An early morning run around through the City Botanic Gardens, and over the Goodwill Bridge found lovely river views and a sculpture stealing my victory pose! Back in the Gardens, lots of birds — Australian ibis and and Australian bush turkey in abundance. The big event for the day was a trip to Lone Pine Koala Preserve.
The easiest way to get there is on a catamaran up the Brisbane river, so I boarded one this morning and headed inland/north. The Brisbane river is a total 0f 328km long, and it’s tidal, so it changes direction with the tides and is a muddy brown color from the sediment. We travelled past some beautiful suburbs of Brisbane and some huge homes along the river. The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is the first and largest sanctuary and has been in business since 1927. it is one of the few places in Australia where it’s still possible to cuddle a koala. They have over 130 koalas in the preserve, and are very conscious of how long the koalas “work” before a rest. Several times during the wait the handler noted that the creature needed a break and was taken back to a perch in the leaves and another brought out.
Since one of the draws for a visit here was a cuddle and a photo, I paid my money and got in line, and after attempts with two koala who clearly didn’t take to me, I had Max in my arms and a photo snapped and that was it. But other than cuddling, there are koalas all over! Every area has eucalyptus leaves and branches and several koala snoozing or eating or just being cute. Interspersed with these lovely animals were various birds and lizards and dingos and Tasmanian devils and even a platypus. The other highlight was an open area to interact with kangaroos! I bought some kangaroo food and walked into a large field that also had emus, and approached the area where scores of kangaroos and wallabies were resting. Soon enough I had several at my side and spent the next hour feeding pellets to Eastern and Western Greys and even a couple of the Reds from the center of the country. There were some small babies hanging about and taking the feed, and two Kangas with little Roos in their pouches (credit to AA Milne). At one point something struck a great number of them, and they began hopping as a mob in one direction. Right past me and some other humans. We stayed still, assuming they would hop around us and they did. It was sorta like those movies where you see a cattle stampede and the protagonist is on a horse and all the cattle are heading towards him. But we weren’t on horses. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience. I strolled and photo’d all the other creatures, which i will post in a later post because there are too many cute koala and roo pics for this post.
It was a lovely break from the city and from people and to bring some cuteness into my life.
