DAY 18: June 19th

June 22, 2017 by

Today is tourist sights for us. Bill and Keith (Nova Scotia) are playing in the 60+ singles at Broadbeach club which we will pop by to see after our touring.

We are headed south to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to give Shauna and Alex an up close experience with Australian animals.

We weren’t a hundred feet inside the entrance when the noise of the lorikeets almost deafened us. It was feeding time, for a donation we got a metal pie plate with nectar in it to feed the birds. They were everywhere and not bashful about getting in on the food, sitting on our arms, shoulders and heads.

The hundreds of native Australian animals on display for viewing are done in their natural bushland and rainforest settings. Besides feeding the lorikeets we were able to walk among kangaroos, wallabies, emus, see pelicans and eels be fed by sanctuary staff, huge crocodiles swimming in their pond.

Most of the koalas were sleeping except for one that was displaced from its tree by another koala so we saw it run over to another eucalyptus tree to curl up in.

After 3 hours of meandering our wildlife experience came to end and it was time for the humans to be fed.

We drove down the road to the town of Currumbin (2011 population census was 2,785) where we found another surf club like we ate at in Shelly Beach. The clubhouse is built into Elephant Rock which used to be called Green Rock by early settlers as it was covered in vines and coastal flowers. It was renamed because the rock formation of argillite and fine-grained greywacke resembled an elephant sitting on the beach facing out to sea. After lunch, we climbed up the 60 stairs to the top to take in the crashing waves.

Heading inland we traveled through tree lined windy roads to Freeman’s Organic Farm and 101 year old banana plantation which is being run by the 4th generation of Freeman’s. Unfortunately we couldn’t tour the acreage but had to view it from the road. We did stop at the roadside market where we purchased an unusual fruit (at least to us) called a Custard Apple. We were told how to open it and eat the flesh which we will do at the house.

It was late afternoon when we arrived to see the 60+ pairs, the boys were 1-1 and not fairing well on their third game but they said they were having a good time.

Back at the house Jaymee made pancakes while Alex did sausage and eggs for supper.