If you follow my previous posts, you should know that I only arrived at Brisbane on the evening of 8 July, and now, in 10 July, I had had already my luggage ready to go to Sunshine Coast. The difference this time is that I am going to go alone (no one want to go with me sob sob…). Haiz, nevermind, going by myself allows me to have much more freedom.
I started my journey in Eight Mile Plains at 9 am by bus. I took a bus to city, then hopped on a train and travel to the north, where Sunshine Coast lies. It took me more than one hour to reach Landsborough, and then I changed another bus to reach Mooloolaba Backpackers. I have booked the room before, and to my surprise, the backpacker was full, so the receptionist asked me to come back after one hour.
I couldn't do anything, so I followed her suggestion to have a walk to Mooloolaba Beach. It was really near the backpacker that i stayed, about 1 km i guessed. When I reached there, I was actually amazed to how beautiful the beach is. It was the type of beach that I didn't see in Sydney - long, narrow beach with many local tourists. It was so long that I couldn't even finished walking the whole beach. Quite nice and of course I took a couple of photos. But this time I am alone so most of them are only sceneries.
I almost forgot to go back and do the check in. After 5 minutes of check-in, I walked upstairs to my room. It was actually a share room with 2 double-deckers. It was empty at that time, and I quickly grab a place nearby the power source (haha, of course). After putting down my luggage, I walked straight out of the backpackers and caught a bus to other beaches.
According to my itineraries, I was supposed to go to Dicky Beach, the only beach in the world that is name after a shipwreck. But then, the delayed check-in time really destroyed my schedule, so I opted to go to King's Beach instead. The bus took me 30 mins, and I arrived at King's Beach (not really King's Beach, it is even further than that). I would say this beach is not as good as Mooloolaba, but still there are quite a number of tourists. Not doing much here, I follow the direction to walk to King's Beach. I suddenly saw a noticeboard showing a route map - OMG it was a coastal walk again! I have had enough when I walked from Coogee to Bondi, and now--- Fine, I accepted the challenge.
The coastal walk was not as nice as Bondi-Coogee, because most of the time you cant see the beach, and sometimes you feel like you are walking the wrong route. Thanks to my experience, I managed to walked to King's Beach. Again, another quite ordinary beach but this one has quite a lot of local tourists. After some photos, I continue walking since the sun was going to set (it was already 4 pm). Walk walk walk, I reached Shelly Beach, a not so famous beach between King's Beach and Dicky Beach. Not very astounding, and so I leaved soon.
It was very tired, as I was alone and no one talk to me. The sun has set, and I was quite scared as I have not reached Dicky Beach after half an hour of walking. I was a bit nervous and cannot find any help, but I continued walking and finally I saw the noticeboard!!! Hooray I reached Dicky Beach, but it was already 5pm and most people have left. It was creepy there (very sandy with some many large sand dunes), so I left (I was quite disappointed then). I walked for some distance, then took a bus and went back to backpackers.
That night I did nothing, and I went to Dominoes to grab a large pizza which was only $6.95 (cheap huh?). It was already dark then, and I walked to Mooloolaba beach to eat. It was a new experience to me, eating pizza on a beach in the evening. But I am not alone, a couple of people are there having barbeques. I ate the pizza slice by slice, with the breeze slowly blowing to me, what a nice feeling (though it was cold..). I finished it pretty fast (i was hungry), and walked back to backpackers. Sleep.
In 11 July...
I started early today, since I sleep early yesterday. I tooked a bus to Australian Zoo and that took me around an hour. I reached the zoo at 7.45 and waited for it to open at 8 am. Quite a lot of people there. First, I walked past some alligators (like crocodiles, but they are not) - to my surprise, each one of them has a name and some background info! Next I walked past some nice birds and wombats - nice both of them. En route to the snake house I saw the zookeeper bringing a cheetah out for a walk, so i grabbed my chance to take its photo.
I had a look at the snake house (it was creepy as usual, dark cold). Next, I went to have a look at some koalas and kangaroos. I have saw these a couple of times so not very interesting to me anymore. Then I walked to South East Asia, place where they put tigers and elephants. At Elephantasia, looking at the elephants reminded me of the elephants my family and I saw in Taiping Zoo (a bit homesick, huhu..). They are nice and I saw the keepers were feeding them. Then I walked to the Tiger Temple to see tigers. Poor them, they dont have a very large space. The keeper was feeding it, and it was pretty tamed. Nice and i left South East Asia.
