Day 22 – Sydney and Blue Mountains

 G'Day Mate How You Going? 

     We started our day at Featherdale Wildlife Park. It was a place that you actually got to have your photo taken with a koala and you can touch them for the photo. They had a lot of koalas. What they did is rotate their feeding schedule so at least one or two koalas were always out so people can take a photo with them. Koalas eat continually when they are awake for about five hours and sleep the rest of the time. The reason is the eucalyptus leaves are very toxic and have very little protein so their diet is definitely a poor one and saving energy is extremely important.

   Queenland’s is the only state that still allows guests to hold a koala. However, this person telling us about the koalas at the park was very knowledgeable and I now know I don’t want to hold a koala. They can be very nasty and she showed us her scars and recent injuries as part of the job handling the koalas. This was a male that she had out and they have a very smelly chest patch that as they hug the tree marks their scent. Yes, smelly is right, I smelled like a koala the rest of the day. The koala that was out was the alpha male of the park. By the time he was 18 months old he already had five joeys. He was good at his job. However, that meant that if the handler picked up another male first, he would try to attack the handler like he would in the wild when approaching another male.  If the handler picked up a female first, he would try to breed the handler. The handler repeatedly told people to not put your hands near the koalas face as she has been bitten many times and it isn’t fun. She also showed us where he tried to recently climb up her leg. Their claws are extremely sharp.

   So even though koalas are very cute, I will stick to the kangaroos as my favorite.  Kangaroos are an extremely nice animal. After the koalas we went to Blue Mountains to observe the beautiful gorges and a rock formation called “The Three Sisters”, which are three huge sandstone formations. We also rode a rail car down a 52degree incline.

 “I began to have an idea of my life, not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know.” – Joanna Field

Hooroo,

More to Follow

Tom and Holly