Wildlife Habitat

On Friday we had two separate activities. Peter, Roanne and Roger left soon after 8.30 am and drove to Cape Tribulation to complete the well known Bloomfield Track which is 4wd only and a stop off at the Lions Den Hotel. I will leave it for one of them to record their day.

The children and I went to Wildlife Habitat for the day including the luncheon with the lorikeets. We left the caravan about 10 am and drove the 3 kms into town. At the main road I realized I didn't have the mobile with me so turned around and came back as the others may be trying to contact me. Fortunately I came back as I realized I didn't have my wallet and I could imagine the disaster if we had arrived at Wildlife Habitat with no money! I must be getting old and forgetful or three chattering excited children was the problem.

The facility again has boardwalks around the zoo with specific areas. We initially went to a presentation on pythons and baby crocodiles. We followed this with a grassland tour which included the kangaroos and then the crocodiles. Even though the children have seen kangaroos many times now the attraction does not end. Some of these had joeys so they were even more special.

We had booked lunch with the lorikeets so this was a buffet luncheon in the restaurant within the bird aviary. Jake and Tim were disappointed that they weren't able to have a black cockatoo on their arm but the ranger thought that their arms were a bit thin to take the weight. This opinion was not shared by the kids.

After lunch the kids joined the kids club for an hour. They were delighted that they were the only kids booked in (it is not school holidays here and surprisingly there are not many kids about) and they had the wildlife assistant totally to themselves to answer their questions. They were taken on a behind the scenes tour and collected the food and equipment to clean out the quollo's cage. They were shown how to put the quollo into a secure area so that they could enter the cage. Tim then hid a fish in the cage area, Zoe found a hiding place for the dry food and Jake had to find somewhere for the dry food that was caked together. After cleaning the cage area they released the quollo and it was interesting to see that he found the fish straight away.

Kids club was then completed and we went to the koala presentation area where Tim was keen to have his photo taken with a koala. This

cost $16 and he had been told if he wanted to do this he had to use his birthday money from Peejay and John. He thought this was good

use of this money, (which I agreed) but Jake had other ideas for his money. The attendants were a little unsure whether to allow Tim to hold the koala because of the weight of it but did agree. Tim was a very happy boy with his photo which turned out very good and I am sure it will be taken to school proudly.

From here we did another tour of the full park catching up on the various animals we had missed and revisited the crocodiles and the

kangaroos. Finally at nearly 4 pm we left the park although this was at my suggestion not the children's. On the way back to the caravan

we stopped off at the Mowbray River old bridge as we had been told that a couple of crocodiles bask in the sun there at low tide. We

couldn't see them at all and a lady told us we were about half an hour too late but that she had seen them. We will have to try again another day.

We finished the day with toasted sandwiches for dinner and listened to a guy playing his guitar and singing down in the communal area. We had a good day and the children had lots of experiences and really enjoyed them. They were all in bed sound asleep when the others got back.