Hervey Bay (for Feb. 21)
First light this morning was about 4:45 with sunrise at 5:15 when everyone is sleeping. But it is pitch dark at 7 PM. Go figure.
Today we visited Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin’s Australia Zoo, arriving about 11 and staying until 4:30. The guy is a bit of a loon and we thought it bordered on tacky to visit his facility, but he has a very impressive operation going down here. The huge infrastructure and gazillions of staff explains the steep ticket price. Of course, you would expect the crocodile show to be the highlight, but there was much, much more. There is a good sized stadium facility (I would guess it seats 2,000 to 3,000 people) where they did a snake show, a tiger show, a free flying birds show, and, of course, a crocodile show. After that we wandered the park, where there were additional shows or interpretive talks at each of several animal compounds, including camels, foxes, koalas, and, once again, crocodiles. They also have many other animals, including two large compounds of free roaming kangaroos.
As interesting as the crocs were, the highlight for me was our visit to the Tiger Temple where the keepers were playing with the tigers while one of them gave a commentary. The rapport the keepers had with these dangerous animals was pretty impressive. They had them wrestling, chasing toys, and jumping in a pool. Throughout the park and in every interpretive talk or demonstration, the message was consistent – animals in the wild are under great pressure and we must take action to protect them if we don’t want them to disappear.
Another interesting specimen was the cassowary. It is like an emu, but with more colourful plumage. I had never heard of this bird until we saw a display at the Brisbane Museum about how endangered it is.
We had bypassed the Glass Mountains on our way to the zoo because we wanted to catch the shows, so we backtracked from the zoo. These nine mountains are volcanic plugs that remain after the mountain around them has eroded. The most interesting were fairly narrow spires with very steep sides. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the lookout, the light was not very good, so it was hard to appreciate them. By the time we were back on the road, it was 5:30.
We arrived in Hervey Bay at 8 and were settled in our hotel before 8:30. As described yesterday, it is pitch dark here by 7 PM. Our late start from the mountains forced us to drive narrow, winding roads in the dark at highway speed for the last hour with mostly large trucks for company. It sure focuses your concentration.
We still hadn’t eaten supper, so we went back to a grocery store we had passed a couple of blocks back. We walked in at 8:55 and were warned that they were closing at 9. What a great time to go shopping! Celeste picked up a pack of 8 hot cross buns for 50 cents. As we were walking by the meat counter, a young clerk offered us a whole barbecued chicken for $5, regularly $9.95. The other lad behind the counter marked it down another dollar! This could become habit forming.
The terrain today was hilly with quite a bit of agriculture. The area between Brisbane and the zoo had a lot of pineapple and orchards. After that it gave way to mostly cattle grazing.
Today we visited Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin’s Australia Zoo, arriving about 11 and staying until 4:30. The guy is a bit of a loon and we thought it bordered on tacky to visit his facility, but he has a very impressive operation going down here. The huge infrastructure and gazillions of staff explains the steep ticket price. Of course, you would expect the crocodile show to be the highlight, but there was much, much more. There is a good sized stadium facility (I would guess it seats 2,000 to 3,000 people) where they did a snake show, a tiger show, a free flying birds show, and, of course, a crocodile show. After that we wandered the park, where there were additional shows or interpretive talks at each of several animal compounds, including camels, foxes, koalas, and, once again, crocodiles. They also have many other animals, including two large compounds of free roaming kangaroos.
As interesting as the crocs were, the highlight for me was our visit to the Tiger Temple where the keepers were playing with the tigers while one of them gave a commentary. The rapport the keepers had with these dangerous animals was pretty impressive. They had them wrestling, chasing toys, and jumping in a pool. Throughout the park and in every interpretive talk or demonstration, the message was consistent – animals in the wild are under great pressure and we must take action to protect them if we don’t want them to disappear.
Another interesting specimen was the cassowary. It is like an emu, but with more colourful plumage. I had never heard of this bird until we saw a display at the Brisbane Museum about how endangered it is.
We had bypassed the Glass Mountains on our way to the zoo because we wanted to catch the shows, so we backtracked from the zoo. These nine mountains are volcanic plugs that remain after the mountain around them has eroded. The most interesting were fairly narrow spires with very steep sides. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the lookout, the light was not very good, so it was hard to appreciate them. By the time we were back on the road, it was 5:30.We arrived in Hervey Bay at 8 and were settled in our hotel before 8:30. As described yesterday, it is pitch dark here by 7 PM. Our late start from the mountains forced us to drive narrow, winding roads in the dark at highway speed for the last hour with mostly large trucks for company. It sure focuses your concentration.
We still hadn’t eaten supper, so we went back to a grocery store we had passed a couple of blocks back. We walked in at 8:55 and were warned that they were closing at 9. What a great time to go shopping! Celeste picked up a pack of 8 hot cross buns for 50 cents. As we were walking by the meat counter, a young clerk offered us a whole barbecued chicken for $5, regularly $9.95. The other lad behind the counter marked it down another dollar! This could become habit forming.
The terrain today was hilly with quite a bit of agriculture. The area between Brisbane and the zoo had a lot of pineapple and orchards. After that it gave way to mostly cattle grazing.
posted by Celeste at
1:11 a.m.
1 Comments:
Reduced to Clear, baby! Words we lived by up there in Queensland.
And watch out for those cassowaries. Apparently they're ornery. And with those razor-sharp claws and powerful legs, they're a disembowelment waiting to happen. Everyone says so.
By
Tyler, at 9:10 a.m.
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