Our Travels: January 2006

I went to see the Crocodile Hunter today at the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast, near the Glass Mountains. It was a great day. Really a cool zoo. Very interactive. You get to touch a lot of animals or walk around next to them. The staff is great. People walk around with snakes, birds, lizards, koalas, etc for you to see. The zoo is unbelieveably clean. If a bird poops, there is someone there with a mop to get it. They had shows in the new "Crocoseum". Eric was a great gide so we got to see the shows. The croc hunter himself didn't do the show but then when we were walking around, he happened to ride by on a dirt bike with his daughter on his lap and said g'day. I was a really complete day.

Koalas are kute!

Crikey mate! Look at that croc! The shows at the Australia Zoo were really good. Snakes, Sumatran tigers, birds. Really entertaining!

What you looking at?

Roos are so cute!! These guys were just chilling under the macadamia trees.

A Tasmanian Devil.

Hungry roo

Look familiar? A dingo....or Pearl?

On Monday, I worked.

Finally Brisbane pics! This is from my tour of town on Sunday. We took the ferry up and down the river from the south bank and also hike around downtown on the north bank. Brissie is a nice city. Great weather, much more tropical than Victoria.

This is the ferry that goes up and down the river through town. It is fast like the ones in Bangkok, but docking is a little more user friendly. Fast with no wake. Very cheap too!

This is some government building I just thought is looked nice from the ferry.

Posing infront of a bottle tree.

These bats are about half a mile from where I am staying in a patch of woods. At night, they are all over. Loud and squeaking. There where several hundred here. It was cute to see some of them flying with the babies hanging on their chest.

Ready for some temples and pagodas Christina?

This guy was just sitting on the patio at the cafe in the botanical garden. They were everywhere. He liked the chocolate cake I tossed his way.

Here is a shot of Brisbane from the botanical gardens.

Really kind of a boring picture but it shows smoke. The white stuff in the sky is smoke. There are several bush fires this week and it is hot as can be. 43 C today and oh yeah, no AC in the houses. I spent Australia Day working and will travel to Brisbane this Saturday and stay in Queenland next week.

Melbourne!! I apologize in advance that I took way too many picture of trees and green stuff and not so much of the city. Downtown Melbourne is very nice put it does have that sterile feel of a busy business district. It has several areas and pocket that have a lot of flavor and color. My favorite part was the green spaces. The Royal Botanical Garden was amazing huge trees and really cool plants. Other than that, my time was spent marching around town seeing as much as possible. It was a busy weekend in town with both the Australian Open and Cricket in town. The city was very alive but when it got hot, the people hid. I just heard on the news that it was the first time it reached 40C 2 days in a row in Melbourne in 20 something years and that Saturday night was the hottest night on record. It was a nice break from the small town life in Drouin. Melbourne is a great city with great public transport and friendly people.

This picture is for Dorothee just to prove I went to Chapel Street. It was a really nice area. Really shi-shi at one end and then fades to the dollar store after several blocks.

Melbourne is a very pretty city lots of trees mixing with the city. Nice green spaces.

I laid down to catch some rest in the park and then the birds started attacking. Funny looking grackles!

I am trying to spread out the tree pictures so Christina doesn't fall asleep. This is a big Algerian Oak planted in 1889.

On Saturday morning I hopped out of bed and hit the tram 96 to St. Kilda. It is a beachy laid back area of town. Lots of nice cafes just a block off the beach. Mmmmm...pancakes.

This is the beach in St. Kilda. Pretty beach but not spectacular. I am saving up my beach energy for Thailand.

Looking up the beach towards town. Nice Canary Island date palms. Too hot for the beach! It was 100F.

More St. Kilda.

In Fitzroy Gardens there is a replica of Captain Cook's house. Just a cool old stone cottage. The tree in the background is a Monkey Puzzle.

On my last evening, I went to the outdoor movie in the Botanical Garden. Great skyline in the background, massive trees from all over the world, and huge flying foxes buzzing around. Great atmosphere and a great break from hiking all around town.

I saw this monster and had to get a picture with it. Can you guess where its from?

Yes, they have Texas trees!!

I have been a bad boy about updating the blog. Lots to do and it has been a busy week. I will be headed into Melbourne for the weekend. This is a picture from Phillip Island. We saw several seals but didn't stick around to see the pinguins. Pretty beach but a bit too cold for me. I went swimming anyway just to get wet.

Today we flew over the hills west of Melbourne. You could see downtown but it was too hazy to get a good picture.

Here is a picture of the bush we flew over today. The light green are those tree ferns I love so much.

I really love the tree ferns. In areas here the trees can be well over 200ft.

Saw these chickens eating in a parking lot. Loud buggers! They are everywhere.

Sideways, but me and a big tree.

This is for Christina. Here is the little house where I am staying in Drouin.

One more.

Spotted this guy on the way back from dinner yesterday evening. A wombat! I also saw a wallaby but it was way too quick for a photo. We ate dinner in the mountains near here. Huge trees! Lots of trees near 200ft!!!

Blurry, but you can see it.

My 1st day in Australia has been a packed one. All of these pics are from my 1st day. Drouin is a small town in the country. Maybe what Johnson City is to Austin. I was in a tree within 12 hours of landing in Australia. The other climber here has a plane so when he offered to go see the coast, I blocked out jet lag and jumped on the chance. We flew from Phillip Island (edge of bay by Melbourne) down to where we could see the southern tip of Australia. A truly exciting day.