Carlton Crest Hotel Brisbane

... least!
We did so much, Horse riding - Never agin.
Fencing - Such hard work!
Tractor Driving - Was good
Chainsaw work - Hated!
Motor Bike Riding - Which I loved!

We also went to Joe's paddock about 50km from where we were staying, its 23,000acres, of land, we asked Joe if he had ever seen any snakes there - his reply 'in the 11years I have owned this paddock I have only seen 1'
We saw 4snakes that day! 2x Common Browns ...

... Adam said wow there’s another Westfield, that’s close to the last one. I said wouldn’t it be funny if it was the same one. As we drove closer and closer, we realised it was in fact the same one. The GPS had taken us in a 30minute circle. I laughed (a lot) Adam - not so much laughter.

Met up with Dan & Anita Lyons at their newly renovated home, and then followed them to Mount Mee to catch up with Dave & Bec Hockey. Both of ...

OH MY GOD 4 weeks and 2 days to go arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Th ere is a slight change of plans. It looks like we will be leaving on Friday arfternoon now. Kath finishes work @ 4pm on Friday so we are going to leave than. I know I know the traffic will be hell between Nerang & the new bypass. But it will cut our drive time on Saturday.

We are either going to hit Grafton or Coffs Harbour. Coffs is 5 & a half hours away so if we make it there it will only be 6 ...

... to go to the legendary Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. On the free bus there we got to watch the man in action on DVD as he wrestled crocs, picked up killer snakes, ran up trees up after monkeys and be generally clinically insane. The zoo has some amazing animals and they are all really well looked after. Saw all sorts of Aussie critters like kangaroo's (which are so tame I got to ruffle one behind the ears!) crocs, (which I obviously didn't ruffle) koala's ...

... next to the Brisbane river, with lovely gardens leading down to the waters edge. We took a walk along the river, then a bus back to town, where we found a nice bar with some rather attractive drinks deals. We got chatting to some local guys, and when happy hour was up we headed out to dinner with one of the guys Jason. He took us to a wonderful Italian restaurant called Venice, on the river bank overlooking the Brisbane ...

Jack: We got to the Hub in Roma parklands on time and met the guide, an old chap called Ian, a volunteer who works there one day a week. It was really interesting to be taken round a garden and have some of the history, workings and plants explained. We found out that the lizards that attacked me yesterday were Eastern Eater Dragons and the big bent beak birds are ibis, and they are to Brisbane as pigeons are to Nottingham. Yvette thinks the Ibis are realy cool ...

... home already too! I went for an interview last week that had another 249 people going for the position (there were 5 jobs available lol) Also Gs agency work has gone down to 0 hours per week - thats never a good thing. Well thats all I am going to say about that because I must be driving some people mad talking about it haha. (including myself!) I dont work well when things dont go to plan. But as my Dad said, Lifes what happens to you when ...

... then said our goodbyes and headed south for Brisbane. We stopped off in Caloundra again with Malcom and Beth which was lovely to see them again... then continued through to Brisbane in the morning. We then spent a night at my friend Cameron's before picking Casie up and driving south the Sydney. We took 2 days getting there we were in no hurry. Though on the way down we hit a storm like we've never seen before anywhere. The sky was green and hailing ...

... was a little disappointing but we persevered none-the-less.  Good-byes were said and tears were shed and through the point of no return (customs) we ventured.  A quick stop at duty-free and then to the gate we went and waited and waited and I am sure this was only 10 minutes but we were pretty keen to get on that plane and start this adventure ASAP.  We boarded and asked the chap in the 3rd seat if he minded swapping which he kindly obliged and alas we were able to ...

... and I don’t think he was even part of the collection but rather just there to swipe a meal from a snoozing carnivore.

The sanctuary is actually pretty small, so it doesn’t take all that much time to see it all. After we made the rounds we found ourselves wandering around waiting for the return trip to the city. Once we arrived back in port we were definitely ready to retire to our room to crash and catch up on some much needed rest.