A trip to Oz

Everyone we spoke with mentioned we should visit the Toranga Zoo. The tour guide on the ferry boat over even said it was one of the worlds top 10 zoos. All in all, I wasn't impressed. Maybe it was the time of year or something but the exhibits, while nicely done, had very few animals. Some didn't have any at all. There seemed to be more than a few empty exhibits.

The ride to the top via the cable cars affords a great view of downtown Sydney across the harbor.

The shows preformed during the day helped to make up for the dissapointing exhibits. The wild bird show was really good. They had a couple of eagles as well as a dozen or so other birds that performed in an open theatre that overlooked downtown Sydney. Very cool.

There were a couple of exhibits that stood out.

In particular, the giraffes. Like them or not these three were very funny to watch. For an added fee, there always seems to be another way to charge you for something else, you can get your photo taken feeding different animals. As we happened by the giraffes there was a small line of folks waiting to feed the giraffes. As we watched one giraffe in particular went out of his way to get noticed. He was sticking his tongue out and trying to snatch snacks from his mates. It was fun to watch him.

The gorillas also made for a good visit. As two youngers ones played they actually crashed into each other with an audible clunk when their heads meet in midair.

After a nice day at the zoo we took the ferry over to the Darling Harbor for dinner. We stopped at a place called Jordens and enjoyed a great meal. A bit expensive but worth it. I recommend the baramundi.

We were pleasantly surprised by this stop. While we imagined just another mini zoo this turned out a little nicer. The Koalas were mostly asleep

but the kangaroos were in an enclosure that allowed us to interact with them. They sell cups of cracked corn to feed them and they really do enjoy it. I was able to get many photos of kangaroos close up including one where one of the Roos helped himself to my cup of corn. They allowed us to pet them and hold their paws. Obviously, they have lots of interaction with people so it was very enjoyable.

There were other animals that you could get close to but the kangaroos were the best.

We also picked a good time to come since we nearly had the park to ourselves.

After a day of just laying about at the beach and the pool, we decided to head down the coast. It was a nice drive that allowed us to stop ad different beaches along the way. Each were beautiful and open.

One of the neater things about Austrailian beaches is the lifeguards are formed as clubs and they in turn watch the bathers. The lifeguards will asses the currents and conditions and will put out a pair of flags on the beach that shows where it is safe to enjoy the water. Further north there was a threat of jellyfish. Here, further south there didn't seem to be so much of an issue.

As we slowly cruised the coastal route we passed some smaller towns including one called Kendal. Since it is the namesake of one of our daughters we had to drop in. It wasn't much of a place but it was fun to explore new towns nonetheless.

As the coast route brought us back to the Coast Highway we headed back. The 3 hour drive took us about 30km down the road.

One of the few things that didn't cost us admission was the Koala hospital. These folks take injured and abandoned Koalas and nurse them back to health with the intention of releasing them back into the wild. In some cases this is not possible and they become residents of the hospital. You can adopt a Koala to help subsidize their work. The neat thing about viewing Koalas in this environment is they are held in smaller enclosures. Not cages by any means but more intimate enclosures that allow you to get closer to get a nice view of them. One even woke up before the normal feeding time and gave me some great photo ops.

Right next to the Koala Hospital is Roto House. The origin of the name has a couple of explanations but essentially its a house built by a successful business man around the turn of the 20th century. Its a nice view into life and living in this part of Australia during this period. There is no entry fee for this either but it does accept donations. According to the sign on the door it is open whenever there are volunteers available. In our case there was a nice older gentleman that gave us some details on the house and made sure we knew about the Koala hospital next door.

All in all a good way to kick off week two of our travels.

Our time in Cairns is coming to a close. We have our last adventure planned for the Daintree rain forest and a river boat cruise. Unfortunately, the weather isn't on our side. It was raining at 6:45 (yes AM) when the coach came to pick us up.

The drive out the the rain forest included several stops to pick up other guests so it took about 2:30 before we finally got to our first stop. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and gave us details the whole way up.

We finally stopped at a river bend down river from where we were heading. Lucky for us the rain had a break in it so we could explore. As it turns out this part of the rain forest is regrowth so wasn't natural but had grown back quick densely.

The next stop after seeing many sugar cane and other crops that did well in this part of the state we had a very nice lunch and a visit to another beach. While it was pouring (with a capital P) when we arrived after a delicious lunch the rain again gave us a break to explore the beach which looked like the Swiss Family Robinson could have lived there.

Next stop the Daintree River Cruise. This stop started dry but after the normal break for tea and cookies we headed down to the river boat. This is open boat with a cover but no cover on the sides or front. This was all well and good until another heavy shower approached the river. This were no where to go so we drove right through the front. We all ended up quite wet but the effort was rewarded. We saw a few crocodiles and a king fisher the was quite brightly colored.

The bus driver/tour guide met us at the ferry crossing on the other side of the river and off we went to the Daintree rain forest. This was slightly different from the rain forest at Kuranda in that much of it had been logged earlier in the 19th and 20th centuries so much of this was regrowth. It was lush and thick and green but not as tall as Kuranda.

The drive home was long since we were the last drop almost 13 hours after we started but it was a good end to very exciting adventures in Cairns.

Tomorrow we head for Brisbane then drive to our next stop Port MacQuararie.