Koala sanctuary

Like all tourists to Australia I wanted to see kangaroos, koalas, parrots, and any other kind of animal I could, but I didn't want to see them in tiny, crowded zoos. So we were excited to see that Sydney has the Koala Park Sanctuary. It's a short train and bus ride from Sydney and since it's pouring rain today we had the whole park pretty much to ourselves. We arrived in time to feed the koalas: they're incredibly docile but then start to move slowly. One knocked another from the tree and then bit her when she tried to resume her branch. They sleep like large grey boulders lodged in the crook of a tree and only sleepily blink at you. They do move around a bit and are actually quite agile jumping from branch to branch.

After viewing and cuddling the koalas, we went to feed the fairy penguins. They're the smallest penguins, just a few kilograms. They waddle up to the feeder and then flip the fish in the air to eat it head first. Then we went to visit the wombat Matilda. She's been at the sanctuary since her mother was killed by a car. She's noctural and not very alert but has long claws and her teeth never stop growing. She smelled like a ferret.

Then we bought food (it looked like cheerios) to feed to the kangaroos. You can go in the pen with them as the aggressive males are in another enclosure. I feed them but they get really excited when they see the food and they ripped the bag open with their claws. Two mothers had babies in their pouches with just the head poking out! We had to back out of the enclosure when we were out of food.

We also took a look at the emus, dingoes (they were all digging under a rock), all kinds of parrots, and wallabeys. Peacocks were wandering around. Most of the animals are put in enclosures at night to protect them but the dingoes are caged to protect the other animals. Once a peacock flew into their area and didn't make it out in one piece. The dingoes are very playful looking!

We also spent time talking with the cockatoos: they whistle and say hello and bye-bye. One of them is removed whenever the santuary is open because he screams obscenities and some visitors complained. I found them incredibly charming.

These are Internet pictures but I'll add my own once I download them.