Day 41.

Moonlit Sanctuary.

Koalas and Kangas and snakes, OH MY! When my parents came to Australia last year, they visited this animal sanctuary as a part of, what I like to call, 'The Joan Buckle Aus Experience!' My poor aunt has so many people coming out and staying with her she's essentially created her own tour. I'm currently in the midst of this tour and when I heard about this, I knew it would be one of my highlights!

The sanctuary is home to hundreds of animals, but most importantly kangaroos and koalas! The kangaroos are actually free range so can just roam about the entire sanctuary!

When we arrived we'd got tickets for the koala experience (basically getting to see and stroke the koala) and because it was about 10 minutes until he was due to go away, the whole group had already moved on so I got 1 on 1 time with him! He was so cute! And a lot bigger than what I thought they would be. He was just chilling out on his branch, eating his eucalyptus leaves and getting a buzz! (Actually a myth, they don't get intoxicated off them at all!) she gave me two rules: don't pet his face and don't touch his leaves! Girl, I know not to go between a man and his food... I am that man! So yeah, I finally got to meet a koala!!

After finishing up being eaten alive by mosquitos we had a walk through Wallaby Walk where, as I hope you can guess, the wallaby's live! So the koalas were bigger than I thought and the wallabies were so much smaller than I thought! They really are like miniature kangaroos, but so soft natured! With it being a sunny day most of them were laying in the shade, all except one cheeky chappy who could hear the rustling of the food bags from the entrance! He scampered right over and tucked into a handful of food! 

We split ways down Wallaby Walk as I saw a small group of kangaroos in the distance between the trees! Oh they're so beautiful! I held out a handful of food in hope I could tempt one over. I stood for a little while with no luck, all up until I heard a loud 'JAMES! JAMES!' It was my aunt. Oh god. Was she cornered by a group of kangaroos, she had the rest of the food after all!? 'QUICK!' She shouted. I literally ran through the walk and out the other side to be greeted by a gathering of kangaroos (luckily not surrounding her!) it was so lovely seeing them in a natural habitat totally free to roam and not afraid of people. We walked over to them and they turned inquisitively... Do they have food? I imagined they were thinking. Two hopped over to me sniffing me out until a third one joined. They knew I had food! I put a handful of food out and they stood up higher on their back legs to reach and ate from my hand! So tame!

The others soon cottoned on and I was surrounded!

Some in particular were very cheeky and nudged right into the food bag!

Once I'd ran out of food they soon realised and went back to laying in the sun. What an experience!! I absolutely loved it! I got to tick two things off my list in one day. After the kangaroos we then went through to see the birds, which, were some of the most fabulous birds I've ever seen! Some had such bright colours, one had crazy bright purple eyes and another pair were just black feathers, yellow and orange spots and just fierce!

I also met the most adorable cockatoo who was the best whistler I've ever met! When we approached the aviary he jumped straight off his perch, worked his way down the branches and right to our eye level! He also managed to say words, greeting us with a 'hello!' followed by a wolf whistle! Excuse me, can I buy this bird please!?!? I did take a video but unfortunately I can't get it off my camera without a laptop. So a photo of him will have to suffice!

We then worked our way through the rest of the sanctuary seeing dingoes, reptiles, turtles, owls and one crazy looking emu! (What emu doesn't look crazy though!?)

Our final stop was back at the visitors centre where there was a python showing. Oh Lordy, a python! Now holding a huge snake would be something I would dare myself to do spur of the moment, but intentionally do it and PAY. Nuh-uh! I'll stand and watch the other crazies do that. Turns out snakes, not really that scary!? Two other girls had paid to hold it so I just rode on the back of them and listened in, probably asking more questions too! It was pretty interesting listening to how they act in the wild, and how the sanctuary try to mimic this for them in captivity. They also shared about how they shed their skin and how they actually become blind for a period of time while they shed, their eyes glaze over and this is how they know when they are preparing to shed.

So that was my trip to the Moonlit sanctuary and a successful tick off of koalas and kangaroos from my Aussie To-Do List!

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