Friday – the best day of all

Chuck thought that I was a bit crazed about my insistence on going to the Koala sanctuary, but after today he was in agreement. If you are coming to Australia, you must make a trip to Brisbane and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

We took a boat up the Brisbane river. It makes one trip a day, leaving Brisbane (near our hotel – I really planned the whole stay in Brisbane around this day) at 10 am and taking about 1 ½ hours to get there. They point out all of the interesting places along the way and give a little history of the area. They only veered into Disney jokes once in awhile.



We only took the boat one way – they only stay for 2 hours at the park and I was sure that would be too short. (I was right!!)

At the park, we were blown away by how active many of the koalas were. In the first pen, one was walking around on the ground, going up to the fence to see the people.



We went to have our Koala Cuddle and picture first. Chuck wasn’t going to do it, but then he changed his mind. They have work rules for them here. Each one can only work for 30 minutes once every 2 weeks. They seem quite good about the whole thing. They do get a lot of tasty eucalyptus treats during their work time. When children are holding them, the kid sits on a chair. The koalas are quite heavy. Since Chuck and I are used to holding the grandkids, they seemed normal to us.



Our Koala’s name was Linus. He was quite charming.





To see our official park photos go to
http://www.koala.net/photo/1509011980.htm for Chuck and
http://www.koala.net/photo/1509011881.htm for me.

The park has lots of koalas in separate pens – mums with babies, kindergarten (just weaned), the boys, and retirees. The oldest koala here is over 20.

They also have many indigenous birds.



We went to the sheep herding demo. There are two kinds of dogs that work with the sheep. The first rounds them up and herds them to where they are wanted. He can make them go thru gates and over bridges. The second is used in close quarters to push the sheep around inside the pen. We were amazed when he jumped up on the sheep’s back.


The sheep scramble around wherever he wants them to go.

We went into the huge kangaroo pen. Chuck made a new friend:



And I held out my hand and one came right to me.



It started to drizzle so we decided to leave and take the bus back to the city. I think that one reason that all of the animals were so active was that the day was overcast and cool. Since it didn’t start to rain until we were leaving, it just made it a great day. One last wave from a friend:


For dinner we went to the fancy restaurant at the Casino. Marco Polo is a mix of Mod Oz and Asian. Lots of interesting things on the menu. Chuck had 5 spice squid dumplings and then a prawn tagine for “mains.” I had mille feuille of buttered escargot and then lamb with a Moroccan crust. Chuck had a pear & mint tempura for dessert and I had double chocolate nougat pudding. My “main” was the most photogenic: