Crikey! What a ‘beaut! (Our homage to Steve Irwin)

Today was possibly the coolest day EVER (second to the wedding). We headed out early to visit the Australia Zoo. This, as our guidebook had promised, was NOT your average zoo. The place is designed in a way so that visitors can have interactive experiences with animals. The Croc’ Hunter believed that giving people an opportunity to interact and have good experiences with wildlife would help them want to save it. It worked for us!! This is truly the Croc’ Hunters zoo, unless an animal was dangerous (venomous snakes, crocs, tigers) you were able to interact with it. Animals in cages this was not! We brought our new binoculars but never needed them. Pathways wound through habitats where the animals flew over you, slept in the gum tree above you, or hopped right by you. We “gave a cuddle” to koalas, hung out in “Roo Heaven” where the kangaroos and wallabies roamed freely among the zoo visitors. Even a momma ‘roo with a joey in her pouch allowed us to give her a pet (and some roo food!). We had a chat with one of the zookeepers who explained that these roos were bred in captivity and therefore comfortable with humans…wild roos are obviously much more skittish. Grandpa S. – we found one who has you beat – one of the zoo residents celebrated her 178th birthday (we bet you can figure out which picture she’s in). The highly animated and crowd-involved show at the “Crocoseum” was informative and entertaining - crazy tropical birds buzzed around the arena inches from our heads! The show had a very strong conservation message about how people can live along side of wildlife. (Note: The croc participating – Shaka – wasn’t really cooperating with the zookeeper…so we think his “tail walk” was not as high as normal. In the wild he’d go after the bats pictured in our earlier post). Jonathan begrudgingly put his head in the mouth of the model croc – based on a real life Salt Water Croc. If you can imagine a place that exudes the enthusiasm that the Croc Hunter had – where you were encouraged to walk off the trails and experience wildlife – you can imagine this place. We were (are) amazed – one man was able to have such an effect on people and make such a difference. Walls full of Irwin’s signature khaki shirts signed with messages and tributes to him were exhibited by the Crocoseum. We routed back to Brisbane via the unique looking Glass House Mountains where Jonathan longed for his ropes & harness. But alas, we had a full day and have to get ready for a night on the town in Brisbane, and picking up the 4WD camper tomorrow!