We get ready with a burnt hot cross bun (as Daisy was in charge ????) and some coffees before getting out and on the road

With one activity in mind today, we get straight to it: Beerwah is only half an hour away and hosts a very famous tourist landmark here

Australia Zoo isn’t cheap to get in but once you’re in you realise it is worth the cost

We go round and kick start with a couple of our favourite animals – the Otters have a couple in for an experience feeding them

They’re very excited and well trained; we overhear that the pair are brother and sister – 8 and 9 years old – the latter is actually called Daisy!

We carry on around seeing lots and this evening includes the Turtle that Steve Irwin actually found

It was back in 1990, in North Queensland around the Burdekin River we had actually been around a few weeks ago now (near Townsville) – we see a couple swimming and settled at the bottom of their pond but no good photos

They have a bunch of Salt Water Crocs dotted all over the shop – the clear stars of the show here – and we head to the Crikey Cafe for some lunch

A cheeseburger and a double cheeseburger with shared chips and a view

We wonder around the Roo Heaven area, with the free roaming namesake and an area for Quokkas, as well as the Wetlands area and then back to next to where we had lunch at their “Crocoseum”

They have a show on daily with birds swooping, snakes being shown around and even a Croc, called Graham, being riled up

Steve himself actually worked with this Croc and got bit by him once!

At the end, they share a song of collated snippets of Steve that is actually quite good

We venture back through the Roo enclosure and head to the furthest point of the park

On the way, we go passed their Elephants and Tigers

We overhear a private tour that the Tiger we can see sleeping is called Sage and is four-years-old and has unfortunately lost both of his eyes to cataracts ???? he’s one of seven Tigers they have

One of the areas they have hear is decated to Steve’s daughter, Bindi – it’s an island with free roaming Ring-Tailed Lemurs amongst other things

We continue to the end of the park which has an Africa theme – they have Giraffes, Zebra and Rhinos together as well as Meerkats and some Cheetah

We rush back to the Roo area as they have a feeding talk on of an animal we’ve not been able to catch a glimpse of yet

Dame Edna is an oldie and goldie of the park, being 42 years old, and the keepers give us some info about the Echidna species

Apparently there’s a thing called an “Echidna train” – it’s a gruelling process the female puts an average of 11 males through getting them to trek to show their desire to mate; the last standing is the one to have the honour to breed with her

Their tongues are around 20cm long (Antearters have around 30cms and they’re much larger)

This one is called Dame Edna and got the name straight from Steve himself – a joke as he’s named after a famous drag queen which is funny as it takes a lot of effort and tests to discover the gender

We’re shown his fluffy belly too

After this, we go to the last area of the park – they have a Koala walk-through where we spot a wild Snake crossing the path

The rest of this area has a free-flight aviary, more Roos, some Koalas and multiple Wombats

It’s almost closing time so we head for the exit but our ticket also includes a sneak peak into the Zoo’s hospital

It was also closing up and putting their patients to bed as we arrived but we did catch sight of one of their Scaly-Breasted Lorikeets

Scaly-Breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets are coming into the hospital very frequently at the moment with Lorikeet Paralysis Syndrome being around it’s peak in the last year ???? glad their able to get such good care

This hospital was made and dedicated to Steve’s mum, Lyn Irwin, as she was an advocate for wildlife care and a role model for this in Steve’s life

We go to the car and drive a little way to get to Caboolture where we’re staying in Iris Cottage, an Air BnB

They place is adorable and very nostalgic with very retro stylings and décor

Dinner goes straight in the oven while we clean up the car as we leave it in Brisbane tomorrow

A lasagne for 8 between us both with some salad, garlic bread and some of the Bundy softies we got

We have the Equaliser on while we feel like Joey and Chandler would have, from Friends, with the lazy-boy chairs they have here before calling it a night