Australia Week 4: Brisbane -> Noosa
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2006
1
17
18
Trip End
Aug 17, 2006
Noosa,
Australia
Saturday, May 27, 2006
We didn't get much sleep the first night in Brisbane thanks to some Friday night partying and some guy running up and down the corridor at 2.30am shouting, "everybody wake up!" which probably seemed hilarious at the time. Not as hilarious as I found it when I did it at 7am the next morning to get my revenge... OK I didn't really, but I should have.
We spent a few days exploring Brisbane (but not nearly as much as we should have done) and doing more complaining to Trailfinders when we found our plane tickets to and from Kenya and Tanzania weren't with the rest of our tickets
01: Brisbane
. We got more appalling treatment from the Brisbane branch so I wrote to our travel agent in London (who surely rues the day he ever laid eyes on us) to let them know how awfully their overseas offices handle their customers. We got a very apologetic response with offers and solutions to our ticket problem. I then found the tickets in the one place I hadn't looked. Whoops. I didn't tell them that though of course. Far too big a coward!!I'm really sad now that we didn't spend more time in Brisbane as it looked a really lovely city. We were pretty road weary and needed a break from doing things for a while so missed out on all the city had to offer. We did find a cheap internet cafe though, explained mainly by the strange people there including a man walking around with a bird on his shoulder who did more typing on the computer than he did. Surreal yet strangely intriguing.
The last night of our stay in Brisbane I started to be in quite a bit of pain and knew instantly that I was enjoying the start of some kind of water infection. The next morning it was significantly worse and made our journey to Noosa incredibly uncomfortable. We stopped at a very American mall to get some lunch and went to the chemist in the hope I could get something over the counter so I could avoid paying the extortionate doctor fees
02: Brisbane at night
. I figured the best approach was to come straight out with the problem, which was enough reason for Dan to hang back and stay away from the embarassment of saying words like "pee" to a stranger. The lady behind the counter took me over to the medicine they had and Dan wandered over, startling the poor woman who was obviously wondering what kind of pervert wants to watch some women choose a urine alkaliniser. We got some Ural and I wasn't convinced it would work as that wasn't really the problem but she sounded like she knew what she was talking about so I figured it was worth a try. We got back in the car, armed with some water and my dissolvable sachets and I spent the next hour trying to drink the foul stuff without gagging. Seemed to entertain Dan which is something I suppose!We arrived in Noosa an hour or so later and checked into our cabin for the next few nights. It was a really pretty park with lovely gardens full of rainbow lorikeets (brightly coloured birds a little bit like parrots) and galahs, prompting spontaneous shouts of "flaming galah!" in Alf Stewart's voice whenever we saw one. We spent a day or so relaxing and sorting our visas out for Kenya and finding that the Ural wasn't doing me much good, pretty much tying me to the cabin as it was too painful to move around.
I felt guilty for wasting the days after doing so little in Brisbane so one morning we decided to head out and see a little of Noosa and its national park
03: The Big Shell
. First stop was the Big Shell which we didn't even know existed until we'd arrived in Noosa and saw the signs on the way to the cabin. Maybe all the other Big Things were unbelievably impressive therefore making everything else pale in comparison but I must say that we were both rather underwhelmed. The papermache shell was more medium sized than big but I guess that's not quite as catchy. We still wanted to take some photos but in the end didn't stop the car to get them, embarassed someone might see us and realise we'd driven there especially for that!We drove up the hill to the lookout over Noosa National Park and got out to have a look at the view of the town and its golden beaches. It's another one of those times when you know you'll never be able to capture it in a photo but you still give it a try. We didn't stay too long as we seemed to be interrupting a couple getting intimate and didn't want to intrude.
With the infection getting worse every day and my reluctance to go to the doctors (in hindsight I wish I'd gone a lot sooner), we spent several days in or very near to our cabin and watching a lot of crap daytime TV. We also treated ourselves to some 3D glasses for the special episode of Medium, making sure all the curtains were closed before we put them on. There are just some things you don't want your neighbours to see.
Fed up of being inside all the time (even if the weather was crap anyway and it poured down with rain and hail the size of golf balls) I decided to put up with the pain and discomfort and take a trip to the nearby Australia Zoo. Originally we were going to drive via the Big Pineapple but we decided it would be too much excitement for one day and skipped the 45 minute detour and went straight to the zoo
04: View of Noosa from the lookout
. Before we even got to the entrance to pay, we were greeted by a huge camel and the chance to say hello was too good to miss. I rode one when I went to Egypt but Dan had never been this close so we had a good stroke before heading into the zoo. I think Dan was surprised how soft it was where I was just glad it didn't have as many fleas as the ones in Egypt!Inside the zoo we had a stroke of some kind of lizard thing (reptiles have never been my strong point) and headed toward the "crocoseum" to see the show starting in half an hour. We walked past the famous crocodiles and stopped to look at the huge Galapagus Tortoise called Harriet. She's the grand age of 176 years old and was once owned by Charles Darwin in the 1850s. We spent 20 minutes watching her munch on her carrots and hibiscus plants (probably wasn't hibiscus at all but horticulture was never my strong point either) and watched her rather inadequate legs try to hoof her around. I've always wanted a tortoise but should I ever get one I might give the galapagus ones a miss. 200 odd years is a bit too much of a commitment.
