Bribie Days...

Hello All--  Its been a couple of days and I didn’t want you to think that I forgot about posting to the blog.  Here is what has been going on.

Yesterday was a round of golf at the local club with a foursome of Eddie, Austin, Max (Austin’s cousin) and me.  Suffice to say that there is no danger of me being asked to play in the PGA anytime soon.  The course was beautiful, if a little damp, with a great number of birds.  The laughing Kookaburra earned its name every time I hit the ball.  Austin, Max and Eddie are very good players; Austin and Max have great games and are a pleasure to watch.  They are the type of players who make the game of golf look deceptively easy.

While the boys were on the course, the girls had an afternoon in the shops and then leisure time at the pool.  They are all very relaxed and working on tans to impress their friends when they return to South Carolina.

Shannon, Eddie and I went to the local airport on the island at Bongaree.  It’s a great little field with all grass runways and a wonderful little museum for old airplanes.  Inside the hanger were an SNJ, Neiuport, Wirriway, and a Mustang.  The SNJ and Mustang were flyable and for a mere $1,200 a pilot would take a willing passenger for a trip around the circuit.  As you can imagine, we passed.  A first on this side trip, we saw kangaroos in the wild.  There are two grass runways with a stand of woods in between them and the ‘roos live in the woods.  They are relatively smart animals and will clear the runway when a plane is coming or going.  Otherwise, they eat the grass and keep things neat.

The crowd got back together for dinner which consisted of authentic Australian fish and chips.  Cod, scallops and calamari were on offer along with a heaping pile of chips (steak fries) wrapped in paper.  

Today we were up and about early for a trip to Australia Zoo, the home of the Irwins.  What an amazing place.  Lots of things for us to see and do in the zoo.  Many pictures were taken of all six of us doing various things.  Of course there were kangaroos and koalas to be seen, touched and photographed.  The kangaroos are like deer in South Carolina.  While they are unique to Australia, they are everywhere here.  The ‘roos at the zoo were mainly the large red kangaroos.  They are left in a large compound with open spaces and a creek that runs through the middle.  There are double doors , as in an aviary, and the ‘roos are free to walk around.  More importantly, the guests are free to walk around and approach the ‘roos.  The zoo even supplies “’roo food” to feed them!  Of course we all had ‘roo food and went right in to see them.  Very tame animals that just laid around and let us pet and feed them.  Their fur is incredibly soft to the touch.  I was quite surprised by that, I expected it to be course to fend off bugs. They also have long claws and their front arms are quite strong.  They also tend to keep their eyes about half shut so that they have a perpetual “too cool to care” look.  How amazing it was to be able to walk right up to one of the icons of Australia, sit, feed and pet them just like an average domesticated pet.

Here is the peanut gallery that laughed at me while playing golf.  Actually, this is a laughing Kookaburra and it really does sound like it is laughing.

Of course we also were able to touch and hold koalas.  Their fur was not nearly as soft as the ‘roos.  But they are very cute and photograph well.  All of us had our picture taken holding a koala.  They really are kind of smelly, strange animals, but, it was great that we were able to hold another icon of Australia.  By the way, little known fact about koalas; in order to digest the leaves of the eucalyptus tree, they have one of the largest appendixes in the animal kingdom.  Also, they have to eat special “poo” from their mother at a critical stage of development in order to obtain the necessary bacteria that will in habit their appendix to digest the leaves.  Talk about a specialized niche in the animal kingdom…

 

A trip to the Australia Zoo would be incomplete without seeing salt water crocodiles.  They had them on display and did a show demonstrating their, um, capabilities.  They are quite powerful animals and exceptionally big in stature.  However, all of the demos in the stadium didn’t mean as much until we watched them cutting the grass in Agro’s display.  Agro is the largest and most aggressive of the salties in the zoo, he is the one that has eaten four lawn mowers.  The water in his area is brown, as it would be in the wild.  He slid off of the bank and into the water where we couldn’t see him anymore.  Then, one of the guys working in the display tapped the wall and WHAM! Out of the water and after the pole in a flash.  Had the pole been a person, it would have been over in less than a second.  Absolutely amazing.

We also were able to watch many other displays; birds, snakes, elephants, tigers and more.  Impressive was the amount of time the keepers spent allowing the public to see, touch and interact with the animals.  Something that is unique to me. 

Upon exiting the zoo we went to the wildlife hospital. Ten baby fruit bats had been dropped off earlier that day. They were swaddled and had tiny little bottles feeding them. There were also eight koalas in the hospital in various stages of wellness and one possum. It is a wildlife sanctuary like none other, they are conservationists as well as a teaching zoo. It was a great day and we head back home.

By the way Eddie seems to feel that I should be driving while I am over here so I drove the family to Beerwah where the zoo is about 45 minutes from the island. Can’t say I’m used to it, have trouble not looking to my left on a right had turn. Wipers and blinkers I’m doing better at and I think I’ve mastered the round-a-bouts. When I get back to the house after driving anywhere, I feel like I did when I had finished an instrument flying lesson.  Brain-drained.

We arrived home safely and I threw Jacq in the pool with the encouragement of Eddie!

Jacq’s Mum has been super putting on a spread for us every day and night. Every time we turn around there is something available for us to eat or drink. I ate half a cow for dinner, an Aussie T-bone steak, medium well. Aussie style means that the fillet is still with the T-bone.  It had to be half of the cow.  She really does a great job of coordinating everything that we have going on and is quick to give us something that is very Australian to eat.  It has been a great introduction to dinning in style.  After dinner I lost in grand style at Yahzee.  Tomorrow is Wednesday and while the good golfers are on the course, the rest of us are headed to the beach and then the men are going to be manly and challenge the wind in the sailboat.