Koala Park, Castle Hill
We had rain here this past week; the first rain in almost six weeks! (See why I love Australia so much?) Still the rain is good as it helps the flowers and keeps the fires down in the upcoming summer months. It rained the whole day on Monday. Towards evening the sun broke through. While the drizzle came down over the friary, the rays of the sun made a brilliant double rainbow (1). The picture does not do the view justice! (It was well worth standing outside and getting a little wet!)
Thursday, my day off this week, offered another grey day. (By the way, the rest of the week was blue skies and 60's). I had wanted to head out to hike at a place called Bethlehem Lake, but as it was 45 minute drive away and the weather threatened rain, I played it safe and visited closer "Koala Park." Featherdale Park (see a previous blog) is a better place, in terms of number of animals. But this one was still quite nice and perfect for an overcast day.
Upon entering you meet a photogenic cockatoo on a perch that greets with a charming "Hello!" (2-3). He didn't seem to mind my attention and allowed me to get right up close and take these pictures.
I have yet to see a wombat in the wild (4-5). This guy wasn't as friendly to my camera as the cockatoo! Here are a pair of cockatiels (6-7). And this stunning fellow is a "red-tailed black cockatoo." (8-9). It was clear he was watching me the whole time I took my shots.
I love kookaburras (10-11)! This great specimen sat right up next to the cage so I could take some close up shots of his infectious smile!
The dingos reminded me of my own dog (12-15). Handlres walked the pair around and allowed visitors to pet the canines. The bigger male melted with a chin scratch (14) and then rolled over to have his belly rubbed (15)! Just like a dog!
This first image is of the "red-necked wallabies" (16) and the next few are of grey kangaroos (the smaller variety of 'roos, though bigge than the wallabies) (17-19). You could walk around the pen with the grey 'roos and feed them. This one got a bit fresh during a selfie (19). I think he thought my melon was a ripe melon!
These are the rarer parrots that come through my backyard (19-21). (We have more rainbow lorikeets than "Eastern Rosellas.") They also had a cage with sulfer-crested cockatoos (22-24). One of the birds looked like a cockatoo in size and shape, and perched in the same large cage, but was colored all pink (23-24). It had no sign explaining the variation. Very pretty.
However, the most stunning parrots of all are these "eclectus." (26-29) Read my photo of the sign (26) before looking at these very different parrots of the same species. They are medium sized birds, about the size of a bread pan. Here is the female (27-28) in red and royal blue. And here is the male in erald green (29). Both were beauties and really incredible!
The park offered other, more common animals such as lambs (30) and llamas (31). Here are some emus that were in the same pen as some farm animals (32-33). I was surprised by the peacocks that just wandered about freely (34-37). One even gave me a free "show" as it tried to woo a regular old hen! (I guess they have no peahens around!)
Finally here are some images of a koala; they slept the whole time (38-39). Did you know, they aren't really bears, but marsupials? They fall in the same family as other aussie mammals, like 'roos and wombats. We were allowed to come into their area in groups of six and gently pet them (the cage housed three in total, all asleep). Of course there was someone to supervised, sharing we weren't allowed to wake the creatures, "which included blowing on them"! I did pet the cutie, Fr. Michael (who insists I need to hold one, yuck!). His fur is not real soft. More like a thick wool. Still, you have to admit he's soooooo cute! (I'm talking about the koala, not the priest!)