Oh, my name is Kenny and I’m a kangaroo, ‘garoo, ‘garoo...

We have been in Oz for 5 days and we still have not seen a koala bear or a kangaroo. I’m being to think that the only ones are on the road signs. So, just to prove they do exist Elizabeth is taking us to see some at a sanctuary near where the Jones live.
The journey is fairly short and we get there almost as the park opens. We are able to see all the mammals in Oz, I believe, including those elusive marsupials! We are invited to feed the ’ roos, with what for all intents is “cheerios”. Of course we don’t need to add milk or put the food in a bowl – this is not an AA Milne novel! We are fortunate to see joey’s in the pouch as well; quite ungainly with maybe a tail or leg sticking out. One lazy pup was feeding upside down whilst mum was waiting to be fed!
The Koalas are asleep. Well what’s new? They sleep for around 20 hours a day and feed solely on eucalyptus leaves. And only come down out of their trees when they are unwell, or changing trees. Everyone who wants has the opportunity to have their photo taken with the koala. Their fur is quite wiry, not as fluffy as you might imagine, and they are very tolerant. If they get stressed they just walk away.
We walk around and see the dingos. One of them decided to do a Simba circular run, which has obviously been done before as the track is clearly visible. After running round flat out it found the pond and flopped head above water to cool off! This display does nothing for our equilibrium, as you can imagine with 2 week to go until we get home. We didn’t really see possums and wombats because once again they are nocturnal and all we saw was their rear end in a burrow. We did however see an echidna feeding on ants. This is an strange animal like a large hedgehog but with a furry coat and spines like a porcupine. It has a long snout/beak ideally suited for digging out the ants and termites.
Well, it’s time to get the bags packed and make our way to Sydney airport. Elizabeth, making sure that we didn’t forget our visit, presents us with Forester, a baby koala friend for Philias and Wattlie. Apparently, aussies work fast and Forester is the result of their assignation – somehow I think that even Darwin would have a problem with this!
Well sitting waiting for the gate to be called “open” we see a lot of activity around the desk with a couple of compact video cameras being used, and goody bags for each passenger being prepared. OK, what’s so strange? Firstly our carrier Jetstar is a budget airline, and they don’t give goody bags, and secondly their normally is a ban on this type of photography in airports. Thirdly, some in the know are very anxious to get photos of some of the people at the check in desk. We have already checked in our luggage and not been asked to pay the expected Au$80, which our ticket info from Expedia stated! The reason becomes clear as we board the plane. Starting this week is the Melbourne comedy season and the bags are advertising for this. They contain cheese and biscuits, CDM (oz style not quite the UK taste), a soft drink, and some high quality mixed salted nuts. There is also a complete programme for whats on as well.
In addition to a very full flight, with Melbourne GP fans travelling , we had a stag party group and travellers like us. We are then told that there is an attempt to set a new Guiness Book of Records attempt at the highest stand up comedy event ever at 35000ft above sea level! We had 3 comedians entertaining us for about 30 minutes with it all being recorded, whilst the seat belt signs were switched off, of course. We didn’t take any photos, sorry!
On landing at Melbourne we see how much busier it is than the last time we were here. Fortunately, we are at an airport motel tonite, so we don’t have to battle the traffic into the city 23km away. We will be leaving Oz tomorrow and so need to get ourselves fully organised, and all the luggage closed. So, for now we will close.