The Local Wildlife

At breakfast I talked to a woman from Denver who is a writer and illustrator and was here gathering experiences so she could write a book and find some inspiration. Her name was Candace and she said that she was going in search of a colony of flying foxes at the Botanic Gardens later that day. She also pointed out a strange looking owl that had been sitting in the same tree for the last several days. It was very odd looking with a comically large mouth and eye brows. I would learn later that day that it was called a Tawny Frogmouth.

Also strange, but terribly friendly, was a couple I had met the day before and arranged to have breakfast with this morning. The wife had a tendency to start a conversation and then wander away while continuing it, only to return moments later with a fresh subject to talk about. She and her husband lived down the street, but were staying at the hotel while their house was being renovated. The husband was an interesting fellow in his own right. I noticed he was wearing a polo shirt that had a logo which read Errol Flynn on it. When I asked about it, he explained that the actor was born in Tasmania, but for some reason he was more or less disowned by Australia and so the Society was created to preserve his memory and proud national origin. (Or something) The husbands name was James and he had an odd pseudo Australian accent. He explained that he had been born and raised in the US, but had gone through a windscreen once he had married and moved to Australia. He therefore had to basically learn to speak all over again, but since it was in Australia, he was taught to speak with an Australian accent. They assured me that if I was ever in Sydney again I could stay with them. Nice folks.

Since the brothers at the hall hadn’t invited me to do anything the night before, I had a free day. So it was off to The Featherdale Wildlife Park. A friend of mine had visited Sydney only a few months before and had been told by a tour guide that rather than visiting the Taronga Zoo, it was worth the hour trip out of the city to visit Featherdale instead. While the zoo mostly had animals you could see at any zoo in the world, the wildlife park consisted only of species native to Australia. Plus you could pet kangaroos. So it was settled.

After a train trip, an aborted bus attempt, and a substituted walk, I arrived at the park. I had brought a bottle of water and generously applied 50+ sunscreen, so I was good for a few hours in intermittent sun. After paying the entry fee and buying a cup of kangaroo food, I began my journey through the park.

I have to admit that, at this point, I still hadn’t figured out Australian currency. I kept paying with bills and getting coins back. I couldn’t figure out why I kept getting short changed. Only two days later did I finally figure out that one of the coins (about the size of a nickel) was worth $2 and the larger one was worth $1.

Featherdale was a tiny park, but seemed to go on and on nonetheless. On offer were the usual crocs, dingos, koalas, roos, wallabies, wombats, and snakes, but also pademelons, tree kangaroos, cassowaries, little blue penguins, goannas, echidnas, bettongs, brushtail possums, potoroos, quokkas, and an array of unusual birds including the Tawny Frogmouth and the ubiquitous white ibis. For an extra fee, one could even have a personal animal experience with a koala, wallaby, or reptile, but petting a kangaroo seemed like it would be enough for me.

Normally I wouldn’t spend much time looking at birds, but the ones here were mostly new to me and I was interested in the variety of shapes and colors. Many of the animals were sleeping because it was the hot middle part of the day, but that was fine in the case of the kangaroos because they were very lazy and feeding and petting and feeding them was easy. There were twelve species of kangaroo there in total, though I don’t think there were any red kangaroos as these are large and can be aggressive toward humans. I only used a portion of my ‘roo food and so I gave what was left to a family with little girls that was headed that way. I popped into the reptile house on my way out in the hopes of getting a look at a brown snake, taipan, funnel web spider, and red back so that I knew what to watch out for when I got to Monto. Of the deadly things I might chance to encounter, these were the most likely.

I had spent a little over two hours in the park and it was time to go, but as I was heading toward the exit I saw the sign that said Saltwater Crocodile and had to go have a look. The saltwater crocodile is considered the largest crocodile species in the world and is the most likely to prey on humans. And while I was expecting something impressive, I was actually surprised by the size of the animal on display. It honestly looked fake because of how large it was. Not only was this crocodile 15 feet long, but it was massively built and thick. Unfortunately the scale and impressiveness was something a picture couldn’t capture and words really can’t convey. Though the Leviathan described in the Bible likely refers to the Nile crocodile, it was now easy to see how this creature should be a sobering reminder to humans of their smallness as compared to Jehovah’s other powerful creations.

All in all, it was worth the trip out to Doonside to see this place and I was happy to have paid a few dollars to support the work they do. A half mile walk and an hour train ride later I was back in Sydney buying a train ticket to Brisbane for Saturday afternoon. But the days adventure wasn’t over.

Luna Park awaited.