We went to the Australia zoo on our way from Bagara Beach to Surfers Paradise. Their Animal Warriors show was something else. The Irwin's (the Crocadile hunters family) were the star's of the show. It was actually the boy's 5th birthday. The Croc's were cool, but I almost think the trainer birds were even more impressive. They flew all over the stadium landing right beside you, and then flying into and out of the stadium on command. The Australia zoo was more open than most US zoo's. The Koolaha's were right there in a tree beside you. The Kangaroo's and Wallabee's you could walk in their area with them. I think we have about 20 pictures of Shari feeding the Kangaroo's!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Mon Repo
so after the turtle goes back to the ocean the researchers un-bury the eggs and count them and then safely put them back. Its all part of the routine to keep track of all the turtles and how many hatchlings hopefully make it back to the ocean and such. Some sea turtles or on the edge of extinction. So its all part of saving the turtles. Our turtle layed 58 eggs. This is a pic of the researcher taking the eggs out of the nest. It was hard to get a good pic since there were probably 60 people or so circled around the nest. I highly recommend this experience for anyone who is able to make it to Australia.
Mon Repo
while in Bargara Beach we visited Mon Repo Beach. It is a conservatory for all the turtles that come in at night to lay their eggs on the beach. Then in jan to march all the little turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean. There is no guarantee that you will see a turtle. But we got to see two. The first was a big loggerhead turtle. But she couldn't get settled and didn't find a good spot to lay her eggs and headed back to the ocean. We then got to see a flat back turtle instead. It was a great site seeing them lay their eggs and bury them in the sand. Unfortunately the turtles are sensitive to light so they only let you take photos after they have buried the eggs and are about to head back to the ocean. So here is a pic after that. This turtle was maybe about 3 feet long.
Bundaberg "Ginger" Beer
So near the Rum factory they also brew non alcoholic sodas. They are famous for their first soda "Ginger Beer". Basically ginger ale. Its all natural, so no sugars added or chemicals or anything like you might find in most our sodas. They had Apple, Peach, Cola, Ginger Ale, Root Beer, Burgungy Cream Soda, Lemon Lime. I think that is it. They had 6 or 8 that we tried. They have diet or regular in most the flavors.
Rum
About 5 or 10 minutes from Bargara Beach is the town of Bundaberg, famous for Bundaberg Rum. We visited the factory and bought a couple bottles of Rum. Yummy!
Koala Crossing
Well you won't see these in the States! This was on our drive from Sarina Beach to Bargara Beach.
Sarina Beach
The Beach was right outside our sliding porch door of our room. We had a visitor that walked along the beach with us.
Sarina Beach
On the way from Cairns heading toward or next destination, we stopped in a little beach side town called Sarina Beach and stayed at the Sarina Beach Motel. Nothing fancy but it was right on the beach and the owners were super nice people and chatted with us in the bar for a bit. The food was good too.
Play Boy Van
So in Australia they have lots of companies you can rent camper vans, as they call them and drive around from town to town and stay in caravan parks. Most are actually pretty nice and brian and I almost rented from one of them. However, we saw this one on the side of the road on our drive from Cairns heading south toward our next destination. Gee, i wonder what they are doing in THESE vans. HAHAHA
Bat Tree
So much for a Bat Cave! This is the type of tree the bats seem to hang out in that you see in the other photo.
Bats!!
So we wandered by this tree in Cairns Australia and thought they were birds at first, when in fact they were fruit bats! The tree was full of them! Harmless apparently. But close up, the are a good foot or so in size. All of the black spots in the photo are bats up in the tree.
Great Barrier Reef Diving
and one more dive photo. i believe these are some type of Angel Fish, and I am unsure of the one on the far right.
Giant Clam
this is a pic of a giant clam we saw diving the great barrier reef. you get an idea of how big it is against the hand in the picture. i don't have a professional dive camera, so some of the pics are pretty blue/green. but hey, thats the color of the water! still very beautiful. Brian bought me a waterproof housing for my birthday so we could take pics diving in Australia!
Great Barrier Reef Diving
Ok, so some of the pictures are out of order. But we havent had alot of computer time to post what we have wanted. So this is just another photo from our diving of the Great Barrier Reef on Nov 25th.
First Driving Day in Australia
This was our 3rd or 4th day in Australia up north in Cairns. So Nov 26th I believe. We got the rental car so we could start our journey down the coast to Sydney. Instead of calling it a "car rental", they call it "a car for hire". So here is Brian getting ready to drive our car on the opposite side of the street and on the opposite side of the car. It takes a little getting used to but its really not too bad. Since there is always two of us in the car we are always helping each other remember what lane to turn into and to be in. I think we may be confused when we get back in the states! :)
Thankgiving in Australia
We happened to be at Bargara Beach in Queensland Australia on the night of what would be the USA's Thanksgiving. So this is a picture of us having our Thanksgiving dinner. I (shari) had baramundi. Its a local fish and quite tasty. We shared a nice bottle of Shiraz that we picked out direct from their wine cellar. We ate at Kacy's Restaurant.
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