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Published: October 19th 2005
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Hot Kangaroo Action
We though the kangaroo on the right was a mother with a baby's tail hanging out of the pouch...that is, until we took a closer look. Ewww! We know it has been a long time since we have written one of these, but we have good reason - we were in the wilds of Australia. Well not really, but we were busy communing with the animals at the Daintree Mangroves Wildlife Sanctuary. We have had quite an exciting time in the last two weeks WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) with a bunch of animals (and some wildlife too). The Sanctuary was built by the owners Gil and Donna Talbot over the last four years and you wouldn't believe the amount of work they have put into it. They have something like 500 animals (including many types of birds, reptiles, mammals and marsupials). All of the animals are native to Australia which was great for us because we were able to see so many all in one place. Put it this way - where else can you go and sit with kangaroos, emus, and crocodiles (oh wait maybe we didn't sit with them!).
Located approximately 100 km north of Cairns along the northeast coast, the Daintree region is a rainforest environment. The wildlife park was immediately north of the town of Mossman, home of the world famous
(NOT) Mossman sugar mill, complete with its own "cane train" bringing harvested sugar cane from the fields direct to the mill. The town was our supplier of internet and beer for the last couple of weeks. Hey, you gotta have the staples. In addition, our hosts were extremely generous in helping us to organize a trip up to Cape Tribulation for a rainforest walk and Daintree River cruise (crocs and pythons in the wild), as well as a little trip over to Mossman Gorge, a swimming hole amongst the forest. For those from Vancouver, the Mossman Gorge swing bridge reminded us of Lynn Valley suspension bridge (except for the Mossman massive fig trees of course). Beautiful.
Our days consisted of getting up and starting work at 7am which was good because by 8:30am we were streaming with sweat. Canadians (especially those from Vancouver) weren't meant to live in tropical climates. At around 9am tour buses would arrive and we would get a bit of a break to watch the "enthusiastic" bus patrons wander around in an absolute daze. Then until 1pm we worked in the hot sun and after that we literally dropped into the most amazing pool ever!
Our Hosts
Gil and Donna, the owners, and Rebecca our mentor. The heat may have had something to do with this assesment of the pool, but it really was nice. Especially with the sun shade so Sarah could swim without being burnt to a crisp under the hot Australian sun. Of course while we thought the pool was perfect, it seemed too cold for most of the Australians (bunch of Sheilas if you ask us). After lunch (we will talk about the food later) we would spend the afternoon relaxing and spending time with the animals. The kangaroos seemed to get a little sick of us after a while "not these guys again - damn Canadians just won't stay away". No really they were fantastic to sit and watch, especially our favourite, Molly. Molly is an orphaned kangaroo whose mother was hit by a car and Donna is now hand rasing her. Every day she gets bottle fed and hops around the park eating grass. When she gets tired she hops into her "pouch" - a green canvas grocery bag and get hung on one of the door handles.
Some of the more intense animals (especially for Nick) in the park were the cassowary, the crocodiles, and the dingos. The
cassowary is a large bird similar to an emu or an ostrich, but it has a blue neck with red turkey goblers hanging from its neck and a crest on its head. You might not think it's too sexy but it drives the female cassowaries NUTS. Now you may think a large bird that can't fly really isn't much of a threat, but you only need to see it running around attacking trees and plants to see the potential danger. Unfortunately for Nick the cassowary pen was exactly where Gil wanted some plants planted. So it was quite a sight to watch Nick dancing around trying to make himself look imposing to this curious beast. When the hat waving and the firehose didn't work Donna and I had to rescue him by distracting the cassowary with food much to Nick relief.
Another worry for Nick was crocodiles. Once you see those jaws suddenly appear out of the murky water you realize you wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley (or river for that matter). As Nick had to do much work around the property which had creeks and other bodies of water his favorite question became "are
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This is a cassowary. Nick rides these in his spare time. there any crocs in there?". Luckily Gil didn't need any plants planted on the banks of the croc pond, so he was pretty safe there. The dingos posed another worry. The only thing Canadians know about dingos is the line "The dingo ate my baby" and although we don't have a baby (except when Nick gets hungry or tired) both of us are pretty small people. We quickly found out though that the dingos are really just like dogs and the two at the park are pretty meek and really stay away from humans, so once that was established Nick was thrilled to whipper-snip (weed-whack) their cage.
On the second-last day, we discovered that we COULD have been worrying about another animal...snakes. We walked into the lounge/tv area to find Gil pulling a long black thing out of the tv cabinet (we thought he was adjusting a cord or something--nope!), until we saw a very Crocodile Hunter-esque scene. Gil pulled a metre-long black snake by it's tail, and shaking it violently walked it across the room to chuck it outside. Hmm, interesting.
Now the food. Well what can we say? We don't think there will be any need
No More Dilithium Crystals...
"I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain!" to eat for the rest of the trip. We haven't eaten this well since we moved out of our parents houses. The food was fantastic and there was always piles of it. Nick is now worried about his figure for next hockey season - good thing he plays in a beer league. Working outdoors for two weeks we thought we might be able to lose a few pounds, but with Gil and Donna cooking there really was no chance of that. No wonder the dog looks like a sausage and has a nick name of "Bloody Fat Dog".
Nick spent most of the two weeks doing gardening (don't cry MJ the plants are still alive), lighting large fires (with "Red Head" matches - quite fitting really), and fighting cassowaries and CARNIVOROUS green ants. Sarah helped out Rebecca (the lone full time employee) feeding and cleaning up after the animals. Anybody who thinks it is a glamourous job working with animals forgets that their main activities are eating and crapping (not as glamourous as one might think). Sarah really did enjoy this though UNTIL the dreaded lorikeet bit her! It's only a flesh wound! But nothing compared to falling in
Blue-winged Kookaburra
One of Nick's favourites. a manhole. Other than that Sarah honed her skills in sweeping, dusting, and doing dishes and more dishes and more dishes.
All in all we both had a wonderful time in a beautiful area of Australia. Thanks Gil, Donna and Rebecca for everything.
We're now staying in Cairns for a few days to "recuperate" from the loss of our swimming pool, and in a few days will be travelling via bus down the east coast of Australia. That's about as far as our plans go.
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Yosista
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Good Times
Hey guys! Pics were amazing this time, glad you guys haven't killed eachother (Sarah, I don't know how you do it) and are having a great time. Does anyone else notice the resemblence between Nick and the frog? Scary...