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Published: June 26th 2017
Chris and Roisin woke early having spent a very comfortable first night in their tree top haven. The weather was continuing where it left off last night. No let up. The weather channel didn't hold out much hope for an improvement during the day. It looks like Chris and Roisin will have to sit it out.
The plan for today is to visit the Koala Sanctuary – photo with a Koala and walk amongst and feed the Kangaroos. As this is a must do, they would have to jiggle around the rest of the plans they had to accommodate this some other day.
Ron had said he would give them a lift to the Koala Sanctuary because his grandson was having a 'sleepover' at theirs and he needed to run him over to a birthday party not far from the Koala Sanctuary. There is an intercom between the main residence and the tree house. Ron said he would buzz them at about 09:40. Chris and Roisin had agreed to tell Ron they were quite happy to ‘
chill' today and start again tomorrow. The weather forecast was to be mainly dry with the possibility of some showers and the day
after is expected to be sunny.
The buzzer sounded at 09:00. It was Ron. A change of plan. The mother had picked up the grandson so there is no hurry. He had rang the Sanctuary and confirmed the Koala's are under cover. The trip was back on. Within the half hour, with brollies in hand, Chris and Roisin clambered in to the 4 x 4 and they were off.
The Koala Sanctuary was not on the tourist trail and somewhat off the beaten track. The only tourists this place tended to get are those staying with friends or family near the North Shore or…the Chinese!! Ron had warned Chris and Roisin that at weekends there can be bus loads of Chinese tourists flocking to this attraction, Nobody knows where they come from or from whence the go!! Despite the heavy rain fall, as they pulled up in to the small car park, today was no exception!! Chris counted 5 mini coaches. One of these coaches had the words'
Xi Tai Chen' stencilled on the side of the drivers door. There were no other cars on the car park. Ron had agreed to pick Chris and Roisin up in
an hour and a half. Plenty of time to explore this sanctuary.
The Koalas weren't hard to find. The sign that said ‘
To the Koalas' helped!! It was the commotion that Chris and Roisin were able to follow.
The Koala pen was under a tent like structure. One of the Koalas was sitting on the fence happily munching on a bunch of eucalyptus leaves under the close supervision of one of the wardens. This particular Koala, Shaun, was surrounded by about 12 Chinese. Chris and Roisin waited patiently while the excited and inquisitive Chinese snapped away. The warden turned to Roisin and said,
‘wait a few minutes until they go'. They could be in for a long wait thought Chris as the Chinese took individual photos of everyone in their group next to Shaun. There was the swapping of cameras as they then proceeded to take further photos of everyone in pairs. Once that was over, the GROUP photos were taken!!
Finally Chris and Roisin had the Koala all to themselves. It just sat there and continued to chew on leaves and branches. Even when Chris used his flash, Shaun didn't bat either of his very bushy
eyebrows! The rest of Shaun's mates were dozing away wedged in the thick branches of the eucalyptus. The warden stated that Koala's tend to sleep 21 hours a day. All except Shaun of course who was so high on eucalyptus he just thought he was asleep!!
After the photo shoot, the warden directed Chris and Roisin to a nearby shed where a demonstration of a sheep shearing was just about to take place. It is definitely an art form even if the modern day technology has cut the time to a fraction of what it used to take in the olden days with a pair of rusty shears and a nervous looking sheep!!
It was still raining heavily but onward to the kangaroo pen with a bag of feed in hand. This is an enclosure with a double gate to stop any animals that decide to go for an unscheduled walkabout or in the case of the kangaroos and wallabies, a ‘
hop about'. As soon as Chris and Roisin entered this pen, umbrellas at full extension, a voice said, ‘
hello again' as the umbrellas were lifted up. To the surprise of Chris and Roisin, there in front
of them stood two ex-passengers from the
Sapphire Princess. ‘Hello', said Chris.
‘What brings you to this neck of the woods? Off the beaten track so to speak' ‘Our friend lives nearby and brought us.' Said the lady
. ‘I'm Sharon, by the way', she continued.
'And this is Jim. Roisin introduced Chris and herself while Chris just smiled and thought that the introductions where a tad late having just spent 4 weeks on a ship together and in about 10 minutes time they'll part never, ever probably to meet again!
Sure enough Ron was waiting as Chris and Roisin exited the sanctuary and made a dash for the car.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing back at the tree top house keeping 1 eye on the weather channel. There were still storms in New South Wales although they were slowly moving away from the area.
As night fell, Chris and Roisin sat out on their veranda. As instructed, half a banana was resting on the veranda rail. Sure enough it wasn't long before one could hear the rustling of leaves and then a head popped out from the undergrowth and slowly the cutest
little possum inched forward towards the banana. It took the piece of banana and scurried away to eat it in the comfort of his tree. Second time round he took the piece of banana from Roisin's lap and scurried up the nearest tree where he stayed for the duration of the evening.
A possum is an arboreal nocturnal marsupial. That means it lives in trees, comes out at night and gives birth to their young and carries them round in a pouch!! It is very cat-like in its mannerisms but has the agility of a squirrel.
When the banana had run out and the wine drank it was time to call it a night. The possum hung around for a bit longer but then buggered off back to the comfort of its own den.
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Mrs T
non-member comment
Its about time you posted something, we've been sitting at our desks all day waiting!Thats a lovely piccy of Roisin but you look a bit hairy, you'll have to have a shave before you get back to work.Martin said you must have brought The Gian
ts some good luck as they're through to some final (or whatever).