Would You Cuddle a Koala?

Well...we did!  Last weekend we packed up the Heitzmann gang and went to check out the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It's a little zoo-type place right here in Brisbane, in an area called Fig Tree Pocket, where you can get up close and personal with the little critters and other native Australian wild life. We found it difficult to start a phrase with the word "lone" and not say "star" afterwards!  Anyway, we walked right in and spotted these guys right away.

The word koala is aboriginal for "no drink" because koalas hardly ever need to drink any water since their main diet of Eucalyptus leaves is 50% water already.  

They even had koala mommies and their babies.

Then we decided to join the ranks of Taylor Swift, Eric Clapton, The Queen of England, etc., and have our photo taken with a furry marsupial. Here we are giving "Bentley" a cuddle.  You can tell the kids weren't as interested in taking the photo as we thought they would be.

Even more fun than meeting Bentley, however, was the sanctuary's kangaroo reserve.  You walk through a gate to 5 acres of open fields and, yes, kangaroos. They have over 130 roos and wallabies just hanging out waiting to be fed and pet. It was an amazing experience and the kids had a blast.

  

They also had Tasmanian Devils, dingos, wombats, crocodiles, and lots more to look at.  I snapped these shots of some of the common birds here.  The Lorikeets are awesome - they are as prevalent here as Mockingbirds are in Texas.  I still get excited when I see one, which I'm sure is ridiculous to locals.  

I've only seen a couple of Kookaburras so far, but they have the wildest laugh.  It sounds a bit like a howler monkey, in case you've had the privilege of hearing them.  Loud and haunting. A fun little tidbit about Kookaburras is that they mate for life, so once they find "the one" the settle down and raise a family.  Reminds me of the Friends episode about Lobsters...I digress.

So that's our latest adventure.  I would highly recommend this stop to anyone new or visiting Australia.  You hear about the koalas and kangaroos as epic symbols of this country, so it's a must to experience them in such a personal setting.