Had a wonderful outing in Brisbane. Lone Pine is an Aussie animal sanctuary. Marcie, the pet lover in you would have LOVED this stop.

Strudel (6 yr old male koala who also weighs 6 kilos) was my cuddle buddy. He was not as thrilled with the idea as I was. Nonetheless .. we got the picture. The other audience participation event was wild lorikeet feeding frenzy. Got to hang onto a feeding platform for about 5 of the beautiful multicolor lorikeets. There were a few other takers in our group. Those birds ate in a hurry then flew up and away in the overhead branches.

There were .. dingos to watch; red tailed cockatoos to admire. Paul Mocko - saw a nesting pair of gang gang cockatoos!! they are smaller than I thought .. and the male was most entertaining. The female simply camped on the food dish. He was out of luck. Golden shouldered parakeet; varied lorikeet; Major Mitchell's pair of cockatoos; Baretta birds; Rose breasted cockatoos blue winged kookabura; little corella pair of cockatoos; princess parrot pair - awesome!! - three varieties of wombats (well fed .. if not portly) .. lots of kangaroos ... emu .. a fantastic cassuwary .. a sheep shearing event and

ta daa ... a platypus. They are smaller than one would think.

We did a foggy city drive by tour on the way back to the mother ship.

current schedule is for us to arrive 30 Jan in Cairns 12 noon and depart 9 pm. After that, we should be on the original itinerary scheduling.

The scuttlebutt is we leave Brisbane at 6 am - find a place to go slow until about 2 pm then brave what is left of the weather front.

Ricky the F&B manager was belting out a scareoke number in Voyager Lounge as we were among the few who lasted to close out Compass Rose.

We'll see what the morrow shall bring