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!