Around The World In 80 Waves

Steve Irwin’s TV show The Crocodile Hunter was a worldwide success.

Off the back of the show’s success he was able to develop the Australia Zoo near Beerwah that had been established by his parents.

I have been in Australia for a month now and apart from still not getting used to seeing parrots and cockateels flying all over the place I haven’t seen any of the local wildlife.

As a result I decided to drive down Steve Irwin Way and check it out. One of the first things I saw was this surfboard in the gift shop.

Before his untimely demise due to a stingray attack (something else for me to think about!) Steve would put on shows in the Crocoseum, which is a huge arena in the Zoo where he would tempt fate with some of the huge crocodiles who live here.

Something you might not know about him is that a species of air-breathing land snail, Crikey Steveirwini, has been named in his honour after his death.

His daughter Bindi, has gone on to become a successful naturalist in her own right and there are sections of the Zoo designed by her too.

I am not always a fan of zoos but have to say all the animals here looked comfortable in their surroundings and I enjoyed a great afternoon here. the first thing I checked out were the spiders and snakes so I knew how worried I should be if encountering any later on this trip.

I checked out the wombats, koalas, emus, dingos, Tasmanian devils. The last of which is at least as manic as the cartoon character. So much so that I couldn’t get a picture of one because they don’t sit still for a second. 

The highlight for me however was the area called My Roo Heaven where you get to feed the kangaroos. For me this was worth the entrance fee alone.

You buy a bag of roo snacks for a couple of dollars and then offer a handful up to the grey and red kangaroos bouncing around. They bound over to you and then eat out of the palm of your hand

I made particularly good friends with this one. He liked being stroked and having his tummy rubbed whilst he was eating so much that he stuck around once the food was gone hugging on to me so that I wouldn’t stop.

I thought it would be very funny to try and get him to rev his giant hind leg like dogs do when you rub their belly so tried assorted strokes in order to do so.

However after about five minutes failing in my quest I realised it might have looked like I was interfering with the animal so thought I had better stop!

My new friend wasn’t pleased but I didn’t want to get thrown out!

On the way out however it seemed only appropriate that I pay fitting tribute to Steve Irwin by getting involved at the Crocoseum.

Crickey! He’s a big fella!