My target today was the mountains in the green hinterland behind the Sunshine Coast – mountains and greenery and wilderness a change from the blue and gold seascapes of the last few days. The road out, I discover is named “Steve Irwin Way” after the man of that name, the crocodile hunter who sadly lost his life in 2006. His widow, Teri, and their child are still big news here, so I decide to stop at Australia Zoo (not really a proper zoo, more a collection of local Australian creatures), to find out more. The entrance has a huge poster of Steve Irwin with a speech bubble out of his mouth saying “Crikey!”, his most well known saying. I didn’t realise when watching his croc catching antics on the Discovery Channel that Australia Zoo was his own. Started in the 70’s by his parents, he and his wife had become the guardians of this celebration of Australian wildlife and a key part of their conservation. Most of the animals are native Australian and were the ubiquitous croc, most of which Steve caught himself (the first when he was 9…), dingoes, kangaroos, various snakes, huge tortoises (one of which, Harriet, only died a year ago aged 176), wallabies, Tasmanian devils, camels, cassowaries, birds of prey, wombats, emus and my most favourite, the koalas. I have fallen in love with cuddly little Lucas (see my new pin up in the pic). The vision of the zoo is “conservation through exciting education”, and I furthered my wildlife education by attending the 11.30 show at the “Crocoseum”. A little uncomfortable at times as rather large birds of prey were flying about my ears, but if at any time in the future anyone with me gets bitten by a venomous Ozzie snake, I now know exactly what to do, as well as being able to give you advice on how to avoid getting eaten by a Saltie if ever we find ourselves faced with them in the far north. Not sure though that I will ever learn to “love the crocs” as we were all exhorted to do…. But overriding all of this is the charisma and enduring personality of Steve Irwin himself, which seems to really live on. His pictures and history are everywhere, and there is a section dedicated to his memory where people have left tributes – it was reminiscent of the wall at Ground Zero in New York – flags from different nations with messages, flowers, stuffed animals, paintings and rows of khaki shirts (his uniform) with signatures and messages. So what started as a quick stop off at the zoo, turned into a very enjoyable few hours, made even better by the fantastic choc (not croc….) ice cream on sale in the food court. I then resumed my intended path and drove onwards and upwards into the Glass House Mountains, so called as their shapes reminded Captain Cook of glass manufacturing houses from his native Yorkshire. You can see some of them behind me in the picture. Info for Ant – they are volcanic intrusive plugs of trachyte and rhyolite, exposed as the sandstone has been eroded away. Some steep climbs (in the car I hasten to add, not on my feet!) with spectacular 360 degree views from the lookouts. One in particular was very memorable – I could see miles and miles of the verdant coastal plain below me with dots of white buildings the far distance which were the coastal towns perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean like toy villages - as always, these views seem like postcards rather than reality, and to me it looked like I had zoomed in on Google Earth!
