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Jay & Nicole Visit Australia (click any picture for enlargement) |
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Our Australia trip story picks up as we are about to visit a special zoo ... |
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We got to the Billabong Koala & Wildlife Park in time for an encounter with a dingo. I didn't know much about dingos, but they are a lot like house dogs ... except a pack of them can bring down a lion. |
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| Some chickens escorted us as we walked around the grounds. | Lunch for the Kookaburra | |
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| We
entered an area called the "kangaroo enclosure" and expected to see a bunch of cages with
animals locked up in them.
Instead we were instantly greeted by a small little guy that hopped up and let us pet him. He then just stood there quietly, like he wanted to sell us a ticket or something. |
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We
were surprised how friendly some of the animals were ...
... but then we saw a sign with instructions on how to purchase food for them ... beggers! |
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As we
entered the courtyard, we were amazed at the number of kangaroo all over
the place. |
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I hadn't
realized
there was such a big variety in kangaroo; |
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An albino caught our attention, but it was very shy. |
Their back section is unusually large and quite muscular. |
Most enjoyed being scratched ... their hair was stiff as a brush! |
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We
had wondered if the kangaroo sleep standing up ... our question was quickly
answered.
It seems they lay down and sleep on their side. A few rolled over on their back to absorb as much sun as possible ... like our cat! |
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The
'roo' in the upper left looked a bit chubby ... then we saw the face of baby
joey in her pouch. |
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This mother had a teenager hanging around her, but we didn't try to get too close. |
As we were about to leave this area, a cutie came up and seemed to want to shake Nicole's hand. Then it began to lick her and at the same time seemed to try to take her watch off ... too funny! |
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We next visited the Koala area for another up-close encounter. I was able to pet the koala while it was in a tree. It seemed like a live teddy bear, but with fur that felt rough, like a scrubbing pad. |
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The koalas are not normally active, but we got very lucky. Here, a mother is lazily sitting in a tree with a dorky look on her face. Her baby is below and wants to get her attention; note the big claws. |
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The baby then crawled above mom, found a comfortable branch to sit in, and promptly went to sleep. The flash of the camera gives the weird impression that they are cross-eyed ... but they aren't. |
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At
the outdoor exhibit, the koalas were more like they would be in the bush ...
sleepy!
It was interesting to see how many sleeping positions they could find ... none of them seemed too comfortable though. |
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As we headed to the exit, we saw a few more interesting animals. The wombat is related to the koala but stays on the ground. |
I am glad this pre-historic looking lizard was behind glass. |
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We began
driving again and quickly found ourselves along the coast, by Port Macquarie. |
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We
drove around for a while and compared camp sites before picking the place
closest to the ocean. |
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| This is looking north towards Brisbane, which is 600km away. | Behind this sand dune is our simple campsite. | This is looking south towards Sydney, which is 400km away. |
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The campsite had electricity and
water for us to use, so we could use the lights, fridge and sink.
We didn't have A/C though and when the wind stopped blowing, it got VERY hot/humid ... maybe I like the mountains better! |
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