East Coast Energy

Today was another travel day, this time to Brisbane. So once up and packed we are heading to the bus ready for another journey. Once we arrive and had all checked in I treat myself to a quick shower before a rushed lunch at the Empire Hotel round the corner, followed by a little walking tour of the city. I am a fan of a city tour, just wandering round seeing all the different architecture and quirks a city has. Brisbane, like most of my favourite cities, has a river running through it. A river that has a man-made beach and where our tour ends for a couple drinks. It has been a fairly chilled day, something I needed after my time in Surfers. The evening ends with a few of us having some drinks at a restaurant/brewery called Felons. It is a lovely spot on the river’s edge under one of the city bridges. I find a cityscape at night on the edge of a river to be one of my favourite types of landscapes, and this remains the case even though Molly tells me that there are actually sharks in this river, which is why there is a need for a man-made beach with a separated pool area. After some chilled drinks we head back to the hostel for an early night.

The next day we all wake up excited for the day ahead: that’s right we are heading to the world famous Australia Zoo – the home of childhood memories and great TV for anyone my age, thanks to the late legend, the crocodile hunter himself, Steve Irwin. The journey to the zoo is a bit of a trek, but spirits are high. When we arrive, we split off into small groups with a plan to meet up for the famous croc show later. I head off with Matt determined to see it all, making a plan and route to see everything, including a show at the Tiger enclosure where some staff are laying food in different areas before letting in, what the crowd later find out, is a blind tiger. As impressive as the beast is, I can’t help feel a little bad for him as he makes his way around the enclosure sniffing his way around for the different bits of meat left for him around the enclosure, but hopefully it is stimulus for him. It is an amazing zoo with a wide array of animals, in an impressive area; we certainly got our steps in today. The highlight of any trip to Australia Zoo has to be the crocodile show though, an amazing experience. It really did feel like I was living a scene from the childhood TV show. The show had lovely memorials to Steve himself. However, we are extremely lucky today as we have the prince of the zoo himself, Robert Irwin, hosting the crocodile show. Molly guesses he’s here because of the school holidays,. A celebrity in his own right these days, having Robert hosting is a rare treat. I have to admit my response to him walking out was a little bit too similar to all the fan girls than I would have liked to admit but, hey, its an Irwin!

After finishing the trip to the zoo with a quick jump on the kids bounce house the team head back to the city. Once we are in the hostel I rush around trying to get my laundry done in time for this evening’s plans. I then dash into town to the local Irish pub just in time to join everyone for the the pub quiz. I have to say, like virtually any game that can be found or hosted in a pub, I am partial to a quiz. This one is especially funny though: the host Scottie is great at his job and the crowd involvement is great. I manage to win myself a drink or two in the side games which is more than enough of a victory for me. Turns out I am real good at the tea pot dance! After the quiz is done most of the group head back to the hostel but for me and a few of the others it is straight to the karaoke bar for more drinks and songs with Scottie and few other locals. It was a great way to end the day. Australia Zoo was an amazing experience and rounding out the night by winning drinks in an Irish Bar followed by shit Karaoke with new friends, well what more do you need. The fact I have an early start tomorrow is the last thing on my mind – a scary habit I seem to be developing recently.

Robert Irwin feeds the croc

(click on the top right hand icon)

Felons, Brisbane riverside

After four hours sleep I am up and ready to go. I meet up with Ola, Matt, Charlie, Beth and Nienke for our day trip to Moreton Island. Moreton is a famous sand island known for the Tangalooma Wrecks, among other things. On arrival we get ourselves equipped with kayaks and snorkelling equipment and head straight to the wrecks to explore. I'll tell you what though, there was absolutely nothing relaxing about the journey to get to the wrecks; I was not expecting the currents we faced with most of the group too tired by the time we got there to go snorkelling. It was not an easy swim and visibility wasn’t great in the water, but I saw some cool stuff. A few turtles, rays and even a couple of wobbegong sharks, as well as the wrecks themselves. After we are done snorkelling, sunbathing and in Charlie’s case droning, we head back to the main area. It is even worse than the way there, we have no chance to kayak so we have to walk them back which is a slog. Once back the rest of the group order food but I am off to scuba. I always love a scuba dive but this one was a bit of a disappointment. Although with just one other family, they where extremely pushy and cut in front of me, pushing me out the way whenever we got close to anything worth looking at, thankfully most of which I had seen on my snorkel. Once out I rushed to get changed having seen my phone filled with messages and missed calls from the others who where on the ferry already. I sprint across town managing to get to the ferry just in time. Exhausted I fall asleep on Nienke almost instantly. Once back at the hostel I have a shower and head back out to Felons with Molly to get a pizza, later we are joined by some of the others for a quick drink before I head back to the hostel for a much needed early night’s sleep, ready for our trip to Noosa tomorrow.