Koalas on Magnetic Island

Today we went to the Koala Sanctuary.  The next tour didn’t begin for another hour, so we walked to a market in Horseshoe Bay (about half a mile down the road).  When we returned, way cool!!  We saw and touched turtles, cocatiels, (big) lizards, something that looks like a hedgehog, crocodiles, snakes, spiders, possums, butterflies, and oh yeah--a koala baby with her mum (see the photo below)!!  We got to hold almost everything except the koala (that was $14 more) including the crocodile and the python.  (We also couldn’t hold the spiders, but that was OK--they were HUGE!!!)  We even saw what appeared to be a small kangaroo hop off into the nearby wilderness.  We all enjoyed the 2 hour tour!!  

Last night during the night we were woken up around 6:00 by screaming (animals), then we heard sounds and heard them scratching on the walls and the windows (we’re not sure if they were in the walls or just outside the window.  Randy and I both pounded on the wall and they quieted down, but they continued to scurry around, knock things over, and crawl on the roof.  It was very disconcerting.  I was half-asleep, imagining they’re going to come in--a la Stephen King.  Ooooh--we just heard another thing in the wall (we think) screaming or something--Randy pounded the wall and eventually it stopped.  No idea what it was.    

After lunch today, we borrowed snorkeling equipment from the guest house and went to Florence Bay to try it out.  Since our catamaran trip to the Great Barrier Reef is tomorrow, we decided to get ready,  The girls have never snorkeled, I asked Joshua’s pool teacher to let him try out some equipment in his after-school pool class, Randy and I snorkled in Key West on our honeymoon, and before that I did on a Caribbean cruise.  So, not a lot of experience between us all.  It was too cold to go out to the fringe reef that surrounds the island (this is part of the Great Barrier Reef), so we just practiced closer to shore.  The girls were so excited that it worked!  : )  

So we have a (hopefully) quiet night to get up early tomorrow to take the ferry and drive to our catamaran.  Hopefully the creatures will help us out and be quiet (although I can hear them already).  Kind of freaky.  Maybe I’ll go outside and take a look.  Till our next time we get internet access.