July 30 - Sanctuary

I got up at 9 to get to the bus loop on campus for the IPO trip to Healesville Santuary. It’s a wildlife sanctuary about an hour away. On the way to the bus, Kim and I came across two kangas on campus. I took a picture of them just chilling out and watching us.

At the sanctuary, the IPO workers fixed us a nice BBQ lunch (very tasty) and Kim and I had a nice walk around.



We saw more kangaroos, wallabies (I got to pet one), wombat (pet him too), echidnas (have a cute video if ya wanna see it), koalas, a Tasmanian devil, dingoes, flying foxes (large bats), a kookaburra (who laughed for us, but I couldn’t get a clear pic of him thru the gate) tons of snakes and other reptiles, and many varieties of birds from pelicans and parrots to eagles and hawks at the Birds of Prey exhibit. We even saw a demonstration on boomerangs and they actually work. I took lots of pictures and even some videos (email me to see one). It was a really lovely day.

By the way, all snakes in Victoria are poisonous - but only a couple are real concerns (as in, can kill you). There are 3 of the 10 most poisonous spiders in the world here (and 7 total in Australia). There is the MOST poisonous creature in the world just off the coast... a box jellyfish? Anyhow, I'm pretty sure I got all those facts in the from the Reptile show, but I could have a number or two off.

In the evening, Premi (Sri Lanka) took me for dinner in Bundoora and then I got a Blockbuster card so I could rent movies and we came back to watch one. When we returned, Kim (NY by way of Ireland – Irish passport), Johannes (Austria) and Sandeep (India) were playing a version of Bullsh!t – the card game. So we joined in and played until around 1:30 in the morning before the wine and tiredness got to us.