After that I walked to the Wetland, and see some large 'birds' like jabiru and cassuaries (dunno how to spell). Next I have a quick look at the Roo Heaven, place that hosted more kangaroos and some echidnas. If Ms Lili was here I guessed she should be very happy, haha. I rushed to the Crocoseum, a small stadium in which most shows will be shown there. But i was disappointed at first as it featured Bindi (Crocodile Hunter's daughter) and Crocmen with some songs and dance (oops). I feel cheated, then I went for some lunch. After half an hour, I went back and then they were having some real show. Snake show, bird show and of course, CROCODILE show by Terri Irwin (Crocodile hunter's wife)! It was exciting cos I dont think there is any zoo with a crocodile show.
After that, some big tortoise and some real crocodiles. I would say Australian zoo is famous for crocodiles. You can name the type, and you can find it here. Next, some farm animals like pigs, sheeps running around playing with the zoo keeper (huh, they are cute and sweet!). Next, some dingoes which were not really friendly (dont come forward), and some over active Tasmanian devils. This is the first time I see one, the devil is black and ugly, but it is cute after all, and to add, it is very active (it ran around non stop, so cant take pics also).
Next I went to listened to some talks about camels, the ones that were less paid attention (to my surprise, even this is introduced species!), about how they were abandoned in the centre of Australia (poor thing, huhu). Next, I visited another place with more koalas, and I was so lucky that some of them were awake, and they hung around, scratched their bodies and ate!! That was wonderful!
Next, cassworaries, Asian small-clawed otters. comodo dragons and cookaburras are on my way. After that I went to buy some Roo-food (for kangaroos). and walked to feed the kangaroos. It was a different feeling here, because I can take my time to feed them without worrying about photographing. I fed a bit only, cos they are pretty full i guessed.
After than, it was the focus for me, feeding the elephant!!! Haha this was the first time of me feeding them. It was a long queue, but thanks to the elephant which eats very fast. I waited for only 5 minutes only. I grab a carrot and extend my arm to it. Its' trunk quickly come to me yucks, it blows out strong gust (exaggerate) to my palm, discharge some fluid (pretty smelly) before taking the food away. Though it was a bit of a dirty, but a new experience after all.
After collecting the photo, I took a bus back to Mooloolaba at 4.30pm. I bought my dinner again at dominoes, and ate it on the beach. Soon I went back to sleep.
In 12 July,
Today I went to the Underwater World (an oceanarium, not Underworld ok?). Actually I dont want to write much about this (I wrote too much for the zoo, sob...). I will only write about the interesting bits. I went for an otter-feeding show-cum-talk, and wow it was fun. They trained the otters quite well (the otters can give a high-five to them, hehe), and they are pretty cute as well.
After that, I went for stingray-feeding show. The stingray was cute. If you have seen a sting ray before, you will see the 'cute face' they have beneath their bodies (those are their nostrils actually). They are very hungry and fight for food, and I was so lucky to see some of the 'smile' to me, hehe!
Next, the focus of the day, SEAL show. That was a bit fun, but not up to my expectation. I expected something more action-packed, but by showing me 3 somersaults, bodylifting, ball lifting and jumping, I was contented finally. Hehe, I can actually kiss the seal for $10, but then haiz, it was limited to 10 people and I was late.
Next, the water tunnel. I believe every ocenarium will have this, so I will not write much. I could see some sharks, sting rays, 'nemos' hehe. And I was also so lucky to see the keepers dived inside the tunnel to feed the sharks (sweat..). Eating there was cheap also, fish and chips is only $6.
These are the fun bits of it. I left the oceanarium at 2pm, have some shopping at Kawana Shopping World (I bought a jacket and sport shoes by the way), before I went back to Mooloolaba. End of the day.
In 13 July,
I checked out at 10 am, and reached my house at 12 i guessed. Pretty tired, but contented. With this, my SYDNEY-MELBOURNE-SUNSHINE COAST trip is over. To know more about Brisbane city, later in September Sasi and I will thoroughly travel the city, so wait until then ya. Ta.
(Note: sorry for not putting photos, I am lazy to upload. If you wanna see any, leave a msg on the chatbox!)
Later.
