Day 77: To Bris-ney Land!

Saturday 20th February 

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary at Brisbane

We fed the kangaroos!!!

Distance: 181km

Total Distance: 12122km

In the morning we drove the long distance from Byron Bay (why are we leaving this place?!?) to Brisbane. From here we'd be leaving behind some members of the team behind (Good Bye Katie, enjoy Oz, I'll come find you in the UK!), but got two new ones (Hello Katie, welcome to the team!)

The main most important activity of the day though was the wildlife sanctuary! The main stars at Lone Pine Koala Reserve have their name on the door. They're cute and cuddly, don't move much until new leaves are added (then they move like cats after nip), and had a million photos taken of them.

We had a quick lunch before splitting into smaller groups to explore. Lone Pine isn't a huge place. It takes maybe 15-20 minutes to get across the public site. Yet the space is actually mostly a pastoral reserve for the kangaroos, with a couple of emus thrown in for company. We bought some kangaroo pellets with lunch then went off to pet roos.

We all had a great time split up amongst the various groups of grazing, sleeping, and playing kangaroos. One youngster bounded over the short grass of the hill from his shade under the eucalyptus tree at the sound of my paper bag. Having fed him I tentatively introduced myself to a mother with a large joey collapsed in her pouch-only hind feet and tail protruding-resting under the shade. I sat down alongside her. She ate hungrily, nearly finishing the bag. That was until the large buck arrived. He came bounding over from the other side of the enclosure, over the shallow hill, and slowed just as his head reached my hand. He wolfed down anything he could get is mouth around. I was a little worried about what he would make of it when I'd run out. Yet I didn't even feel a lived to show him the empty bag, he merely accepted it and chose to move on. To his other hunger for love. We all looked on as he tried to make moves on the mother with joey. Anyway...

We enjoyed watching and feeding them. Their heads look a bit like hares or rabbits, but elongated like a horse. Watching them move was interesting. It's one thing to see the YouTube videos, another to see them really swing their tails for balance in a corner or a whole mob pass across the face of a hill. Of the two emus on was grumpy, but the other one people could stroke its neck.

After a long time here we moved on.

Wombats, fat, round, sleeping on their backs, moving whilst dreaming.

Tasmanian Devils fighting for territory, then going off in a huff before having a bath.

Dingos

Many, many, birds

Platypus!!! One sitting quietly, the other doing laps of the tank.

I'll do a better run down another day. For now, it was amazing.

Day 73: Wild West day! Gold panning and horse riding

Tuesday 16th February 

Gold mining (found a tiny flake), horse riding on a psychopath, then pub chat with the local farmers.

Distance: Bus, 200km

Total Distance: 11305km

Another early start so we could get to a small gold mine run by an old Australian and a few backpackers. A few bits for our barbecue lunch were bought, including some kangaroo meat. Kangaroo tastes like beef but has to be medium rare at most. Cooked for any longer it becomes too tough. It's also cheaper than beef so a lot of people use it as a substitute in meals such as stir fries.

At the mine we had a practice using pans whilst looking for crystals from some local dirt. After lunch we moved on to gold dirt. We cleaned out the soil, swirled the pans, and I found a tiny flake! It's not much, but it was a start. Others found small nuggets and flecks, but my luck was out. I can sheep shear, I can't pan gold. We kept what we each found. The mine owner showed us some of his finds, from flecks to some big chunks. There's 3 million dollars under his house, about 1000 ounces. It'll take a while to get through but he's in no rush enjoying the outdoor lifestyle.

We went on to Bangara, a small township of farmers. Here there's a stables which helps breed and train horses for the New South Wales police, apparently. The horses weren't as big as the ones I've seen the British police use.

The girls each got given a horse first. With one guy not doing it there were only two guys left to place.

"Who's feeling adventurous?", of course my hand went up, "ooh, me!"- I am such a child at times.

"You can have Meg then, she's a bit feisty, likes to be at the front.

The next two hours were spent trying to control my mount, stopping her getting ahead of the group leaders and preventing her getting so close to the horse in front that she might receive a kick or not see one of the holes or branches on the tracks. We steadily got the hang of one another and towards the end I let her out for a wee canter. She seemed happy enough at the end, hanging around for a scratch and pat.

On the trek we followed the river down, crossing it twice. Half way along we were invited in by some locals. They'd rescued 3 young koalas and kept them in a small enclosure in the backyard. One was under the umbrella eating as we arrived, looking very confused as 14 horses arrived to stare at it. The koala's mates were both at the top of one of the enclosures trees, barely visible. They were quite big for youngsters, maybe the size of a large cat.

That evening we all hung out with the locals in the pub, where we were staying.  Our guide and I paired up to take on the whole pub at pool. He's much better than me, but I kept up at times so came out winning. Afterwards I taught some of the girls to play and set them up playing against the locals-which was fine until someone potted the black instead of her last ball. Good fun. We had a few more drinks, took it outside, and I chatted life and farming with a few farm hands and managers as others tried to chat up the girls. This went on for so long that the pub doors were locked behind us! Thankfully as I rattled a door in drunken optimism my room mate was passing to let me in. I could have gone back to get the last two girls in, but they seemed to be happily getting on exceedingly well with the locals. I left them to it. They'd find a way in if they needed to.