Well, the Liga’s are here!
Quick code for telling them apart when I’m writing. Liga is my Liga from Antarctica. The other Liga will be ‘Liga2’ because she’s called Liga too.
I picked them up from the airport, and we went home to a lovely dinner cooked by Georgia: pizza straight from our pizza oven. Too easy! (At least for me.)
The agenda for the first day of the trip was to take them to Healesville Sanctuary to see all of the Australian animals, birds and reptiles. Liga was feeling almost personally attacked by the weather. She was freezing cold in Sydney and it was showering today in Healesville.
“Who ever heard of it being cold in Australia?” she protested. But apart from the weather, I don’t think we could have had a better day at Healesville. The animals and birds really turned it on, and I think that it was probably a good thing that the skies were grey. We practically had the whole place to ourselves.
We saw everything they wanted to see. It was funny to see the animals through others’ eyes. We were in the kangaroo enclosure and Liga said, “It’s incredible to think of how a kangaroo is put together. Front legs like a bunny, ass like a deer…” I’d never thought of kangaroos like that. To me, they’re just everyday, normal animals.
We were walking towards the platypus building and Liga said, “We have similar animal in Latvia called Beaver.” I thought to myself, ‘She has no idea how small a platypus is!’ I kept quiet and yes – she was surprised. She also thought the Tasmanian Devils would be “small, like rat.” Wrong again!
Spoonbills. I wonder how they got their name???
The animals really came to the party. Here is a male koala calling the girls.
Liga has a thing for koalas and we saw plenty, including a mother cuddling her joey. The only thing that would have made it perfect for them is if they were allowed to hold, or even pat the koalas, but the Sanctuary doesn’t allow that as it stresses the koalas out.
The Tasmanian Devils were something I was looking forward to seeing. I saw them here when I was a child and I’ve never forgotten it. When I came here on my Little Adventure a couple of years ago, they were sug in their burrows and refused to show themselves. This time though – we were there at feeding time!
Cranky little buggers. They were fed a mix of wallaby, possum and fish. All the bones, fur and scales were left on, as Tassie Devils are scavengers.
The Ligas were very excited to see them. Liga2 said, “The Tasmanian Devils aren’t in any zoos in Europe as far as I know. We don’t get to see them.” She bought a Tassie Devil soft toy for her kids as a souvenir.
We went to the open-air bird show and it was lovely to see the look of delight they shared with each other as an eagle flew over their heads. So many little things were just perfect – except for the showers and my internal freak out when my phone died and I had enormous trouble finding a charger. Fortunate Frogdancer finally found a girl in the café who had one, so the day was saved. (I needed Google Maps to get back to the Maroondah Highway… Phew!)
If I was unlucky enough to be reincarnated as a bird, I bet this would be me…
The next morning we loaded up the car and set off for a day on the Mornington Peninsula – the first leg of our Crazy Road Trip.
Dad Joke of the Day:
How fabulous! Well, they won’t have anything to complain about weather-wise as this Saturday in SW Victoria is supposed to be HOT!!
We’re going to be in Warrnambool tonight!
Hasn’t it come around quickly?