Lamb Around The World

Steve Irwin has been gone since 1996 when he was stung through the heart by the barb of a stingray tail. Ironically he was working on a film called “Ocean’s Deadliest”. But 23 years have done little to fade the memories of his exploits in global television shows such as the crocodile hunter.

In 1970 Steve started working with reptiles at his parents nature preserve in Northern Queensland, at 10 he wrestled his first crocodile while his father looked on. Later Steve married an American from Oregon (Teri) and together tho two launched a film series aimed at raising consciousness about wildlife conservation and raising money to expand the preserve his parents had started.

Today that preserve is the Australia Zoo and has more than 1,000 acres and is owned by Teri Irwin the family. Yesterday we drove two hours north to the Zoo and had an amazing day.

Are you wondering what we do all day? Before we got here I had a vague idea of how we would fill our days. Now that it’s a reality we thought we’d let you know how we manage to fill all our time now that we “don’t have anything to do”.

We generally wake up pretty early (the sun rises a round 4:45AM here). The very first thing we do when we  actually get up is take the dogs for a walk. Cuddles generally leads and Honey straggles along behind. We walk into the “village” and back – about a mile and a half round trip. 

After our morning constitutional we have a light brekky (Aussie for breakfast, in case you couldn’t figure that one out), read or listen to the news of the day and contemplate what to do next.

Some days I go for a swim in the pool and George works out on the exercise equipment at the house, yesterday we started canoeing on the canals behind the house. Afterward we shower and get ready for the rest of the day. 

Most days we drive the golf cart to the grocery to buy dinner for the evening, check the mail and just cruise around to see what’s going on “in town”.  

On days we need to run a little further than the 2 miles to the grocery, we’ll take the car. It generally takes both of us paying attention to ensure we’re on the “right” side of the road all the time (although as we get used to driving on the left, it is getting easier). 

The afternoons drift by quickly between practicing guitar/mando or an afternoon nap and before we know it it’s cocktail hour and time to take the dogs for their shorter, evening walk. 

For the next six weeks are house sitting for friends who have an amazing home on the Gold Coast in a city called Surfer’s Paradise. We don’t surf, but they got the paradise part correct.

Our task is to look after the house and it’s occupants: Honey, Cuddles and Shine (the cat). 

We settled in quickly, although it did take a while for us to get used to having the sun come up at 4:45am. After all, ‘if the sun is up, you should be too”.

Local transport around the village of Sanctuary Bay is mostly done by golf cart, although we have had need to take the car to a couple of places. Driving on the other side of the road came back quickly, as we have lived in Australia, England, and Ireland and have had to drive on the left before.

Yesterday we saw kangaroos for the first time this trip. They were standing on one of the local golf courses observing the game. We are told since this is a sanctuary, the wildlife always gets to “play through”.

The house sits on one of the canals that criss cross this area. We will be exploring them, first by canoe and then later via jet ski. But first we have to get licensed to ride the jet ski. If we get caught riding without the certificate, our house (the owner of the jet ski) will get fined. 

We will be here for six weeks, so it is sure we will have lots to share.

A note on visiting Australia – Americans do need a visa. It is not hard or expensive to get, you can do it online (it takes about 15 minutes), just make sure you do it before you travel.