Another early start as we were down at the harbour by 7.15am ready to see the dolphins. We stood watching them until 8am and you could stand in the water while they swam around you. We were told a little about the dolphins and the history as to why they had come in. They originally started coming in years ago when one dolphin got attacked by a shark and he found his way into the harbour and they took care of him. He started coming back to visit daily and brought his friends with him too! We paid $5 each for a fish and went down into the water where we fed it to one of the dolphins! Only two had come in as it was mating season. One of them had been in a fight with a shark a few times and had recent scars including a chunk missing from his fin where a shark had bitten him.They weren't bottle nose dolphins, they were Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins which are rare but commonly seen in the harbour. They were very gentle and graceful and the volunteers working there cared for them well when they came in. Feeling satisfied we set off towards Brisbane!
We called at a visitor info centre and the woman said how hot it had been there recently, 35-37c! It drizzled a bit so was much cooler! We also saw some of the army taking a break!
From there we went to Australia Zoo which is the home of the crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin. The zoo was huge and had a range of animals to view and interact with. We saw lots of grumpy alligators and crocs, some wombats, snakes, lizards and iguanas, birds of prey including a kookaburra, tigers and elephants. But most exciting were the koalas and the kangaroos! The kangaroos were so laid back and you could feed them and fuss them! We saw grey and red ones and some had joeys with them. They were very cute and quite amusing! The koalas were equally as cute and I fell for them straight away! We saw a few in trees and there was a chance to pat one. They are so sleepy (up to 18hours a day) and dopey and they move in such a cool way! We listened to a talk on them too, and surprisingly they are likely to be extinct in some areas in 10years time! We got to see lots more of them and there was a chance to have a pic holding one but the queue was huge and we wanted to watch the croc show! The croc show had snakes and birds in also but the croc was the star of the show! He was HUGE! The ranger seemed very nervous with everything that he was doing but it was hardly surprising when he was teasing him and trying to get him to snap and leap from the water! According to him though, the trick to not getting eaten is to remain on the grass and not in the water as the croc cant move anywhere near as fast out of the water as he can in it!
We saw lots of other animals including otters, red pandas, tazmanian devils, cassowaries, turtles and tortoises! There were dragon lizards everywhere, they seemed to like being near the crocs! We loved the zoo and I wish we could have stayed longer! I wanted to try and smuggle a koala out but they were too high up in the trees to reach! Humf!
The Irwin family are still very much involved in the zoo and the daughter seems to have a lot to do with it. There are pics of the family everywhere and the daughter has released a fitness dvd for kids!
From the zoo we made our way to Brisbane and went in search of the tourist info but with no luck! We managed to find ourselves on a motorway heading out of the city and by luck we managed to find a campsite! Pure luck! From what we have seen of Brisbane, which was quite a lot, we like so far! On the way to Brisbane today we saw the Glasshouse mountains which were named by Captain Cook because they reminded him of glass furnaces in Yorkshire!