Monday May 23rd, Koala Town!

Anthony feeding the kangaroos

My favorite place so far in Australia!

Heidi holding a koala!

Today was really special. This morning Tom, Anthony and I took a bus to the Lone Pine Koala Santuary about 15 minutes from the house in Brisbane. Wow, what a place! It was a mini zoo featuring animal demonstrations and lots and lots of koalas! Gene had suggested we see certain demos at certain times so we started out with the sheep dog demonstration. It was amazing. Afterwards we watched a sheep shearing demo. I never realized how sheep's wool comes off all at once at the hands of the shearer....very interesting to watch. It didn't seem to bother the sheep at all either.  From there it was on to Lorakeet bird feeding area. The park sanctuary people put out food for the wild lorakeets and we could hold the food in elevated bowls and the bird came. It was loud! The birds are so colorful they look like they belong in Costa Rica.

Our next stop was koalas. Those koalas sure are cute cute cute! I don't know why I have a facination with koalas but I do. The santuary has koalas all over the place. Some are 3-4 to a pen and some more. The koalas are hanging out in the eucalyptus trees clinging to the branches. Some are cuddled up next to eachother and others are hanging from the tops of the branches. We were only 3-4 feet from reaching out to touch some of them.  I did learn that koalas aren't really bears. They are marsupials, meaning the babies complete their developement in mommy's pouch. The closest relative to the koala is a wombat!

Well the highlight of my day (and I think Tom and Anthony's too) was holding a koala bear! You had to pay extra but it was worth it. They were soft and furry and a little heavier than I thought they would be.  I know I wouldn't be able to do this anywhere else in the world. It sure was special! 

The other part of the sanctuary was a park for kangaroos that you entered by a gate. The kangas were sitting and hopping around. They had much sharper claws than I realized. We bought food at the general store and just kneeled down and they came right up to us like a dog eating out of your hand. Amazing!

What a day! We took the bus home and as soon as we boarded it starting pouring. Good timing God!  At the bus terminal we got out and walked around the nearby shopping center (what Aussies call a mall). We had a late afternoon lunch at a delicious asian fast food place that Gene and Amy like to go to.
I think this day was my favorite so far. I still can't believe how many koalas I saw up close and that I actually got to hold one! Yippee!