Holiday Blog - A day at a Brisbane wildlife park,,,,

After the wonderful Fruit bats and a good breakfast outside on the balcony of the hotel room, 10 floors up , enjoying the morning sun …and saying good morning to the window cleaner who appeared from nowhere. “what the bloody hell ! Oh, yes …good morning to you too”………………… We had to decide what we wanted to do for the day before going back to the airport and take an internal flight to Mackay township along the coast about half way between Brisbane and Cairns.

We’d seen enough of the gold coast. Our initial decision was to head north again (now we had change for any sudden motorway toll charges ( :O/ Sheesh ) and visit the Moreton Bay area (where the tasty bugs come from ) And that’s where we headed for. We confidently joined the motorway and dodged the traffic. Partly not being used to long drives anymore and partly due to not sleeping enough at night these days we had to pull off at a service station point. Jill would drive for a while. We also tried to get a decent map of the area….They don’t exist……

Meanwhile, over coffee and an impulse buy of a long doughnut, a new destination was agreed. Moreton Bay was dropped in favour of a Koala Sanctuary the other side of Brisbane.

We would stay on the motorway to it’s end and then into Brisbane cutting through a bit of suburbia to the sanctuary… Sounded easy enough . And indeed up to the motorway end it was. Then we hit trouble as road names changed or roads abruptly disappeared to be replaced by new names. Within a short time we were confused and pretty much lost…. We pulled into a service station and Jill got directions..>We were only a little off and within 20 Minutes were in the car park of the sanctuary.,

The sanctuary is in a nice place beside the river there. Effectively the place is a small ‘Open” zoo. They specialize in the Koala, but also had kangaroos, emus, wombats, and some reptiles. They also had the Infamous Cassowary bird….

The park is SPCA and Vet association approved and in the main the place was very well looked after . However we were very disappointed to witness the release of 20 or so teenager school kids into the park area reserved for the Kangaroos and emus… This caused some panic with the Kangaroos (you could walk amongst them . But – there were a number of “Joey” carrying Mothers. Jill and I were very close to sorting out a young Asian thug who tried to ride the Emu…He was an inch away from the pair of us taking him down ………..

The Park and the Koalas in particular was a great place to while away a few hours.

Having done our stint at the park, finishing off watching the wild lorikeets feeding session (hundreds of Lorikeets about us) and the display of various birds of prey flying around us and across parkland…It was time to hit the road again and head for the airport…. This turned out to be NOT for the faint Hearted. The heavy traffic, amazingly aggressive drivers, poor road signs and completely unknown roads made for a stressful hour and a half as we battled across town. Jill had a good Idea of where we were heading but the road system seem to work against us for some time…. However we made it in plenty of time, dropped off the sporty convertible rental car (I’d quite got to enjoy the car “O) and went through the airport security to the lounge. Destination MacKay.

Gold Coast - Day 2 - Keep Your Mouth Closed When You Look Up!

David's Entry - 29th July Day 2 – Fruit Bats and Driving Through Brisbane.







As you may have read in Jill’s entry we discovered that the driving here in and around Brisbane to be noticeably more stressful in a number of ways … The drivers here are far more aggressive.. Using your indicators has an effect of heightening the other drivers aggression.. They will do anything to ensure you do not change lanes or directions as indicated … God help you if you find yourself in the wrong lane ….









And so it was as Jill described a long and tiring trip to the Gold Coast.  And what a place the gold coast turned out to be …Very commercialized.  There were endless tower blocks of hotel rooms or apartments. A 6 sometimes 8 lane highway through it, too close to the beach area. It is A beautiful golden sand beach. The township shows what happens when there are little controls or planning around its development.







Now we were very tired by we got there.  And I openly admit that if you were younger or with young families that may well be a great place to holiday …It wasn’t for us though. However good possibly it would be for a place to stay and then travel to the many sites and entertainments in the area …. There are "movie worlds" and “sea worlds” and so on that would keep the kids and the second childhood Kids amongst us amused for some time …   










       









Being so tired, as we often are on the start of our journeys, we do expect a lot from the hotels when we arrive .. These are not cheap hotels. We do often pay more at the start so we are looked after and everything is easy and relatively stress free. The hotel we stayed at. The “Conrad Jupiters” let us down ….  Because we were tired everything was a major.  We understand that.  But with Jill having paid for a romance package, and to then have to ring and then ring again for the wine and strawberries for example was pretty poor… To be kept waiting for 40 minutes after the check in time for the room to be ready was again pretty poor…. ..










Having said all of that the room was fine.  With a decent bed and large plasma screen TV on the wall. It was a corner room with a balcony which afforded us a good view south down the shoreline for miles.  The next morning we were able to see the sunrise, albeit through the gaps in the tower blocks. And after a good near 2 hour wander along the river/lagoon there, we had a good breakfast on the balcony delivered by a very nice and caring young girl who saved the day for the Hotel.








The Hotel was part of the casino.  Far from “las vegas”  style, the atmosphere was a lot more serious than other casinos we have visited around Australia and New Zealand.  It had more than it’s fair share of regular cliental, some very aggressive poker players  and a large number of very bored looking players of the slot machines … I am not  a gambler. Jill like to have a go at the 21 tables etc I usually just watch … This time we left earlier. It wasn’t a lucky night for us …









The highlight of the stay though was the morning walk.  With few people around we were able to see quite a bit of wild life along the tree and bush lined river banks … and, having walked for some time discovered a sign with a write up on the areas fruit bats. It talked about how rare there are becoming as habitat is destroyed… We walked on expecting a small number that might be seen in the trees somewhere…. We could smell them first .. A strong urine/rotting fruit smell … and then there they were .  Hundreds of squabbling bats all vying for a spot to fold their wings around themselves into a cocoon and sleep the day through.  The pathway took us under the trees. As you hear the splat, splat on the ground around you you quickly realize it’s definitely not a good practice to be gawping skywards with your mouth open ….













