What better way to celebrate Australia Day with the Australians than to go to Australia Zoo! As signs proclaim everywhere around the zoo, it’s the home of the crocodile hunter, the late Steve Irwin. The title is well earned, going by the number of crocs there, and the fact that each one has a bit of background explaining where and when each was caught by Steve. The zoo definitely has a different feel to other zoos, it’s all about getting close and experiencing the animals, so that you learn to love them and hopefully help protect them too. Each of the keepers exudes the same enthusiasm and love for the animals, and it’s good to know that the animals come first too.
The first animals we see are huge tortoises, they used to have one originally caught by Charles Darwin, that lived to 175 years old! Around the corner were three elephants waiting to be fed by the crowd, including us. With my piece of carrot swapped for elephant snot, we moved on to the Crocoseum, a huge arena with snake, bird and crocodile shows, all done by those enthusiastic keepers!
To round off Australia day, we ended up having a barbie with some Aussies in our campsite next to the beach whilst watching fireworks off in the distance, now I don’t think it gets more Australian than that!