“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
— George Orwell
Hmmmm. I really don’t need to write a word here because the pictures tell it all. What a place!! The Billabong Sanctuary was one of the big highlights of the trip. Where else could you not only hold a Koala, Wombat, Croc but then have the staff take a great picture too? WOW…WOW…WOW !! I went to the Billabong only thinking I had 2 hours to explore and ending up staying the day. It was that great. I guess every foreigner who goes to Oz must come back with the preverbal Koala picture. I had ten!!! Ha Ha. The staff never got pissed at my Kubrick-like ways of photography. I was able to touch, hold and smell Aussie’s best wildlife. Interesting were the Koala bears. They smelt of cough syrup. This is because they eat eucalyptus leaves 4 hours a day and sleep the other 20 hours. This means they are quite sedated. Think about how you’d feel drinking 5-7 bottles of cough syrup each day, not sure if I would make it to work. It’s no wonder I only saw their bums when I looked up in the trees on my Koala walk on Magnetic Island.
“Our task must be to free ourselves…by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
— Albert Einstein
OH…before I go into the other weird and wonderful creatures here; I promised earlier, I would talk about what I learned about the Cassowary bird. My first encounter was in Cape Tribulation. Like I have mentioned earlier, I never thought plants, let alone birds would be of interest to me in Oz. I was here for danger (crocs, snakes, sharks and spiders). The Cassowary bird deserves some attention.
Here is a bird that stands about 4 feet tall, sharp talons on its legs and a large prehistoric like bone on its head. Now here’s the groovy part, in the north rainforest of Queensland this bird is absolute essential to its survival. It seems it’s the only bird that eats the prehistoric plant seeds of this rainforest and then propagates them thorough its fecal matter. Thus, it s the only way the plant can survive ….WOW!! WOW!!
I got to hold a juvenile croc, and it has caused me some concern since was a known finger eater. My eyes never left those jaws. Just when I thought holding the croc was dangerous, I was introduced to the most venomous snake in the world. This one, thankfully was behind glass. The kangaroos were pretty docile. Thankfully not as docile as the dead carcasses I witnessed every 5 km driving south. I think some of them were Wombats or Wallabies. Hard to tell though. Guts and bones look all the same.
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