...Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Midnight trip to Fort Lytton. Bye bye Brisbane...

Alex's mate from home Ashley is also travelling down the East Coast at the moment and has just landed into Brisbane so my last couple of days here have been filled up with the three of us getting up to mischief and random nonsense.

Yesterday we visited Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo it was a pretty cool place with lots of different native animals. Got to feed & pet some Kangaroo's, stroke a Koala, and be amazed by the show in the Crocoseum. I even joined in with a bit of group participation by doing a monkey impression. Throughout the zoo you can see how much Steve and his family have tried to conserve the welfare of animals and teach people how to help and protect wildlife. It's just turned a year since Steve's death and the tributes were something else.

Last night Alex, Ashley and me got up to some mischief by visiting Fort Lytton. Now this little excursion isn't something you'd normally find in the Lonely Planet Guide as the Fort is usually only open during the day on a Sunday but Alex had found out that it's far more fun and interesting to go at night. It really felt that you'd entered a rip in the time-stream as you walk into19th Century military establishments you feel like you're in the past however you're surrounded by futuristic industrial power plants that look straight out of Star Wars which produce an incredible noise even though they're miles away. Got to admit the place was pretty eerie but it was so much fun exploring the old site, going to areas that you can't normally access and getting an understanding of what it must have been like to guarding the Fort at night. Alex and me decided Ash would have been the first to die cos he kept making so much accidental noise… even more than me!

As I'm carrying on with my travels tomorrow and heading down to Surfers Paradise Alex, Kylie, Ash, me and Alex's family all headed out for a farewell curry. It was a lovely evening and a wonderful way to end my brilliant time in Brisbane. It's been fantastic spending some quality time with Alex again, meeting his lovely wife Kylie and getting to know his family. Being here with them has definitely been one of the highlights of my trip so far.

Photo: Alex & me feeding Kangaroos at Australia Zoo

[Next blog entry: Surfers Paradise Friday September 14th 2007]