Sunday, October 23, 2016

Brisbane- Australia

We heard from people who have visited Australia that it feels a bit like Canada and it's true. We didn't notice it as much coming down the coast with the ocean beaches and sugar cane farms but once we got close to Brisbane, the feeling of 'home' got quite real. 

After 3 months of Asia, coming into a city with English as their first language, very little garbage lying around, English street signs, real parking spots and bins to actually put garbage- it has a sense of Canada. We can speak English to Aussies without the translation issue even though the accent confuses me at times.

Brisbane is a delight! With a population of 2.1 million, it's big enough to offer a lot but small enough to keep a charm about it. The city itself has been built around the Brisbane River and there are beautiful condos and office buildings along the river downtown:


You can climb the main bridge and it is lit at night:


Brisbane has the world's largest Koala Sanctuary- which is a true statement but only because koalas live in Australia their sanctuary is the bigger than other cities:


I met Rory, a 2 year old male Koala, weighing about 6 kilos. He seemed cuddly but with sharp claws. His main diet is eucalyptus leaves, he will grow to weigh about 12- 16 kilos and live up to 16 years.

The sanctuary also had a lot of Kangaroos and Wallabees:


The main difference? Kangaroo are generally bigger and have legs which are longer between the knees and the ankles. This makes the legs kind of oversized for kangaroos with respect to their body whereas the wallaby has more compact legs.

They say to watch out on the highways in the mornings and at dusk as they come out at that time; I really hope this doesn't happen to us! Then again, we don't get up early a lot and we're off the road before it's dark. We're retired, remember?

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