Monday, January 30, 2012

Australia - Broadbeach on the Gold Coast





Really cute restaurant near Cape Byron.

Hamburger with beet root is an Aussie specialty. They also love fried potato wedges with sweet chili sauce and sour cream. Yum! We ate very well everywhere we went in Australia.



The Cape Byron Lighthouse.


The most easterly point of the Australian mainland.

Australia - Australian Open

Some entertainers wandered the tennis grounds, partially dressed as kangaroos...

Mansoor Bahrami is from Iran and was a professional doubles contender back in the late 80's. Wikipedia said that he sometimes lost matches because he liked to do crowd pleasing trick shots. Now he plays the "Champions" circuit and he was really funny and quite talented. He could catch a tennis ball in his pocket and hit from behind his back and under his legs. It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters of tennis. His doubles match was much more entertaining than the one I watched that was for competition. Those guys were way too serious and whiny...

This is just one of the show courts. Center Court inside the Rod Laver Arena was much bigger!


Me with my new Australian Open polo shirt and shopping bag. A regular old nothing special t-shirt cost $40 Australian, which is about the same in US$. Expensive souvenirs, but I had to get some anyway. I had a great day watching "the tennis."

Australia - Hanging Rock

The actual hanging rock...

Some really old graffiti by T Scott in 1866...



An inflatable kangaroo came along for the ride. We saw some real kangaroos out and about, but they were too far away for me to get a good photo. I wished I had my big lens with me for about a second...

Australia - Badger Creek






The rosellas (colorful wild Australian parrots) will eat out of your hand at Badger Creek...

Australia - Healesville Sanctuary

This little wallaby was so adorable and not very shy.

Gotta have the boomerang show. It came back to him, most of the time.

And you gotta hear some didgeridoo.

We got up close and personal with the birds at the bird show. This one came right at me.

The Victoria Zoos have a recycling campaign called "Wipe for Wildlife." They want you to use toilet paper made of recycled paper.

This koala started making noises that were not at all cute. More like a pig sound.

A beautiful hawk.

I almost didn't go to the "10 most venomous snakes" exhibit. This one looks like it is about to snack on my logo.

Feeding emus for TV.
A black cockatoo.
This dingo made himself a little bed by pawing at the ground and then walking around in circles before plopping down for a nap.

Feeding the pelicans.
Sleepy wombat.
Not so sleepy Tasmanian Devil named Lucifer.

Australia - Mornington Peninsula



Fort Nepean


Mynah Bird


London Bridge



Ways you can die.

The mysterious disappearance of an Australian Prime Minister...




The cute little town of Sorrento