Our great weather continued today, with temps around 80, bright sun and a light breeze. It was a perfect day to return to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane (say BRIZ bin) where we had spent part of our day two years ago until the rain and cold forced us to leave. We had breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room as the Ruby Princess entered the freight port on Fisherman Island. There is a cruise ship port in Brisbane but most modern ships are too large to fit under the Gateway Bridge and must use the freight port. A new port is being built and it would almost have to be an improvement. Fisherman Island is not convenient to anything.
Halloween jack o’lanterns in the Piazza
Decorations in Club Fusion...
...and Explorers Lounge
There was a special Halloween trivia in the Explorers Lounge this evening
Princess was selling a round trip transfer to Anzac Square in Brisbane’s CBD, and many people not on Princess tours were taking advantage of that. But we were on a mission. About 8:30am we, along with Paul and Marlene, walked off the ship and found a great taxi driver named Malcolm with an 8-person van. Malcolm would take us to Lone Pine for AU $90 each way. This was a great deal, and we walked around in search of one or two couples to reduce the price per person even more. We finally met Chris and Gabe who were also going to the animal sanctuary making the cost AU $15 per person each way.
It’s a long way to Lone Pine, about an hour in the morning commute traffic. But there was only one bus there when we first arrived, and we wasted no time buying our tickets and getting inside. We saw that a sheep herding demonstration was beginning at 11am and walked in that direction. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary isn’t too large, but still I managed to get more than 13000 steps today. The sheep paddocks were on the far end of the sanctuary.
The jacaranda trees were in full bloom throughout the city.
A tri-color border collie named Mac impressed us with his speed, energy and herding skills. First, his trainer demonstrated Mac’s command of hand signals to sit, lie down and stay. Then she took him out to where the sheep were on the far end of the paddock. Mac herded the sheep through several gates, and finally, into a corral right in front of where we were sitting. We were told that a herding dog recently sold for AU $25000 at auction. A well-trained herding dog can do the work of three men.
Mac cools off in a water trough between herding tasks.
I love his happy doggy grin!
Herding the sheep from the far end of the paddock
Dumb as dirt, but such a sweet face
We next explored several other areas of the sanctuary. Except for the sheep, all of the animals in the sanctuary are indigenous to Australia. Of course, the ship were brought over from Europe by the first explorers.
A dingo pup
One of the scariest things we saw was a freshwater crocodile being hand fed fish. This required two employees, one in a safe area with her eyes on the croc, reporting his every movement, and another (the crazy one) who leaned over the pond with a fish in his hand until the crocodile leaped out of the water to grab it.
Dangling the fish to pull the croc out of the pond
Notice how he lets go of the fish just in time
Mertens’ Water Monitor
We next spent some time in the birds area. Sure, we went to the sanctuary because of the koalas, but I was intrigued by all the different bird species.
Southern Cassowary
Laughing kookaburra
Major Mitchell cockatoo
Blue-winged kookaburra
I love these lorikeets. They are the loudest birds, especially when there are dozens of them.
We finally arrived at the koala area. This is where I had my picture taken holding a koala two years ago. The line to do that today was very long, and it was not something I need to do twice. Instead we attended a session where we could pet a koala for free.
Koala doing what they do best...sleeping
The scent gland on this koala’s chest indicates that he is a male.
The scent gland is used to mark his territory and attract mates.
Koalas have two oppositional thumbs on each hand
G having his moment with a koala
Our next stop was the kangaroo pen. G bought AU $1 worth of roo feed here, and worked hard to feed it to kangaroos who were already full by this point in the day, and generally love on the younger ones. These kangaroos are very mellow, but if they get tired of being around humans, they can go into their own rest area where people aren’t allowed.
They are surprisingly very soft
Kangaroo rest area
How do they know that the kangaroos are dreaming?
While the kangaroos were mellow, every so often one would take off
and hop across the large pen in a matter of seconds.
Our final stop at the sanctuary was a birds of prey demonstration. Here we learned that owls do not have the degree of eye movement humans do, but they lack vertebras in their necks, allowing them to turn their heads 270 degrees.
Barn owl
Another beautiful jacaranda tree
A wedge tailed eagle
The wedge tailed eagle with his four foot wing span demonstrated feeding “on the wing”,
It was quite an impressive sight.
Wedge-tailed eagle
We had arranged for Malcolm to pick up the six of us at 2:30pm to take us back to the Ruby Princess. He was there a few minutes early, and we were ready to go. We were wearing down and hungry. On the way back to the ship, Malcom took us up to Mt. Koot-tha Summit Lookout for a view of Brisbane and its Central Business District. Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia after Sydney and Melbourne.
View from Mt. Koot-tha Summit Lookout
We were wiped out when we got back to our cabin, but there was no time to rest. We needed to do a serious clean up (I had worn Tevas and hosed them off in the shower to get rid of any animal excrement on them. We had walked through plenty of that today!). We were in the Elite Lounge at 4:30pm, and it was all I could do not to load up on hors-doerves since we hadn’t eaten lunch. It was Italian night in the dining room, but instead of the usual Italian night uniforms, the waiters were all dressed in costume for Halloween, some of them quite scary.
Day 9 dinner menu, page 1
Day 9 dinner menu, page 2
Day 9 dessert menu
Sautéed prawns and sea scallops served with broccoli
Headwaiter Mehai really got into the spirit of the day, even having fangs
The Princess Theater entertainment tonight was singer Erik Bryan. He was...ok. Good voice, mediocre show. ‘Nuff said. We swung by the Piazza for a few minutes of the Halloween party with party band The Sound performing (they’re great), but didn’t last too long. I’ve fallen asleep several times trying to get this post typed, and we move clocks back another hour tonight, so it’s already well after midnight as I finish up. But, luckily, tomorrow is another sea day en route to Sydney, and I can sleep late if I want to.
I have a feeling I’ll want to. ;-)
Brisbane Port Guide, page 1
Brisbane Port Guide, page 2
Brisbane Port Guide, page 3
Brisbane Port Guide, page 4
Day 9 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 9 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 9 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 9 Princess Patter, page 4