Thursday, 13 April, 2017

The other place that I always take our overseas visitors is the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary at which visitors can view Australian Native Wildlife primarily in an environment similar to their natural one.

Firstly, Julie and I get up early to go to the Vic Market to pick up supplies for the Good Friday feast, tomorrow. After our return, Jan, Hugh and I hop in the car to drive out to Healesville which is about an hour’s drive.

When we get there, we run into a horrible issue – it is school holidays and there are 50 million obnoxious, snotty-nosed, loud kids (OSNLKs) everywhere. The parking lot is full and the overflow parking lot, which I did not know existed, was also full with cars driving around looking for a spot. Eventually we drive down the road almost 2 kilometers away to park and hike back to the sanctuary.

We are able to get in for Senior’s rates even though Jan & Hugh did not have a Senior’s Card. But we quickly discovered that all the “extra events” like the up close with the animals or the bird show were completely booked out by the OSNLKs. Most of the following photos of the animals were taken by Jan.

You may have heard the African jungle sounds in movies, e.g. Tarzan, with a bird’s long chilling cry. Well, that is actually this Australian bird making those sounds.

#####The Devil is facing extinction because of a horrible face virus or fungus. The Sanctuary is leading the fight to isolate and breed the devils without it. See the following scan which is a good reflection of what the Victorian Zoo scene is all about.

I highly recommend any visitor or even locals to visit the Sanctuary. There are lots of other views not in our photos like the Platypus, small little animals, Snakes – Australia has the most poisonous snakes in the world, Eagles / Hawks, etc. We had a nice Thai Red Curry Pie for lunch and continued on the wander but eventually got tired and departed. We still had the long walk down to the car and the drive back to town.

Back at home, Hugh had some of the beers Julie had bought.

Julie had got home from work ahead of us, surprise, and after a quick dinner, construction of dessert for tomorrow’s festivities commenced. The chosen artifact was a Pavlova, Australia’s invention (or New Zealand’s depending on who you talk to) which involves beating up egg whites and sugar to make a base crust. We do not do things simply around here, instead of a nice, efficient electric beater, Julie uses an old hand driven one that needs the strength and endurance of a blacksmith.

Enough, it is a big day tomorrow with a number of guests.