Magnetic Island ("Maggie")

The Bungalow Bay backpackers is well-run and - important to me - quiet at night. In fact, some of the younger guests (with whom I sat after dinner for a jug of beer - more on that later) complained that the bar shut down at 10:30, and the nearby beach bars shut at midnight. On the mainland, most bars stay open until 5 am, and one Brit in particular was looking to pull an all-nighter. Too bad, so sad. It's located a few hundred meters from Horseshoe Bay, and really isn't a bay in itself, but the name is catchy.

Palm fronds and coconuts make noise when the fall on your cabin roof at night.

Breakfast in the land of the Ozzies.

There was a flock of over 50 lorikeets in the late afternoons that weren't the slightest bit intimidated by people. They'd eat out of your hand or right off your plate (if you turned your back). Not too noisy, either. This pic with the flash shows the brilliance of their color.

The kuckaburra is hard to photograph. The hostel had a small wildlife park inside its grounds, with a walking path through the woods, and this kucka was waiting on a branch just for me. http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/calls.html

I met and got to share a brew with an Aussie gentleman of about my age and his traveling companion from France. That night the camp held a trivia contest, with questions mainly dealing with American subjects, such as how many players on a baseball team. I led my team to win one of the 3 rounds (and earned a jug of beer) by knowing almost all of the answers, and had the most correct answers overall. My team won free passes to the wildlife tour - for which I had already paid and for which I got no refund. Oh, well. In any case, the team was grateful, and I spent the remainder of the evening talking with two young ladies from Canada and a friendly guy from Amsterdam. These 3 had traveled the world, and I got recommendations for Europe, Spain, and especially Greece.

We were eventually joined by an already drunk Brit, who simply pushed his way into the conversation because he was obviously interested in one of the Canadians. After getting frozen out of a few subjects, he got the message and left, but not before trying to get contact information from the young ladies. They demurred and said their boyfriends wouldn't like it if they did that.

After the Brit left, the women commented on the Brit and how tired they were of drunks hitting on them. Obviously, the Dutchman and I looked at each other and had the same thought - "What about us?" The ladies had a good laugh and started asking for more info from both of us men. All 3 were surprised at my age, and that I have grandchildren. "Doesn't the white beard give you a clue?", I asked. "Not really," one of the women said, as they had met people who were in their 40's with white hair. So, from now on, I'm telling women I'm 45.

The wildlife tour was worth it because I got to hold some animals and learn about another aboriginal medicine: green ant tea. Recipe = boil water, add one green ant mound, wait for the ground to settle (ouch - bad pun) and enjoy. The tea tastes like weak lemonade, and is supposed to be good for stomach upset. Drinking the ants is optional. If you catch a live ant and lick it's abdomen, it has a faint lemon taste.

The frilled lizard runs on its hind legs, and comes straight out of Jurassic Park. This is not my hand in the picture. http://www.doaustralia.com/Fauna/FrilledLizard.htm

The carpet python, so named because someone thought it resembled the patterns in carpets of the day. http://wildlife-australia.com/carpet.htm I'm not nervous, the sun was bright. Really.

This red-tailed black cockatoo is a hefty bird, which was nursed back to health after injuring its foot in the wild. It is due to be released in a few weeks.