Port Douglas

Today we visited the Rainforest Habitat. There were two primary attractions. One is that you can hold a koala, which is illegal further south. They also offer Breakfast with the Birds, where you can eat among the wildlife.

This is harder than it sounds. The one rule is that you do not feed the birds. We committed but the birds didn't. In most cases, it is enough to cover your plate with your napkin when you leave, but the lorikeets are a little more aggressive, and needed to be shooed away. One actually bit me. Perhaps Stephen is right, and they really are evil. There was an egret that also kept goosing people, including Maria, but I think it was really just looking at snaps and buttons on back jeans pockets, and thinking they were berries or something. Don't get me wrong, breakfast was good. It was just more of a combat situation than I was expecting.

We then got our koala photos, but they were doing the python talk first. I pet the python too, but my sisters would not. It was a four-year old carpet python, and quite small. Cowards.

I think the most fun was actually the grasslands area. You have to stay on the path, but the wallabies, kangaroos, and emu travel freely, so we were able to get quite close to all of them. We saw a few wallabies with joeys in the pouch, and those heads are so big, I can't help but think it is not very comfortable. I pet a kangaroo, and was just kind of amazed to be here.

The place is pretty small, so we got done early, and I took a swim in the motel pool. It was very small, and the surface was kind of rough, but the water felt good and I never go swimming at home.

We have just come back from dinner, and have stopped at the internet cafe/ice cream parlor/video rental place that also buys and sells used books.

I'm not sure when we will have internet access again. We should for sure in Sydney, for Cairns and Uluru we'll see.