Australia: Day Twenty Five - A Living Dinosaur, A Climbing Kangaroo, And an Egg Laying Mammal

In the morning we went for one last swim in the pool before checking out of the hotel and going to the animal sanctuary down the street. We headed into the Sanctuary and went to the Rainforest Habitat. Inside there was a Jabiru stork and some cormorants swimming in the man made pond and a few in the trees.

We walked across the boardwalk and down below was a huge Cassowary looking up at us. He had huge talons on his feet and a blue neck with a red waddle. Cassowary are quite deadly with a razor sharp beak, talons and huge legs.

It uses its strong legs to pounce on its prey and holds it in place with its talons while it rips them apart with its beak. Cassowaries have actually killed multiple people and are one of the more aggressive animals on the planet. They have been around since the dinosaurs and have barely changed. They are much like crocodiles that way both of which kill anything in their way. We took some photos but it was really hot out so he moved underneath the boardwalk to get some shade. We visited the rest of the Sanctuary Habitats and fed some more kangaroos and wallabies.

We also walked out onto a hanging bridge over the Crocodile Habitat and saw a 20 foot crocodile in the water below before heading back to the Rainforest Habitat for the Cassowary feeding time. Once we got there the female was on her way to her food. Cassowaries eat mostly fruit but also eat snakes, frogs, small rodents, and even roadkill if they need to. We snapped a bunch of photos of the alien like animal as she ate. We talked to one of the staff about where to see platypus and tree kangaroo. She told us to head to Nerada Tea factory and a river where the platypus live.

We left the sanctuary and drove towards Nerada Tea Factory to see one of the strangest animals in Australia - a tree climbing kangaroo. We got to the Tea Factory after two hours of driving. There were huge fields of tea plants and a small cafe. We headed inside and talked to the lady working the cash register. She said they have 8 tree kangaroos that live in the area. Usually they find them in the trees so they can point them out to the visitors but it was too hot to look from them that day. We went out anyways and tried to find them ourselves in the small patch of trees. We looked for a good twenty minutes before Zaddek and I saw a flash of movement in the leaves. We ran over to see but there was nothing there. Kaden came running around the corner and hit his head on a low hanging branch. He looked up to see a tree kangaroo staring at us only two feet above our heads. He scurried up the rest of the tree to have a quick nap. We told Mom, Dad, and Sage and they brought the big camera over to get some good photos. We took a few photos before he decided to have a nap.

Then out of the brush and bramble came a tiny joey tree kangaroo. He started his way up the tree with his super big eyes staring at us. Once he knew we weren't a threat he started playing in the brush and climbing and jumping from tree to tree.

We told the lady and four people from the cafe came out to see them. Once the joey climbed out of view we had some tea at the cafe (Sage loves tea parties) before going to see a platypus.

A couple at the cafe said they had seen one at a stream on the edge of the road so we went there on our way to the river. We got out of the car at the stream and looked around. We didn't see anything there so we headed to the river the guide at the sanctuary had told us about. We parked the car and walked down the path alongside the river's edge. Everybody spread out and found spots to sit and wait for the platypus to emerge. I found a nice spot and soon a bunch of bubbles floated up to the surface. They went on nonstop for a minute until a tiny platypus popped up and floated on the surface. After a bit he turned and dove under the water and the bubbles continued. I ran quietly to get Kaden who was sitting down the path. I grabbed him and soon the little platypus emerged again. Kaden was trying to get a better angle through the branches when he slipped and slid down the hill and almost fell in the river. The platypus disappeared and so did the bubbles so we had to find new spots to sit and wait. Ten minutes later Mom and Sage and saw some bubbles and the platypus came back to the surface.

I ran and got Dad and Kaden and they all went to see but Zaddek wanted to spot one himself so he stayed where he was. We watched the tiny platypus feed on the bottom of the river and float two feet away. He was surprisingly small, almost a foot and a half. We sat there for thirty minutes and he dove down again and again until he swam down the river and around the corner. We left the river and drove back to Cairns to our new hotel which was much better than the hostel and went to sleep early excited for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

Total vans: 1

Total miles walked: 3.1 miles