Well an interesting start to the day began with a shrill car alarm at 5-30am. I look out the window still half asleep and see orange flashing lights by our car and rush to find the keys to disable the alarm. I see nothing around outside and go back to bed only to have a second alarm 5 minutes later, this time the key fob seemed to do very little to stop it until it eventually seemed to stop itself. Back to bed again but fully dressed this time ready to pounce should it go again and go again it did. I rushed out to the car to find that the key fob was having no effect and even being inside the car didn't stop it for a while. I decided to take the car off site so as not to disturb anyone and watched the sun rise over the beach from a car park surrounded by surfers waiting for the morning's first waves. Ali rang me to tell me that somehow 'our' car alarm had gone off twice more!!! It wasn't our bloody car alarm, I'm not even sure if our car has an alarm. At least it meant that we were up and about early ready to set off for Brisbane.
We had a shortish 2 hour drive to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane which went surprisingly well even if the traffic was a little busier nearer the city than it had been anywhere else. The weather was sunny as usual and the warmest it's been so far at a balmy 30c. The sanctuary is really well laid out and relaxed and we were stroking a dingo within 10 minutes of being there. The lizards and turkeys were running around in between the showcase animals. There were Koalas sleeping in trees all over the place, cockatoos shouting hello, flying foxes and tasmanian devils. We went and bought tickets to hold a Koala which the girls loved even if Emily did look petrified at first although that was soon replaced with a big beaming smile.
The kangaroos were next on our list and we marched up to the enclosure armed with pellets, unfortunately the roos were happily dozing away in the shade and showed no interest in the food so we decided to come back later. We looked at monitor lizards, turtles, crocodiles and casawara before lunch and after a short snake show and a stroke of a python we were back with the roos who were much more awake and couldn't wait to feed out of our hands. It was brilliant and Emily was loving it although slightly put off by a roo with diarrhea and others that pee'd like race horses.
One more stop to see the duck billed platypuses and fight through the rude and irritating Chinese tourists who push you out of the way for a better photo or simply stand in front of you as you take a photo. It got so bad I had to jam my knee against the tank glass to stop one little ignorant kid who was racing up and down filming for about 5 minutes in such a way that he was pushing past people and nobody else could see the animals. Well he didn't get past me. Where the hell are the parents of these feral kids???
We had a short drive into Brisbane city centre in almost rush hour traffic. It was a bit manic but I only missed one turn off and it wasn't too bad. First impressions are that Brisbane isn't as attractive as Sydney but it's early days yet. The apartment is nice with loads of mod cons lots of glass windows (although the city views aren't the best) and a bedroom and bathroom for Emily. There is a rooftop pool although it isn't heated we had a swim anyway, well Emily and I had a swim Ali was the official photographer.
We finished the afternoon with a trip to the British pub over the road for some ales and typical English food, pasty, sausage and mash and a korma. Early to bed for more adventures tomorrow.
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