Did you know that Australia is known as the land of the parrots? I had no idea! But it's true; every park we went to had beautifully colored parrots. Take these two, for instance, which were just hanging out in a park in Melbourne. The prettiest bird we have in the US is arguable the cardinal or the bluejay, but they have nothing on these two colorful guys!
After staying two nights with Frances, we met up with our friends Sandra and Des. We originally met them while on our trip to Bali, and they graciously invited us to stay with them when we came to Melbourne, so we did! Thanks Sandra and Des! Sandra lives near Lilydale, very close to the Yarra Valley, a beautiful area NE of Melbourne. Our first day, we went to a wildlife sanctuary to see all of the native Aussie animals. Did you know that 80% of Australia's plants and wildlife is found NOWHERE else in the world? It's quite a unique place!
The first order of the day was to have my "magic moment" with a kangaroo! You could pay an extra $12 to spend 15 min petting and feeding an animal. Since you couldn't actually pet a koala because of its claws, another animal was a small rodent, and another was a dingo, which I assumed would be similar to petting Trig :), I went with a roo. These were grey roos, making them much smaller and less aggressive than the giant red roos. Plus, these ones are used to being fed by strangers every day, so they were very gentle. My roo was named Kiki, and she would eat food right out of my hand. Her fur was soft but thick, sort of like a horse's.
Next, we got to see a Platypus! Talk about adorable. They were much smaller than I imagined, and were just as cute as a button. This one would actually let the trainer tickle her belly.
We went to a bird show and saw more beautiful parrots. I've never seen such vibrant color on an animal before.
Birds of prey!
The tasmania devil! (No we didn't actually see a devil while in Tasmania). These guys are smaller than you'd think too. I've seen overweight cats bigger than them. Sometimes they have a white strip on their chest or backs. Apparently, when they get angry, their ears turn red :) I am going to guess this was just the light shining behind its ears, and that he wasn't actually angry. But these little guys do live up to their names by eating an entire carcass. Bones, fur, everything.
A koala with its baby. Nahhh.....
While in a open air bird cage, one just decided to have a snack on Drew's shoulder. Drew didn't see it land, so he had no idea how large it was until it flew off.
This is Sandra. Smaller birds would come eat out of dishes filled with sugar water. They would actually lick the nectar with their tongues.
A bearded lizard! Had to take a photo of this guy, as he is a character in the Rescuers Down Under, my original introduction to Australia. It's Frank!
These guys are echidnas, or spiny ant eaters. Super cute.
The last stop of the day was a chocolate factory. I was in heaven.
Of course we had to try something. I got the world's best brownie, while Drew demolished an ice cream sundae the size of his face.
No comments:
Post a Comment