As usual our lenses didn’t have the magnification required to get really good pictures.  There were such impressive animals. Their wingspan huge they flew silently through the air above us. But their aggressive chatter was near defining. We could have spent hours there just trying to get “The Shot”.  Having walked though them we then walked back along the outskirts of the trees, on the verge beside the multi-lane highway to get more pictures as well as spotting a spider of notable size and some interesting birdlife …..





























It was a great start to a really, really long day :O)

  

          

     

The Ozzy Holday - 1st day - the Long Trip from Brisbane to Gold Coast

Jills Entry - 28th July 1st Day of the Holiday - The Long trip to the Gold Coast



Its always an interesting time getting off a plane and wondering if this will be the day they decide that you look suspicious and you will hear the slap of a rubber glove on skin....but we flew through customs even the dog sniffing us was only thinking "1 x dog, 2 x cats, 0 x drugs" it should go without saying that we don't actually ever carry or do drugs...but always on your mind are the people who say that the drugs were planted in their bags




We rock on up to the car rental place to be told “your early – your car isn’t ready yet – I’ll have to give you a convertible but no extra cost”.................oh yeah thats a good one boy....laughing at the olds in a convertible....seeing us having to squeeze our oversized bodies into bucket seats. But none the less that is what happened.





On our way we go...absolutely no decent maps to guide us.....knowing it is only an hour drive from Brisbane to Surfers Paradise......you have to remember this small fact....only an hours drive we saw no issues in front of us.




Easy enough getting out of the airport....easy enough to be on the motorway heading to Surfers.....and then we encountered the mad drivers that exist on the Gold Coast.



Oh my....they drive with speed, they are impatient for people who don’t to the extent of doing a quick lane change to dive back in front of you........the up shot is they are aggressive over here. 4 lanes as well....not used to that at all.




And then on the road ahead - tolls!!!! Oh no!!!! We had no coins!!! Panic panic panic...what lane should we be in for paper...do they have a paper lane.....quick get off get off get off...and we did. We travelled a road for a while...stopped and looked at our ineffective map and decided that we would stay off the motorway and go down what looked like a very long suburban road....that worked fine for us...even stopped off and had some food at a very weary looking mall....jumped back in our convertible- which djd was desperate to get the top down on but we had two suitcases in the back boot which stopped that function beside which neither of us have flowing hair to blow about in the wind of an open top! – and off down the road we went. It was a very straight long road...suited us...only 60km limit...and only two lanes...one of which a bus would dive into to pick up people and immediately pull back to the far one....buses have right of way here.



And then it started to get a bit confusing....but the way back to the motorway appeared and we went back on to it and travelled the next few kilometre until the scenic turnoff to surfers paradise appeared...we had finally arrived....4 hours after the start of our journey....did you remember it was only meant to take 1 hour....hmmmm

So at that point after a quick stop at a park to snap a crow we decided to just head to the hotel Conrad Jupiters....we were booked to go whale watching but alas the day was catching up with us rapidly and we have been awake over 12 hours with only a few hours sleep the night before. ...so we opted not to go. Got a grumpy phone call from the operator...rightly so as I had booked us but of course we didn’t turn up....but after saying sorry...we wont be able to make it...we will have to cancel...the woman still went on about why.....so I said personal reasons...she wanted me to ring back later to talk about it...I think not...just charge us and go away.

To be fair the to Jupiter we had turned up 1 and half hours before the official sign in time....no our room was not ready....for our romance package stay...but we could have a room with two double beds instead...ah no....ok well I’ll put a rush on your room can you come back in ¾ of an hour...sure is there a cafe we can go to...oh year spinners just on the ground floor. Off we go...tired and ready for a snooze really but with hope the room would become available we rock on up to spinners the cafe!!! But spinners has a waiting queue to be seated!!!! Some cafe ...its a restaurant...no we cant stand in a queue...there is another option...so we go for that...pay far too much for a smorgasbord lunch we didn’t really want.

Now this place we are staying at is a Casino... a very sizeable Casino....and it must have been pension day.....as every pensioner in Surfers must have been eating at this restaurant, taking a break from their gambling.

We go back to reception actually an hour after we first visited...to be told the room was still not ready....give me your number and I will call you....I look over at djd who is sitting on a couch in reception to see his head starting to drop from falling asleep. So I sat there for 20 minutes watching djd fighting the desire to sleep and losing...and the queue of people growing longer and longer as 2pm check in time arrived and therefore a flood of new guests wanting to check in. The girl behind the counter would never have had a chance to ring us...there were only two of them on and the process of check in was not a fast process....pathetic for a place like this hotel with a reputation to uphold.

Finally I rejoin the queue...it is my time at with the staff and I was not waiting patiently to be called up in their sweet time...so I plonked myself in front of the boy and he had to serve me....finally the room was ready.




The room itself was pretty much ok. Nice bed, nice balcony, a view of sorts etc...the only thing missing was the sparkling wine and chocolate strawberries that were meant to be greeting us as we got to the room to start our romantic package....I had to ring twice for the delivery...finally arriving 4 hours after we had been there....sheesh.

Oh well we had wonderful meal of a seafood platter to die for and a couple of hours of walking around the casino to lose $50. Then bed another day awaits us.