Rainbow Beach and the Australia Zoo

How brave am I?
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Ahhhhh further and further down the East Coast we go.  Everyone keeps saying how big Australia is and how long it takes to get places etc. I don't think it's that bad, anyone from Canada would agree.  You want to get somewhere that consists of further than your local corner store, then you have to get in your car and go a wee drive.

We stopped in a small town called Maryborough and did a guided walking tour, which was good, but ended up being about important Scots in Maryborough once the woman found out that Mark was Scottish.  Probably the thing I remember the most was that the woman who wrote 'Mary Poppins' was born there - I defo thought that was written by a Brit, but apparently she was from small town Aus.  We also went to 'Brennan & Gerherty's' which is this Old General store that was left and has been preserved exactly how it was in the 70s - kinda interesting, kinda strange.

Rainbow beach
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We then drove down the Sandy Straights to Rainbow Beach.  Rainbow Beach was originally known as Back Beach and was home to a large sand mining industry until 1976. The current name comes from the rainbow coloured cliffs. In an Aboriginal legend the cliffs were coloured when Yiningie (the spirit of the Gods representing Rainbow) was killed in a fight, spreading his 'colourful' spirits across the cliffs.  It was so beautiful there, we loved it.  There were loads of paragliders up in the air and it was just a nice peaceful spot to relax.

recognize those two?
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We then moved on to Gympy and had our first road side night in the tent.  There were other campervans around (which always makes us feel better) so we didn't really feel we needed a campsite - we decided that we want to avoid campsites and hostels as much as we can from now on, they are defo one of the most expensive things about traveling so we are trying to go on our own whenever we can.

The next day we go t up early and headed to the famed Australia Zoo - home of the late great Steve Irwin aka the Crocodile Hunter.   We knew we were headed for a good day when we both got in with student cards and we were not disappointed.  The zoo encourages people to get as interactive as possible with the animals.  The hope is that when you know the animals and like the animals you will become more interested in helping their conservation efforts.  I think it's a great idea and I think it probably works really well.  As you all know Steve Irwin was killed a few years back.  The zoo was originally started by his parents and then run by him and his wife.  Steve's face is still plastered everywhere all over the zoo and they have big areas about his history and his life in Aus.  It's actually really, really sad.  Not sad as in they are a bunch of sad-o's, but sad as in they seem to miss him terribly and he was clearly the light of their lives.  The zoo was big enough that is held loads of animals, but not too big that you would get bored walking around.  Here's a few of the things that we did; saw and pet giant tortoises, fed elephants, pet a wee koala (so cute!) also spent time in the Kangaroo section where you can pet and feed the roos.  We saw tigers, otters, dingos, wombats,tasmanian devils, kimodo dragons, loads of birds and probably the best thing we saw was a huge Croc being fed a whole pig, not a live one, but it was still eerie to see him down it all in about 20 seconds.  They have something crazy like 3000 pounds of jaw pressure.  I have been loving all the animal encounters you can have in Aus, and the wildlife is so different from what I am used to.  I liked seeing all these animals in the zoo, but nothing is more satisfying than being keen enough to spot them in the wild so hopefully as the trip goes on we will see a few more in their natural habitats.