Brisbane

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Leaving Sydney, we left our itinerary open and made our way north knowing that we had a lot of miles to cover before we had to get to the Whitsundays for our sailing booking.

We could go on here about how there isn’t much worth seeing between Sydney and Brisbane and ironically these were two nights that where we found that we couldn’t easily find accommodation. We could also go on about our local dining experience at the local sports club complete with pokies (slot machines). But truth be told, that’s not all that exciting.

All about the Koalas

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The highlight here was our visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. The sanctuary is the oldest and largest in Australia and has around 130 koalas. We especially loved the kindergarten area which holds the 1-2 years old that just left their mother. They most certainly aren’t the most exciting creatures to watch as they have very little energy and sleep much of the day and night. The most activity from them that we did see was the male howling and chirping as they do during mating season. We were also lucky enough to see the wombat, more HUGE flying foxes, crocodiles, roos and more.

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Off we go back on the road again north……

Tidbit of the day:

Koalas are a marsupial, not a bear as they are often referred (meaning that their young are born underdeveloped and finish development in their pouch). They are actually most closely related to the wombat. The Lone Pine Sanctuary has 130 koalas and since their diet consists solely of eucalyptus, they go through one ton of the stuff every day. Koalas are very particular and “brand loyal” in that they will only eat 50 of the 600+ types of eucalyptus found in Australia. They sleep on average 19 hours every day, mainly because there are few nutrients found in the leaves of their diet and therefore leaves them with very little energy. Unfortunately, the koala population has declined over the years so the sanctuary is working on conservation efforts and education.