Having been in the dessert with old Bertha for almost a week, we were more than excited at the idea of parking her and getting out and about for a day. So, as soon as we arrived in Townsville, we made our way to the Billabong Sanctuary, with high hopes of seeing some of Australia’s wildlife. Upon entry, we were greeted with a few crazy ducks, who were actually snatching the kangaroo feed right out of our hands! We weren’t too thrilled with that, as the ducks’ snapping beaks pinched quite a bit and we didn’t want to waste our feed on them! However, within a few minutes, we had spotted our fist kangaroo, a Mama Roo with her cute little joey. We were thrilled that we got to feed her, even though it was quite slobbery!
Soon enough we were surrounded by a group of kangaroos and had them all happily munching away out of the palms of our hands, literally!
Having seen one of Australia’s 2 most famous iconic animals, we were keen to see the other, so we made our way over the the koala sanctuary, where we ooh-ed and aww-ed over the cute little critters. After a brief presentation by some koala experts, we shelled out a few extra bucks, and before we knew it, these cute little critters were hanging all over us! They were so sweet and cuddly, and we would have taken one home if we could have!
After the koalas, we were introduced to the pug nosed wombat, another iconic Australian animal, which, in our opinion, is just as cute, if not cuter, than the koala! We were thrilled to have had the opportunity to have such a close encounter with these marvellous creatures and it was one experience we’ll never forget!
Leaving the cute and cuddly creatures behind us, we were off to see the more dangerous critters at the sanctuary! First stop… the snake pit. Here we were introduced to some of the worlds most dangerous snakes, including the Coastal Taipan, Australian Brown, and The Death Adder snakes. We were horrified to learn how many species of venomous snakes were spread across Australia and just how quickly they can kill you. We then visited the croc pit, where we were introduced to some of the worlds biggest, and deadliest crocs- saltwater ones. We watched in awe as the trainers had them jump out of the water in order to show us just how big they were.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the sanctuary checking out some of the other inhabitants. We were thrilled to see a dingo, as well as a kookaburra and even a cassowary (a crazy dinosaur-like bird!). We had a great day out of old Bertha, and an amazing time checking out Australia’s crazy wildlife!