Pic taken at Perth Zoo but not one of the inmates. Apparently one of the Honeyeater family.
Category: Wildlife
Perth Zoo – Spoonbill
King of all I survey
Perth Zoo – Bad Hair Day
A Baboon, having a bad hair day, but making the most of the shade.
Perth Zoo – Tricia 2
The signs say she doesn’t stop for photo’s and that you shouldn’t touch her. However, I don’t think Tricia knows the rules. I was lucky enough to observe her stopping to say hello to these lucky folks. Possibly she was hoping that they had a snack, any how she spent quite a few minutes here before slowly moving off. A lovely moment.
Perth Zoo – Tricia
Tricia, an Asian Elephant at Perth Zoo (November 2013), taking her daily constitutional. Apparently she turned 56 this year. It’s not often you can get up close and personal with an animal this size.
Hoppit
The Gold Coast, WA
We are visiting Australia and whilst most of our time will be spent in W.A. we have just returned from a week based on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
After taking the Jetstar “red-eye” flight from Perth we arrived in Brisbane early Sunday morning. We picked up our hire car and drove down to Mermaid Beach where we had breakfast at the Mermaid Beach Surf Life Saving Club. After breakfast we checked into our motel, The Mermaid Beach Motor Inn.
This motel provides basic accommodation and is looking a little tired but the bedding was clean and the rooms had aircon. After a much needed nap and freshen up we strolled along to Broad Beach where we had dinner at Max Seafood Restaurant. The food here was superb and they served an amazing New Zealand Sole, it was huge.
This area really is geared to holidaying, partying and generally having a good time. We certainly managed to cram a lot in and, at times, it seemed that we were constantly on the move. In the few days we were there we managed to visit Sea World, Movie World, Draculas, The Australian Outback Spectacular and “Crikey” we also made it to Australia Zoo.
The following are just a few snaps taken over the next five days. Firstly, some snaps taken at Sea World….
The following are from Warner Brothers Movie World. Unfortunately, my camera decided it didn’t like the heat on this day and stopped functioning so I don’t have any pictures from the spectacular stunt drivers show. So these are just a taster of some of the other attractions ……
Australia Zoo is two hours away from Mermaid Beach but was well the drive. There’s lot’s to do, we were there until closing time and didn’t manage to see everything. Once again here is a taster……
Hard to find one of these little fellows awake.
Making a spectacular entrance to the arena. They did say what it was but, due to memory overload, I have forgotten.
Again, due to memory overload, I have forgotten what this was.
This cheeky chap has been trained to relieve members of the audience of their 5 dollar bills. If you look closely you can see he has it in his beak.
This part of the show was all about demonstrating how these crocs move and how to avoid becoming a menu item. Needless to say the handlers do not take chances.
Looking for his next snack. The handlers never turn their backs on this big boy.
From a standing start a crocodile can launch nearly his full body length out of the water.
Snack time
He wasn’t very happy, having his picture taken whilst taking a dump.
Think this one likes jazz as he appears to be playing his “air double bass”
I was able to place my camera on the floor just a few inches away from this chap. He later came and sat with his foot on my sandal before running across my toes…it tickled.
On the last day we killed some time back at Sea World, before heading back to Brisbane Airport, to see some of the entertainment that we missed on our previous visit. Here are a few photos of some lunatics on seadoos….
This visit concluded a very hectic week on the Gold Coast.
Although we have photo’s which were taken at Draculas and The Great Australian Outback Show they are commercial ones. If I’m really brave i might post them at a later date.
Elizabethan Village Pub & Serpentine Falls
Have taken it easy today. Just a gentle drive up to the Elizabethan Village Pub for lunch followed by a trip up to Serpentine Falls.
Elizabethan Village Pub is the nearest thing I have seen to an English pub in terms of appearance and atmosphere.The food was delicious. My wife and I both had Black Angus Sirloin Steak while my daughter and her husband both had Grilled Barramundi Fillets topped with Creamy Garlic Prawns. Top grub.
The pub is also home to the Last Drop brewery and we sampled their Thunderstorm brew, an unfiltered pilsner. They have other brews too, however as I was driving I couldn’t sample them. They all appear to be around 4.8% ABV. We’ll just have to go back again when someone else is in the driving seat.
As I said we also took a run up to Serpentine Falls.
We thought, given the amount of rain Perth has experienced recently, that the falls would be running quite high and hard. I have been there before and the flow didn’t seem any higher than our previous visit. I’m guessing that the dam, upstream, is retaining as much water as possible since W.A. does have a water problem and they like to retain as much as possible.
On the entrance road to the falls there is a picnic area and we noticed a number of Kangaroos. Each and every one of them appeared to be carrying a joey. Most appeared to have clambered into mums pouch head fist and had their hind legs hanging out. All barring one, who had his head out and was feeding himself from the comfort of mums pouch. Sorry I have no pictures as I didn’t feel it was right to intrude so we just kept the car rolling.
After the fresh air and nature watch the girls felt in the need for some retail therapy so we headed into Armadale where the girls perused the various clothes stores. Following a cup of tea we headed home to relax for the rest of the evening.
Needless to say, after a very filling lunch, none of us was up for anything to eat for tea so relaxed with a beer and some nibbles.
Penguin Island
Yesterday we decided to take a run down to Rockingham and Penguin Island.
Penguin Island is part of the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park and, as the name suggests, is the home to a colony of Fairie Penguins as well as providing nesting sites for several species of gull and Pelicans.
The weather was beautiful and after a short drive and an even shorter ferry boat crossing we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours walking the island. Part of the Penguin Island experience is a short educational session at the Discovery Centre where a few penguins receive treats and are used to explain a little about these delightful creatures. I should point out the penguins in the discovery centre have been rescued and deemed unlikely to survive being returned to the wild.
So here are a few snaps which will I hope convey what a beautiful place this small island is.
Whiteman Park
Here I am, down in Western Australia. Perth to be exact and today has been our first full day. Yesterday, Sunday, was spent recovering from the journey.
We woke to a beautiful sunny, blue skies, day. We had decided to take a trip to Whiteman Park where we enjoyed a leisurely exploration of Caversham Wildlife Park and lunch in the on site Village Cafe.
Obviously I took photos and have posted a few here your pleasure. They are in no particular order.
WrAnTz 