Cuddling Koalas

Today we went 17km south of Townsville to the Billabong Sanctuary. this was quite a small set up and initially neither Tish or I were that impressed especially as we were greeted with "would you like some birdseed to feed the animals"  but as the visit developed and the children in particular were able to interact with some of the animals we both changed our minds - a great day was had by all.
The Sanctuary is quite small and many of the animals are free roaming - such as the Eastern Grey Kangaroos and many of the birds, some of which were probably wild.
We had two key events that we wanted to see, meeting the Wombat and the Koala so we headed off to have a look at the other exhibits - all of which were native to Australia.
We had not gone more than 100m before we were surrounded by ducks, geese and Eastern Greys.

They were surprisingly gentle - and their mouths, lips and tongue were very soft when feeding

They were very happy to be stroked even when they were not being fed

Even though these are no where near the largest of the species you get they were still quite large..

Having given up all our seed, with the added help of a Magpie Goose that took Xanthe's bag out of her hand, we headed off to see what else we could see.
This Frill-necked Lizard looked very imperious sitting on its tree

The Wombat was far more interested in breakfast than us...

...but more of him later.

There was also the normal Croc exhibit but having been to Crocodylus Park and done the Adelaide River Queen we were not too impressed or bothered by this. The children in particular were far more taken by this young joey who was incredibly friendly...

We headed back in good time to make sure we had a seat for the Wombat and Koala experiences.
Whilst waiting Xanthe tried creeping up on a sleeping roo and some ducks..

...but they all lost interest in her when they realised she had no food.

When the Wombat was bought out we were all amazed at just how large it was

given its size and the size of the children we were not able to get pictures of them cuddling him - he would of squashed them all!
But they could all go and stroke him

Cameron was not too sure and soon moved off...

....much more his style.
Xanthe on the other hand seemed to make a friend

We then moved on to the Koala area. Now they obviously party all night cos when we arrived there was definitely an air of the morning after the night before...

...they do spend 18-20hrs a day sleeping as their food is very hard to digest!
During the talk some of them started to get a bit more attentive, but not everyone was impressed...

We then had a chance to "cuddle a koala" although much to Camerons dismay he was too small to hold one.
We have an image of all of us with one being held by Tish but it is a physical image so we can't show it!!!
Here are Hamish and Xanthe though [again we have better physical images from the park]

Cameron did get to stroke one of them called Ray Charles [and yes he was blind] but we had to be careful only to stroke his back as he had bitten someone the day before who insisted on stroking his face!

A great day out.
Back in the caravan park now and going to take the children to the play park to burn off energy!

Tyto Wetlands

Today we woke up to this..

..not seen clouds like this for ages, it didn't amount to much more than a couple of spots of rain though.
We decided we would explore a bit and headed north to the Tyto Wetlands near Ingham.
This is a man made area of approx 90 hectares that has been improved and now is a cracking little area.

With the mountains providing a great back drop

The children found "dandelion" clocks

and had a great time blowing them around

Cameron was with us as well but for some reason we missed taking his picture!
I found something else to do...

...no surprise there then!
Being spring here everything is starting to breed etc.
Some things such as these Crimson Finch were in the process of nest building

and others were sitting on impossibly small nests such as this Willie Wagtail

Not sure what we will do tomorrow but we may well go and "Hug a Koala"

Finding Nemo

Todays plan was to head into Townsville and find Reef HQ the worlds largest reef aquarium.
Good old satnav guided us there no problem although was not too sure about the parking attendant..

The outside of the building was not that impressive so we did start to wonder about the claims about its size..

...but as we later saw from above it was huge...

But I get ahead of myself. Once we had paid you all got a stamp to allow you to come back at any stage during the day

Once in you were met with the usual selection of large aquarium with a mix of less mobile animals, Cameron was particularly taken with this one:

We then walked through a glass tunnel between the main reef tank full of a huge variety of fish

and the predator tank.
We waited for a couple of minutes in the theatre that is beside the tank as they were giving a presentation.
Before that though the windows had to be cleaned

with some different clientele inspecting your work to see it was done correctly

 The tank had three species of shark in it:
Black-tipped Reef Shark

Two Leopard Sharks (a mum and daughter)

And "cuddles" - now cuddles is a night feeding shark but we were all so fascinated by the fact that it likes human contact that none of us can remember what it was!

After the talk we went to the Discovery Zone via this amazing interactive floor

there was a projected image of the reef and as you walked you created ripples and the fish that were near you swam off very quickly and only returned when you were still - the children were hooked!

At the start of the Discovery Zone the children all got eaten..

...and all went off to find Nemo...

We all had a try of the old style diving helmet...

... and boy did it smell coppery - very unpleasant.
Tish was fascinated by the Sea Horses (and bought some very cute seahorse ear rings)

The final part of the tour was a visit to the Turtle Hospital where any injured / sick turtle in Queensland gets treated and released when well - if they can't be released then they are put down. One fascinating fact we all learnt is that of the seven global species Australia has six - Loggerhead, Green, Hawksbill, Leatherback, Olive Ridley and Flatbacked, with only Kemps Ridly missing. Unfortunately you were not allowed to use you flash in the Hospital so none of the pictures came out.

After the tour we found a nice restaurant and had a great Chinese dinner, the staff and food was absolutely superb!
For a change of pace we then went for a brief visit to Townsville Common. This area of wetlands, forest and hills was just north of the city and was a great place to explore.
The views were spectacular

and the occupants very cute...

Tomorrow we are going north to Ingham to explore a bit!