The shows in the crocoseum were good fun and we got to see some snakes, the finale of which was one of the keepers bashing one to death with a pipe much to the horror of the crowd until they realised the snake was of the rubber variety
05: The welcoming party
. Next up were the tigers who were absolutely beautiful and cheekily playful. It's so sad to hear how endangered they are, with only 5 of the original 8 species of tigers left. The next show was "Birds Live" where we got up close with all sorts of native birds and a couple of macaws who refused to fly to where they were supposed to. Amusing. Lastly the crocs came on and did their thing, jumping and snapping for food held by the rather brave keepers. No Steve Irwin sadly (he owns and runs the zoo with his wife) but the guy was still good and got the crocodile to jump within centimetres of his hands. Rather him than me. The shows were fun and had the crowds up pretending to be gorillas and seeing which side of the audience could shout 'Crikey!' (Steve Irwins's catchphrase) the loudest. We left after about an hour and a half and walked to get some lunch via the ridiculously large reticulated python. I tried to go on a wombat encounter (I've been desperate to touch one ever since we've been in Australia) but missed the deadline by five minutes so missed out.I was feeling pretty sore but didn't want to leave the animal goodness and carried onto the kangaroo enclosure to cop a feel. The last time we'd been in a kangaroo enclosure I chickened out of touching one as we didn't have any food for them and I was worried it would beat me to death for being too rude to bring them something to nibble on
06: I love the camel's tiny afro
. I was much braver this time, finding a kanagaroo half asleep and far too comfortable to bother killing me. It was so soft and friendly, lying peacefully while Dan and I got the necessary photographic proof kneeling next to it.We carried on through the other side of the enclosure and over to the elephants in time for the feeding. I'd expected there to be a huge queue of people lining up for the pleasure but there weren't many at all and I got to line up three times until the sweet potatoes we were feeding them ran out. The experience was quite rushed but it was still lovely to be able to feel the ellies even if we did come out with elephant saliva all over our hands that put dogs breath into perspective.
We watched the tigers in their enclosure playing with the keepers and diving into their pool for a swim. I'd love to have touched one of them as well but I'd rather stay in one piece so I restrained myself! Instead we headed to the koalas for another feel and sat at a picnic table so I could drink some more Ural in case it helped. We realised the tree next to us had a sign saying "there is a koala in this tree, can you see it?" and on closer inspection we saw there were actually two. One of them woke up and climbed down the tree, sitting almost on top of the sign and suddenly the challenge wasn't quite the same
07: The closest we got to Steve
. It was nice being so close to them without a keeper holding onto them but it did get slightly frightening when one ran across the enclosure toward us and looked at one point like he was going to climb Dan like a tree. Talk about Close Encounters!We walked through the red kangaroo section and had another stroke (these ones were even softer than the others) and then walked through the aviary which was wonderfully peaceful and quiet. The zoo was quite empty by now which was really nice as it felt like we had the place to ourselves. The birds were gorgeous (have to be careful I don't become a bird spotter) and will no doubt make our sparrows and robins look rather plain once we get home.
On the way out of the zoo we came across the keepers taking a wombat for a walk and after I took a few pictures I was delighted when they invited me to have a stroke. I'd have been gutted if I'd paid for the wombat encounter and then found out I could have touched one for free! The keepers told me to kneel down behind him so I didn't approach him from his front and he made it impossible by walking around in circles trying to find the perfect bit of grass to munch on. I got him to settle down in the end though and spent a good ten minutes chatting to the keepers while I played with him
08: Touching the thingymajig
. He felt quite rough, a bit like a dog but slightly coarser like a pig. Very cute and podgy though. The keepers were great and chatted to us for ages before we thought we'd better leave before the zoo shut.After the 2000th toilet trip of the day, we got back in the car and drove back to our cabin. If I feel as bad tomorrow as I did today then a visit to the doctor is definitely on the cards. Can't stand it anymore! Not much else I can do in the mean time - just have to wait and see.
What a cliff hanger to end on, eh! Who needs Eastenders or Neighbours when you've got these updates to read?!
That's all for this update, but hopefully I'll be able to do the next one very soon. Possibly even now! You really are lucky people.
x
Edited to add: Website's back up so photos are now added :)
