koalas and more

the next morning, we planned to visit lone pine koala sanctuary, a small animal park up the river from brisbane. we took a ferry up the river to lone pine, riding past a number of brisbane neighborhoods, and a colony of fruit bats. it was a great way to start our day!

once our ferry arrived at lone pine, we headed in with just enough time to see the koala talk, where the lone pine staff member told us more about koalas - and she had to break apart two males who were starting to fight. after the koala talk, we headed over to a bird talk, where we saw a lot of birds of prey (another instance when sarah-mae should be writing this!). the guides had a new barking owl that they were incorporating in the show, and it was hilarious because she was very uncooperative. they kept throwing a (dead) mouse in the air so that she would nab it mid-air, but she would just watch it hit the ground.

after the bird show, we walked around some of the koala spaces and watched the koalas munching on leaves, climbing trees, and generally hanging out (ha ha). then, we headed to the koala cuddling zone to hold a koala! there wasn't anyone in line, so we were able to scoot right up and take turns holding (and taking pictures with) vinnie. vinnie was a young girl koala, and was so soft! i thought her fur would be coarse, but it was very soft - thick, but soft and kind of squishy. she scratched my arm a bit, but it was worth it!

after our photoshoot with vinnie, we grabbed some lunch and tried to ignore the giant bush turkey and peacock who were begging for food from tables. then, we walked through the koala areas that had babies - they were SO adorable! it was starting to rain, so some of them looked a little wet and matted, but the babies were so cute clinging to the fronts and backs of their moms. so cute!

while at lone pine, we also got to see adorable dingo puppies, sombats, tasmanian devils (that were running around in circles chasing each other), a yellow possum (that was sticking its butt out), and a platypus. it was neat to see all of these aussie animals! we also got to wander through the kangaroo reserve, where we could feed the kangaroos, wallabies, and pademelons. well, the pademelons would just run (jump?) away after i got close to them. the kangaroos were very friendly, and so were the wallabies, although they ate incredibly slowly... just one. little. pellet. at. a. time.

on the negative side, the rain was really starting to come down, so it made it a little less pleasant to walk around with the roos and wallabies and chase down the pademelons. we got pretty wet! so, we finished feeding the animals and headed out to the bus. a little bit rain-soaked, we rode back into brisbane city centre, and picked up our last rental car. after heading back to the hostel to pick up our gear, we started our final drive down to sydney. it's a long drive from brisbane to sydney, so we drove just a couple of hours that night and stayed the night in byron bay.