Koalas and 'Roos

Another fantastic day! I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and saw basically every animal I had seen in all those Aussie films I’ve been watching: sheep, cassowaries, Tasmanian devils, wombats (which are surprising cute), platypus (surprisingly small), freshwater crocodile, dingoes, wallabies, and of COURSE kangaroos and koalas. See the picture below? Yep, I KUDDLED A KOALA! That’s right, it simply jumped out of the trees and into my loving arms, really. It was such a cool experience. Koalas just look so cute as they scrunch up into little balls in the crooks of trees. When the koala put his arms around me, I just about squealed. The koala’s fur felt so much thicker than I had imagined, and it really did hold on to me like I was a tree. The zookeeper fed it some eucalyptus leaves while I held it, prolly to keep it from trying to climb me. Apparently, Billy or Bilgert or Billiam or whatever its name was likes to climb on top of little kids heads. It’s a “height thing” the lady told me, but apparently I was tall enough! I also got to pet tons of kangaroos. There was a huge field where about 70 of them were in and all hopping about. Kangaroos are amazingly soft. I followed them around for about an hour and petted every one that would tolerate it. A woman and her little girl eventually came up to me and said, “We have some extra food, would you like to feed one? I saw you lay down on the ground next to one, and thought, ‘This girl must LOVE those 'roos.’” Haha, so I got to feed the ‘roos too. I am in LOVE with kangaroos—the way they hop, their tails, their tiny little hands, the weird way they lay down, their ears, and how soft their fur is. I saw a pregnant ‘roo laying down, and I could see her pouch moving all around, a little joey fidgeting inside. I rode the bus back into town and went to a museum and the Queensland Cultural Center which had some really beautiful Aboriginal art. I ended the day with a ride on the ferris wheel. Later I tried out the bar underneath my hostel, which was fun, but I get tired around 8 o’clock (and keep waking up at 6:30 AM!) with the jet lag and went to bed pretty early. 

Crazy cool trees everywhere!

AHHHHHH

Sheared in less than 10 min

SOOOO cute!

Me and joey :)