Sun 16th Sept - Australia Zoo

I headed the 70km north of Brisbane to pay a visit to Australia Zoo, which is the home of the late Steve 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin. Well worth the visit. I'd already experienced some of the stuff on offer, like feeding the kangaroos, but they have a wide array of shows and experiences on offer. Even when you're just walking around the zoo you can come across some of the keepers bringing one of the animals around. The Asian elephants were impressively majestic even through they were being given a shower.

I paid a few extra dollars for an up close and personal experience with the wombats. They have a nickname of being the bulldozer of the bush, apparently able to run at speeds of up to 40km/hr in short bursts and built fairly solidly. We got to spend about half an hour with them which was great fun.

I thought that some of the merchanise on offer here was a little tacky but they do plough a lot of resources into conservation, so I suppose its all in a good cause.

When I got back to the hostel I'm staying at I bumped into a crowd of Irish people who were on the same Whitsundays sailing trip as me, small world!