Blue Mountains Photos Part II

Lyrebird

Cave opening

Cunningham Skink

Blue Mountains Photos

Here's a few photos highlighting the Blue Mountains. 

                                         Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

                                                Echo Point

                                                 Trailhead

                                                Skink

                                                Bowtells Swing Bridge

                                                Swamp Wallaby

                                                Grey Kangaroo

                                                Echidna

                                                Crimson Rosellas

                                                Grey Kangaroos

                                                Fern Tree

                                                Water Dragon

More to come.

Brisbane, Queensland

I've spent the last few days in Brisbane.  The only reason I stopped in Brisbane was to go to Australia Zoo, the zoo Steve Irwin worked at.  It was about 2 hours north of the city in a small town called Beerwah.  The zoo was started by Steve's parents as a reptile conservation center and with Steve's popularity the name of the center was changed to Australia Zoo.  It was a hot day when I was there, in the mid 90's, but that didn't stop me from having a great time.  The zoo housed primarily Aussie animals with there being more species of reptiles than any other type of animal.  All over the zoo you saw Steve's face.  I found it to be done in a tasteful way though.  It was interesting to see that nearly 5 years after his death Steve is still the face of Australia Zoo.  There was a large emphasis on conservation of wildlife and animal protection, which was Steve's mission. 
There were a lot of opportunities to interact with the animals as well.  From photos to feeding, even behind the scenes ecounters with animals like tigers, lemurs, and rhinos - the last two weren't on display but the zoo houses them.  I fed an elephant, petted a koala (they feel exactly as they look like they should, like a teddy bear), went to talks about koalas, tigers, and watch a birds of prey show.  Highlight of my trip by far was the Wildlife Warriors show that Steve made so famous.  Steve opens the show by talking about his conservation mission.  Next the handlers bring out some bird species and snake species before the croc comes out.  The croc exhibit was led by Wes, who was Steve's best mate and the world's best croc handler.  It was quite a treat to watch him interact with the croc.  You could hear the quiver in his voice as he was talking and at one point he said, "If it sounds like I'm scared...It's because I am."  Seeing the croc move silently and stealthly through the water - the water didn't even ripple when he swam - and explode out of the water with jaws wide open was pretty awesome.  After showing how high the croc can launch itself straight up out of the water the handlers had the croc do a death roll while one of them held on to the end of a rope.  The whole show was exhilerating. 
That was the last thing on my to-do list here in Australia.  I leave Brisbane this afternoon for Sydney and will spend one day in Sydney before flying home on March 8th.  In the coming weeks/months I will go through all hundreds of pictures I took and post the highlights on the blog. 

Rainbow Beach/ Fraser Island, Queensland

I stopped over in Rainbow Beach to visit Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world.  The popular thing to do was to take a 3 day, 2 night tour of Fraser Island, but I didn't have the time or the interest in doing that.  I opted for a 1 day tour instead.  The tour was very good, well worth it.  The guide was very informative, giving us more information than we could digest about the history of Fraser Island - from how it was was formed to the flora and fauna of the island to the Aborigibal peoples that inhabited the island.We boarded a big four wheel drive bus and took a 10 minute ferry ride to the island.  The shore of the island acted as a highway and an airstrip.  I saw a couple planes take off and land, which was pretty cool.  The waters around the island contain sharks:  nurse, leopard, and tiger, so no swimming at the beach.  Also on the island are dingoes.  I unfortunately saw neither sharks nor dingoes while I was on the island.  The tour stopped by the remains of a shipwreck which was pretty neat to look at.  The ship washed ashore in 1935 and since then the water and sand have been constantly eating away at it so that now it is partially buried in sand and its metal is rusted and jagged.  Inward on Fraser Island is a rainforest and freshwater lakes.  All the lakes are replenished solely by rainfall.  The rainforest grew right out of the sand, which was quite unique.  We stopped at the largest of the freshwater lakes, Lake Mackenzie for a very refreshing afternoon swim.  The waters of the lake were crystal clear and 75 degrees.  After a delicious lunch, complete with beer, we went on a walk through the rainforest.  The walk took us down alongside a creek, though you wouldn't know it if you closed your eyes.  The creek was eerily silent; there was no sound of running water.  As it was explained to us it is because there are no rocks on the island, only sand.  This gave the rainforest a very peaceful, almost magical atmosphere that I was disappointed to leave.
There wasn't much to do at Rainbow Beach except go to the beach.  The water felt great, about the same temperature as Lake Mackenzie.  Swimming around me in waves were fish, though not nearly as many as in the Great Barrier Reef and lacking the colors as well.  I went body surfing in the waves for a little bit to escape the heat; it was in the mid 90s during my stay.  I went to the beach at low tide and then back again at high tide to see the difference the tides make.  It was remarkable how much more beach there was during low tide than when at high tide.  There was about 20 yards more of beach at low tide than at high tide.
There was a large sand dune called Carlo Sandblow that was quite a sight to take in.  The sand dune was quite large and there were trunks of trees poking out of the dune showing that where the sand is now was once covered in trees.  The dune offered a fantastic view of the sunset.  Watching the sunset was a nice way to end my stay at Rainbow Beach.