Australia

21st February

This mornings breakfast consisted of the white dragon fruit bought at the market. This was Joshs first try and he loved it!

We had decided to catch the bus to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary today and met Kat there. Walking around there were so many cute Koalas. None of us realised they are only (unnutritional for them) gum tree leaves or that they jumped, until we saw one jump a fair distance between two of its trees.

Walking round we spied sleeping wombats, emus, dingos…

…platypuses and watched a bird show which had lorikeets and owls flying to their trainers so close to our heads you could feel it’s wing beat. Along with a peregrine falcon playing cat and mouse with its trainer and food. After the show we came across one bird I’ve always wanted to see – a Kookaburra.

Now Kat was very excited about this next animal – a Tasmanian Devil. It was like a small black bear with white stripes and a very long tail.

One animal Josh wanted to see, ever since watching David Attenborough, was a Cassowary. He says it’s like a living big dinosaur – forever the big kid.

At this sanctuary you can also hold Koalas – me and Kat were very excited about this and paid but, Josh didn’t want to. Their fur was very wiry and not at all soft as I expected. They also clung onto your hair with their sharp claws if it got too close. Everyone before and Kats Koala bear hugged them close, mine however, looks like it’s trying to get away from me.

Another section was where they kept the Kangaroos and the Wallabies. We didn’t realise you could feed them so we hadn’t bought any food but, a kind man lent all three of us some food. One of the females even had a joey in her pouch which you could see moving around however, it didn’t pop it’s head out for us today.

After being around such amazing animals it was time for us to leave. On the way out we actually managed to catch the feeding Rainbow Lorikeets show. Me and Kat immediately joined in by picking up a bowl of possibly milk, oats and seeds. I had about 10 plus fly straight towards me… crazy!

I then noticed Josh standing a little way away so I pushed the bowl into his unwilling had. I never realised, until Australia, he was such a woose when it came to animals.

After this full on day we said goodbye to Kat and went to have a well earned drink at the River Lodge.