Australia Zoo, Beerwah, QLD Australia

Bittersweet feelings about this trip... having planned it out prior to the death of Steve Irwin, as many of my friends know, I've been a Steve Irwin fan long before anyone in Australia even knew who he was... I've always wanted to go to his zoo in Beerwah and see him do one of his shows live in person. Of course, now none of us will ever get that chance again.

Fittingly, it rained (quite hard) for almost the entire day I was at the zoo... it was great to see that they are carrying on there as if Steve were still alive and directing how things should be done. Terri Irwin has taken sole ownership of the facilities and plans to continue to go in the direction Steve would have wanted it to go. Its not the biggest zoo in the world, however, they have the shows spread out throughout the day such that you can enjoy the entire day there and not be in a hurry to catch everything.

The "Croc Express" bus from Brisbane to the zoo...

Me at the entrance...The "Animal Planet Crocoseum"...

A few words about Steve Irwin, the Original Wildlife Warrior...Steve still opens up the show on the big screen... you can still see the enthusiasm in his body language about his passion for wildlife.

Feeding the big croc...
The trainer coerced the croc to come up one more time... pretty amazing how high/far they can come out of the water... don't stand too close to the water's edge in northern Queensland.
The Memorial to Steve... basically, people bought out all the khaki Australia Zoo shirts at the various gift shops and hung them along a fence... originally, everything was hanging out along the entrance to the zoo where anyone in the public had free access to pay the respects... now the memorial is under the back side of the Crocoseum...
Rest In Peace, Steve. Hopefully we can take care of this planet in your absence.

Great Barrier Reef, Port Douglas, QLD Australia

All I can really say is... wow. I cannot wait to go back again... I bought a ticket on the Quicksilver, which is a large catamaran that goes out some 38 nautical miles northeast out of Port Douglas to the outter reef. It takes 90 minutes to get out there, but once we were there, it was amazing to go under the water and see the sea life... fish of colors I've never imagined before... made Finding Nemo all that much more real. Those colors are actually there...The platform...In the water...

Kuranda Scenic Railroad, Village and Rain Forest, QLD Australia

The Kuranda Rainforest is located just off the coast north of Cairns. Access is either by car, a scenic narrow gauge railway, or sky rail (gondola). I took the route of the scenic railway to get there and the skyrail to return.

The train ride up was scenic, but it was a cloudy/misty morning, so the views were not as good as could have been on other days... would have been nice to be able to see the ocean/coast /reef as we ascended into the rainforest, but was nice nonetheless...

The Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary...

Salt Water Crocs...

Kuranda Koala Santuary...
Wallabies have a taste for fine leather... Skyrail trip back...