Yet another early start today as I wanted to visit the Billabong Sanctuary in time for feeding the koala's at 8am. So I headed out in the van and go to the sanctuary just before 8 to see that it was closed and didn’t open until 08:30 and that the flier that I had must have been out of date or they had changed their opening times as it was off season. So I waited for it to open and was the first person in there just like a big kid (with an SLR!!!).

www.billabongsanctuary.com.au

I walked around the zoo taking some great pictures and again, I will note bore you with loads of pictures of caged animals so I will only put up a few and then I headed off to the koala’s area so that I could get to hold one and have a picture taken with one. A bit soppy I know, but I have never seen one before and while in Australia I might as well act like a tourist for a while and not miss out on this opportunity.

After the koala’s, I got to hold a baby crocodile (a little bit more manly) and then went to watch the crocodile feeding and videoed it for you. Listen for that mouth snapping shut!!!

After the crocodile feeding I decided to leave the zoo (and all the kids) and continue with my journey down to Airlie Beach. I looked in the Lonely Planet guide book again for somewhere to stay and decided on a hostel called Magnum’s that had a few parking places for vans and although they charged $22 per night, it was a very lively place and as I had been stuck out in the middle of nowhere most nights, it was nice to be somewhere quite busy and get to meet some people.

I got talking to an Australian guy called Daniel who was parked next to me in his station wagon (an estate car to us English people) and was sleeping in the back with the seats down on a mattress.

Daniel and I went out to the bar at the hostel (which was very busy) and met many people. One person stuck out and she was an English girl (I can’t remember her name) who was living in Australia but was pissed as a fart and flirting with everyone, including a 60’ish guy. She was very funny to watch. Just for a laugh, I will upload the video of the two of them.