Noon Report:

• Location: S 26° 39.99′, E 153° 08.23′
• Speed: At Anchor
• Course: At Anchor
• Weather: Clear
• Temperature: 24º C, 75º F
• Wind: ESE 10 knots

We arrived at Mooloolaba (pronounced mah LOO lah bah) harbor this morning and began deploying the tenders (life boats). When that happens it becomes “yo-yo day” on Deck 2. They close off the portion of the deck below where they are working with the life boats so rather than completing laps we go as far as we can and then turn around and go in the other direction. By dividing the deck roughly in half it’s possible to avoid the work areas and keep track of distance. But it’s the only time we actually get to see the faces of the people we walk with each day.

One bonus of taking a tender to shore is that you get to see lots of waterfront real estate…

Our excursion today was a visit to the Australia Zoo – made famous by the “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin. Though Steve Irwin (catch phrase, “CRIKEY!!”) is no longer with us, his outsized presence is still evident throughout the facility. His wife and two children are maintaining his legacy and continuing to develop the zoo and the conservation efforts he started.

Arriving at the zoo we checked out the map and program schedule and headed to the area for the “conservation show” Parrots Live.

The birds demonstrated their skill at precision flying:

and some of what they have been trained to do

Like finding someone calling them even though they can’t see the caller.

And picking up trash.

We had a bit of time before the next show so we dropped by the “Crikey Cafe” for lunch.

The next show was Elephants (not native to Australia, but significant because of the pressure their species is undergoing).

Following the Elephant talk we wandered a bit.

We saw a fair number of lizards of various sizes.

Sadly, their Komodo Dragon wasn’t feeling very photogenic. We’ll have to try again later.

We saw other interesting animals:

Then we made our way back to:

for the afternoon show.

They started off with birds

During the show, the heat and humidity finally got to Cheryl so we sat for a bit under a mega-sized ceiling fan and worked on a Coke (Cheryl) and an ice cream bar (Randy). That left us just enough time for one more find (and the high point of the day).

We watched the Otters as long as we could and left just enough time to check out the gift shop before boarding the bus for the trip back to the dock.

At the dock we waited in a long line for a long time for the tender to arrive. Turns out there was a good reason for the delay. Once our tender left the harbor, the ride turned into quite an adventure.

But we made it back and, in the shelter of the lee side of the ship, boarding from the tender wasn’t a problem.

It did leave some of us in less than ideal shape to continue with the scheduled activities.

So we slept thru church, but made it to BBB (physically, but not mentally – 7 of 27). We returned to our stateroom and watched Russell Lee’s “Mutiny on the Bounty – The Story Behind the Story.” on the TV.

Since we were in bed at that point, it was but a small thing to turn off the lights and hunker down for a longish nap.

And That is the day at Mooloolaba.

Nite all, R

Cheryl’s factoids:

• Did you know that kangaroos can kill dingos (and dogs) that chase them? Red kangaroos are up to 6′ tall. When a dingo is chasing them, they hop into water and when the dingo/dog follows them into the water they hold the dingo/dog under and drown them!
• This zoo was very nicely fenced (no emu’s and kangaroos wandering around pooping over all the walkways) but you go to Australia to see the marsupials – which are mostly nocturnal (echidnas, platypus, sugar gliders, wombats, lemurs) so a lot of displays look empty because they are hiding away from the light while sleeping. The previous Wildlife Sanctuaries we visited were messier but somehow got their animals on a diurnal schedule which is how we got pictures of the wombats and echidnas. They also charged $50 for a posed picture with a koala while Irwin’s zoo only charged $39.95! (Someone obviously woke up to a money-maker here). And the Irwin’s zoo was really hit hard during the past 2 years of Covid because the zoo was closed, but you still have to feed all those crocodiles!