No Postie Run 8-(

We're back at the internet cafe after a long day. We had a nice day in spite of the fact that nothing worked out as planned.
We took a cab to the Areo-Tropics place and arrived in plenty of time. It soon became clear that something was amiss. It turns out that Tours-to-go never forwarded out data to them! They was some kind of a computer crash a while back and misc other details. The manager was very apologetic, saying that he had two people there who he had to bump from the previous day plus some very important cargo and adding Mary and I would be too much. The one thing we had firmly scheduled was not going to happen. We asked about flying on Friday but there was no room. They did drive us back to our hotel.
As we drove I was thinking about options. One thing I wanted to do but did not fit into our schedule was a boat ride on the Daintree river through the rain forest. So we headed into town and found a tour booking agent. It was too late to catch the river cruise I wanted, but another that included another stop was available so we grabbed it.
We caught the bus to Port Douglas, then had about 90 minutes to look around the town before our tour started. It was a nice town and we enjoyed that, including lunch at Macko's Pies. The bus driver was pretty interesting and had some cute material ("snapping handbags" = crocodile) and was very knowledgeable about the area. The river tour was less than I expected - a 1 hour boat ride where we saw 4 crocodiles. On our crocodile tour in Costa Rica we save 2 dozen on more on the same or less amount of river. But it was very relaxing and somewhat interesting. We then headed to a canyon (who's name I forget) and walked some trails. That was very nice since it was walking in a rain forest alongside a rushing river.
But we still had a bus ride back to Port Douglas and another hour long ride back to Cairns. We got to our hotel about 6:30.
So it was an interesting day and we saw some cool stuff. But we did not get to do our Postie Run. I guess we'll have to catch than next time we come Down Under.

Fewer Posts until Monday

We flew to Cairns today and got to our hotel. Once I checked in I scanned for internet service and did not find any. I asked at the desk since the hotel web site said they offered it and they do - one terminal in the lobby at $2/20 minutes.
So we'll be having a great time here - I just won't be able to post about it very much. And uploading pictures will be a bit of a challenge. I'll get something worked out, but I'm just so used to using my own computer instead of a computer at an internet cafe like I'm at now.

• Tomorrow we do the Postie Run (airplane mail delivery to ranches in the outback)
• Friday we signed up for a nice Great Barrier Reef tour which has a semi-submersible and walk-in snorkling
• Saturday we take a train through the Daintree Rain Forest to Kuranda then take the Skyrail back to bus that takes up back to town.
  

So that's our plans. While some people may kid us about being too internet attached, we'll do just fine. My disappointment is in not being as able to share our adventure with you as it happens. But I'm thinking we'll work something out.

Australia Zoo

Today we visited the Australia Zoo and enjoyed our visit.  Personally I found it a bit commercial after visiting the Lone Pine Sanctuary yesterday.  Both facilities are nice and have their strengths. The people at Australia Zoo were very friendly and put on a great show, but they played Steve Irwin videos everywhere like he was still alive and I found that disturbing. 

We are both glad we visited it, but would probably not go back.  I know I'd like to visit Lone Pine again if I get the chance.

You can see the money in the quality of exhibits at Australia Zoo.  Very top notch.  There's a new Southeast Asia section with elephants and tigers that was very nice.  We enjoyed the Asian otter exhibit as well.  Then again, what was the name of this zoo?

Mary and I found walking around the large croc ponds where Agro, Acca and others live was very cool, having seen them on numerous TV programs. Most of the crocs were visible, but unfortunately Agro was hiding underwater in a pool of warmed water so we could not get a clear look at him.   

The show in the Crocaseum was very good, displaying snakes, birds and a crocodile.  But it seemed a bit formal to me.  The people were good, but....   I found it amusing that, at the end of the show the crocodile, Monty, did not want to leave! They had coaxed him out of the water and I think he was enjoying sunning himself so much he thought he'd just stay in the center of the Crocaseum.  But they finally splashed the water enough to get his attention and once in the water he ambled off to his pool. That's a picture of Monty jumping for some meat at the top of this post.  I added 5 pictures to my Picassa page (see link on right) and to the scrolling slideshow if you want to see more.  

I am impressed with Brisbane.  The downtown is modern and bustling, they have a great public transportation system with one pass allowing you to use buses, trains, and the CityCat boats that take passengers up and down the Brisbane River.  Very vibrant and clean - overall a nice city to visit.

That's it for today.  Tomorrow morning we fly to Cairns.  We're looking forward to the Postie run on Thursday.

Koala Pictures are Online

The Lone Pine Sanctuary puts the  "Cuddle a Koala" pictures online unless you ask them not to.  Ours are now online - they weren't earlier or I would have included them in my earlier post.

Click our names to see our official pictures:  Mary      Bill

Feel free to post a comment with which one is best.  Then again that might get me in trouble......

Holding a Koala

WOW! What an experience!  At the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, both Mary and I paid to hold a koala today.  I just got the basic picture while Mary got some sets.  After we posed their photographer offered to take our picture together.  The koala (name Eeyore) was soooo warm!  It snuggled into me as I rubbed its back.  The handler even said "You make a good tree". 8-)  It was an amazing experience and, as Mary said, "It was worth flying halfway around the world for this."

Later on we were watching their Retirement Center and one koala was feeding.  See below for a video of this.

They also sold kangaroo food and had a walk in an open reserve with kangaroos and emus wandering around.  While not as nice as holding the koala, this was pretty cool a well!  Later we watched a sheep herding demonstration.  All in all, it was a very "Australian" day which we both enjoyed immensely.

On to the  (Steve Irwin) Australian Zoo tomorrow!

Brisbane

We had a nice day yesterday before flying to Brisbane.  We packed up and then headed to the Customs House, a restaurant in downtown Newcastle for a John Denver lunch.  Two other JD fans (who Mary had met at Aspen last fall) met us there for a lengthy discussion.  Robert and I had  our own conversation about various topics while the girls did their thing.

After that we headed for the airport where Mary and Pat shed a few parting tears even tho we'll see them again at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney on June 25th.  Dealing with a small regional airport is nice - no lines at security, friendly personnel, and free internet.

We had to catch a taxi to our hotel and the cabbie did not inspire much confidence, but did get us here. It was after dark and the place is old, but clean.  But given the price, that's OK with me.

Today we head to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary so we'll get some nice pictures.

More later!

Things are Different Down Under

I knew about driving on the left, but I found out that many other things are backwards as well.

• Streets are filled with Keep Left signs
  
• The "up" escalator is on the left.
  
• When passing people on the sidewalk or in a mall, you need to move left, not right.
  
• Pedestrians have the right of way in marked crosswalks.  While you don't want to step right in front of a car, you can just step out and they will slow down and stop.