Get closer @ Cu-rrrrrrr-um-bin
A day off. The first one in the last week's roster. Chill!! (H) We've decided to take a little day tour to one of the Gold Coast attractions and team parks on our must-do-must-visit list. So no long sleeps, we get up early at 6:30 am to catch a bus to Currumbin.
But before we can do that, we are caught surprised by our amazingly crazy flatmate Nick. He has just come back from a big night out at the Casino (Conrad Jupiters, of course ($)) and comes home in not the soberest condition. And not alone. Running into me as I'm coming out of shower, still half asleep, he proudly announces: 'Look what I've found - a baby duck!!!' I can't believe we have a duck at home, but seeing the little shocked duckling hiding in the corner on our kitchen floor must admit the Jungle Man I'm living with is completely unpredictable. He's totally overjoyed and claims he's thinking about adopting the poor little duckling that was left alone without parents. What else, Nick!! Only a quick flashback to piles of plates in the basin, heaps of clothes packed in the washing machine, all kind of stuff all over the place, and I'm 101% convinced he should never ever have a pet. Concerned about the little baby duck, we give Jungle Man a strict command to take the poor thing to the vet across the street as soon as they open. ...
But back to Currumbin, one of the suburbs of the Gold Coast region between Palm Beach and Coolangatta Airport, home to a beautiful Wildlife Sanctuary with a bunch of cuddly (and some less cuddly) Aussie inhabitants. Koalas, kangaroos, wombats, opossums, dingos, lorikeets, parrots, eagles, snakes, crocs, Tasmanian devils, and last but not least a group of Aborigenes :) Not sure the last ones permanently live at the Sanctuary though, but they do perform a show every day at 3:30 pm.. along with all the cuddly and not so cuddly Aussie animals. With 3 months passing by this Friday since we landed Down Under, it's about the time we make some new friends among the well-known Aussies, with koalas and roos being my favourites of them all. Ann has also been talking about Currumbin and Currumbin for the past couple of weeks, so it comes first on our sightseeing list. Hmm. Sightseeing list. After all we are here on holiday. We are tourists. We are backpackers. We can 'sightsee'!! :)
A day at Currumbin starts at 8 am, that's for the visitors. Not for the inhabitants that probably get up early to practise for their own show. And show is going on the whole day long, with lorikeets opening and closing the busy programme where most of the above mentioned fellows have their role to play. Stars of the Santuary, that's what they are called. Big starts, famous stars.. and co-stars. Little Hollywood. We arrive just in time and after a short phone call to our flatmate's mom, who happens to work at the sanctuary, get a discounted ticket and a free Behind the Scenes tour ;) And head to the first spot where lorikeets are just about to finish their breakfast. The lories at Currumbin are completely wild, and their numbers may vary from day to day depending on the seasonal flowering of local food trees and the presence of predatory birds in the area. They are beautiful and brave, eat from a plate in your hand, sit on your arm, or land right on your head to have a better view around.
