Crikey!

 Another morning, another run. This time, feeling adventurous, I ran down to the botanic gardens but instead of turning around I opted to venture across the river. Taking the pedestrian/bike Goodwill bridge led to some gorgeous pathways along the opposing riverbanks through arbors covered in delicate vines boasting purple flowers. Of course, after I crossed the river again to return to the hotel, I got lost. Somehow I ended back up at the botanic gardens which put my slightly behind schedule but since I’m more or less paranoid about being on time, I was still running early. 

Sunrise over the river

Goodwill bridge

Add this to the list of parks

Bus waiting, we got ready to head to… the Australia ZOO! Yes, folks, Steve Irwin’s zoo! It was a smooth one hour commute by the Glasshouse Mountains and past the pineapple farms that led us there. Once we arrived we all headed over to the Crocoseum for their show. Birds were flying like mad all around us including native and non-native species. We also saw a MASSIVE croc, Monty, who was a little uncooperative. Nick, a zoo employee, took our group in for a little Q&A and some hands on time with a little crocodile as well as another large bird that calls Australia home. I wish I knew the name…

The blue group!

Condor... huge!

Macaws zooming around

An Australian native

Cute little guys!

New pet?

Bob, Colleen and I then set off on a tour de zoo which included some carrowarys, some interesting furry critters, a Tasmanian devil or 3, dingoes, more crocs, assorted farm animals, echidnas, wallabys, koalas, grey/red kangaroos, pretty faced wallabys, birds, snakes, wombats, and birds of prey. In the kangaroo encounter there was one lovely girl who Bob identified as a pretty faced wallaby. She had a joey in her pouch that was definitely ready to stand on his own two paddle-esque feet. Absolutely precious. Walking back up the way towards the elephants, we saw some of the zoo-keepers walking the dingoes. No big deal.

Dinosaurs?

Water Dragon

Echidna

Cuddle? Please?

Ken, the coach driver, and a wallaby

This ibis is a male.. the female's have gold eyes!

Python..

Oh hi!

Little joey

Mum must be exhausted

At the elephant exhibit hoards of people lined up in front of buckets filled to the brim with melon chunks to feed the beasts. They weren’t shy, snatching the melon out of my hand before I could really process what was happening. Across from their enclosure were the red pandas which scrurried about like little maniacs. One would mark a spot by rubbing his bum all over it and then the other would immediately leap up behind him and re-mark it. The cycle continued for what seemed like forever but it really didn’t matter since the critters were just SO darn cute. Having successfully killed some serious time, we all headed over to the tiger enclosure where the in-enclosure handlers gave us a demonstration. These people practically live with the beasts- they even wrestle with them! Not my personal idea of personal safety. 

Feeding the elephant!

Beautiful animals!

Training them with milk

Not intimidating at all..

Fighting sleep all the way back on the bus was a serious challenge… but somehow once I got back into Brisbane I found the energy to go to borders,  a few souvenir places (I got my coffee mug!) and began the unsuccessful hunt for ice cream. I found a place that sold LOTS of gelato but I couldn’t fathom parting with $8 for gelato. Even really good gelato.