerwah - Elanda Point

We’re going to Australia Zoo today, the home of the late Crocodile Hunter himself, Steve Irwin. Crikey mate!

We’re on the road nice and early with every intention of dropping the caravan off at Coochin Creek and then heading off the zoo but en-route we changed our minds! We figured that loads of people must go to the zoo with caravans in tow so perhaps we should too? Coochin Creek was a great little spot to camp but let’s face it, we’ve been there, done that and heard ‘the story’ so we should find another place for adventure tonight. Sold! We changed the destination on Tom Tom and headed for the place where dreams come true, Australia Zoo!

When we get there we’re greeted with a cheery ‘Welcome to our Zoo’ by the gent on the gate who then directs us to the place with more space for caravans, it’s all very easy and we were right to think that lots of people would have done the same - there’s already a few caravans in the car park!

The zoo itself is huge and after we’ve parted with $104 to get the two of us in we’re straight ‘in the map’ to figure out which direction to head for first! The main show is on at 11am in the world famous Crocoseum and it seems that Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin will be involved so we’ll make sure we don’t miss it!

So, we’re in the map and the time now is 10am! We wandered by the giant Aldabran Land Tortoises while they were being fed. Crikey! They’re not kidding when they say giant! The Asian small-clawed otters were also being fed, they’re so cute and look like something you’d buy later in the gift shop!

Following the map isn’t easy, we should have brought Tom Tom! We find our way to the Crocoseum so we can get a good seat. There are people filing in now and the place is really filling up fast. We figure it must be the school holidays as it’s pretty busy but it could be that this is just a very popular place to be on any day on the week! The big screen is showing clips from the old Crocodile Hunter DVD’s and it’s easy to forget that the man behind this whole place is no longer with us. “Conservation through exciting education” is a phrase that he often used when describing the passion behind educating the young and young at heart about the importance of caring for our environment. The Wildlife Warriors isn’t just the show in the crocoseum, it’s a worldwide organisation inspired by the Irwins and is leading the way in a new era of global conservation. The ‘real’ show begins and the crowd warm up by Chantelle and the cuddly whale is very funny, tacky but funny! The elephants join in the fun with their keepers. The reptile team come and show off some of the snakes housed here including an enormous python which swims in the pools ‘centre stage’! Up next are the wetland birds, who are pleased that the python has already left, followed by the black cockatoo’s, mackaws and parroquets. The whole crowd is enthralled by a returning Chantelle with her determination to make it on to the bird team having spent weeks training her white beauties. She asks for audience participation and help, she needs 4 volunteers to stand with arms outstretched and then make a ca-caw sound as the birds are released from the cage. The stadium is full of people desperate to help and the 4 are soon picked out and stand arms aloft practising their calls much to the amusement of the rest of us! Chantelle opens the cage, the birds fly up, out and far away and the volunteers soon realise they’ve been had!

Next up is an auction to feed the elephants with Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin later this afternoon. The bidding starts at $50 and reaches $2’000 in no time at all. There’s soon a bidding war between a gentleman with his family and a single lady on the opposite side of the crocoseum. Everyone is on the edge of their seats and it strikes out in favour of the gentleman at $2600! Fair shout!

Crikey, it’s time for the Crocs! The Crocodile team come out, led by Wes who we think has been at the zoo for some considerable time maybe even since it’s creation. There’s smoke pouring out from one side of the arena and out runs Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin. They’re very funny and put on a good show for the crowd. They announce the main section of the show and Terri gets the kids to retreat to a safe distance when the croc is nearing the pools - they joke about the last time that Robert fed the crocodiles with Daddy and how Channel 7 made a big hoo-ha about it!! For such a little boy, Robert is very confident and very quick witted and the crowd are roaring with laughter!

The team are working with Munga today and this crocodile is enormous! Crikey! Terri talks all the while about the importance of being safe around crocodiles and how they are very territorial and will only attack if you get in their way! She talks about how you should never get in the water where crocodiles are and how you would never be able to out swim one. And then she entices the croc from the water by stamping on the ground which causes a vibration so the croc knows that someone is on the banking, meanwhile Wes is splashing the water and at some points even gets in!!!! Crikey!!! It doesn’t seem like this croc has been with them for very long as he’s a bit un-predictable! Terri can't get him to come out of the water so she swaps roles with Wes and they do alot more enticing and stamping. The crocs find males more attractive so Wes does have more success here and it's not long before Munga is showing us what a great set of teeth he has! There's a mixture of activities on land and then back in the water where with some more enticement Terri encourages him to do a tail stand, which he doesn’t. Instead, with Wes's blessing Terri gets Bindi to feed the croc when it comes back on the banking, it's great to see this confident young lady seemingly very at home in her fathers footsteps. A little chip off the old block and so is young Robert! Then it’s on to what turns into the grand finale, they do this routine with a bit of a pig where he, Munga, has to grab it, which he does, but then he does 5 ‘death rolls’ on the banking before dragging it into the pools! Apparently this is unheard of in the show and Terri announces she has never seen this in her 17 years here! So there it was, a show that was quite enthralling and made even more brilliant with the inclusion of the Irwin’s who really brought the whole thing to life.

The remainder of the day was spent exploring the rest of the zoo. The koalas were a big hit with us, their enclosure was having a ‘tree swap’ when we arrived so there was plenty of moving around! We had a really good look around the whole croc enclosure which allows them to get from their homes to the crocoseum pools, very clever set up! We were fascinated with Tiger Temple where there were two keepers in with a very playful Tiger! Wandering through the Rainforest enclosure was great but I still didn’t see a Regent Bowerbird! Elephantasia was fabulous and the proposed Cheetah run looks amazing. We found a friendly Pademelon to introduce the Beanie Kids too and then made our way back to watch the croc show for a 2nd time and did see a croc do a tail stand this time but it was without the Irwins and although it was good, it didn’t sparkle like it had this morning so we were glad we’d rushed in earlier! We also caught the bird of prey demonstration which was good and proved that they have a total mind of their own when Kelsey the Barking Owl flew to the rafters and refused to come down!

We checked out the reptile enclosure, to update our knowledge on venomous snakes - Fierce, Eastern Brown and Death Adders, we won’t be getting near those if we can help it!

It was 4pm in no time at all so we spent our last bit of time in the gift shop, had our pic taken at the Irwin tribute monument and made our way back to the caravan in the car park. Crikey, what a ripper of a day!

We hadn’t really done anything about where we would stay tonight! There were a couple of rest areas close by, one 4 minutes away, one 9 minutes away or there was Elanda Point Canoe Company which was just over an hour away. We plumped for that and started the journey. We didn’t have an exact address, just the description from the Camps 5, ref 160 Queensland section which simply says it’s 6km north of Boreen Point on a 1km dirt road. It’s dark by the time we arrive and we’re momentarily disappointed to learn that fires are banned here. However, we check in and things start to look up when we’re given a booklet on the adventures available from the site! Canoeing galore, hikes all around - it’s going to be a fun packed couple of days!

Darryl rustles up dinner, it’s amazing what you can do with a tin of corned beef, beans, sweetcorn and potatoes!

Here’s to whatever tomorrow brings!

Dar and Sar

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Comments

[Banksy]

Hmm
Looks bloody excellent, pity I drove past it :/ Not very sure about that Irwin monument though... Rest looks good mind...