Once they've had enough and fly away to come back later on for the afternoon show, we move on to the next 'stage' where koalas and wombats are getting ready to show what they can. Hmm. Not much, I would say. Eat and sleep, that's pretty much all these lazybones are keen on, with approx 20% of their time spent on eating and 80% on sleeping. Life is chill (H) Hanging on the trees, chewing the leaves, they are incredibly cute to look at though. Especially when they slowly move to change their position for a better sleep and sweeter dreams (S) 
The real reason why these little fellows are so little active is hidden in their eating habits. Try and live almost entirely on eucalypt leaves, drink no water.. and see what happens. Apart from falling into almost continuous sleep, it might reduce your brain. Seriously. Koalas have an unusually small brain, with about 40% of the cranial cavity being filled with fluid, which makes them the only animals on Earth with such a strangely reduced brain. I ain't kidding. Their closest relatives living next door at Currumbin are wombats. Although they look more like wild boars (or wild pigs :)) 
to me, they are said to be broadly similar in appearance to koalas. They are not as easily seen as many animals, but leave ample evidence of their passage, treating fences as a minor inconvenience to be gone through or under and leaving distinctive cubic scats. The question is: have you ever seen any koalas behave the same? Not even with the reduced brain :)
When the little 'wild pigs' finish munching their meal, we walk further down to see the next performance. Dingos in action. The whole park is actually based on these shows. You'd hardly see any animal if you just walked through the park. The little spoilt fellows only stick their nose out when there's some food to be served. They ain't stupid. The two dingos are especially prone to turn their back as soon as they've had their gulp. Fair enough. We gotta hurry to our Behind the
Scenes tour anyway. A quick walk through the backstage takes us to the vet hospital and food preparation area, where Ann spots a bucket of dead mice ready to be fed to the crocs. Iacc. We are also introduced to some of the furry, feathered and scaly friends, such as a small python, a few lizards (the one in the picture was actually a free range roaming at Devils Diner), a bird of prey, and another dingo. They stars of the Totally Wild and Snakes Alive Show - the next two shows at Close Encounters. While the first one brings about no big excitement as we have already met the cast in person, apart from one cute yellow-orange opossum, the second one introduces three totally alive snakes, one of them ranked as the 4th most venomous in the world. Nice to meet you, guys, I hope it's the last time I see ya! :)
Off we go to the Free Flight Bird Show, where some of the majestic eagles, kites and owls swoop low and fast above our heads on
supersonic speed, a classy pelican toddles on and off the stage, and miss parrots participate on a beauty contest. One of them enjoys using people's heads as a landing track. Hey, don't mess with my hair, mate! When they are gone, we take a walk to the other end of the park, known as Kangaroo Crossing. Hard to guess who we come across there. A gang of kangaroos enjoying their afternoon siesta on 
the lawn. At least three generations altogether. Mr and Mrs K Roo's, with Joey nr 1, 2, 3, ... , 303, and Mr and Mrs Grand and Grandgrand K Roo's. You easily notice the difference between the young Duracell Joeys and Mr and Mrs Slowmotion KKKRoos. They are the only inhabitants of Currumbin that actually have some freedom of hopping around on a bit bigger ground, and the only ones that you can go close enough to shake hands with. 'Cause I doubt you'd wanna do it with the next fellows that live just a few steps further up in the Wetlands and are known to the 
locals as Salties. Their show is about to begin as the bucket we spotted earlier in the food preparation area has now been moved in front of the hungry crocs, flapping their jaws to express their disappointment in the long wait. One greedy gulp, 2, 3, 4, .. the jaws remain wide open, the little hogs can't get enough. And as we have to leave them to drive back to Surfers, we hope they won't eat the Croco Tamer.
But before we can do that, we are caught surprised by our amazingly crazy flatmate Nick. He has just come back from a big night out at the Casino (Conrad Jupiters, of course ($)) and comes home in not the soberest condition. And not alone. Running into me as I'm coming out of shower, still half asleep, he proudly announces: 'Look what I've found - a baby duck!!!' I can't believe we have a duck at home, but seeing the little shocked duckling hiding in the corner on our kitchen floor must admit the Jungle Man I'm living with is completely unpredictable. He's totally overjoyed and claims he's thinking about adopting the poor little duckling that was left alone without parents. What else, Nick!! Only a quick flashback to piles of plates in the basin, heaps of clothes packed in the washing machine, all kind of stuff all over the place, and I'm 101% convinced he should never ever have a pet. Concerned about the little baby duck, we give Jungle Man a strict command to take the poor thing to the vet across the street as soon as they open. ...
But back to Currumbin, one of the suburbs of the Gold Coast region between Palm Beach and Coolangatta Airport, home to a beautiful Wildlife Sanctuary with a bunch of cuddly (and some less cuddly) Aussie inhabitants. Koalas, kangaroos, wombats, opossums, dingos, lorikeets, parrots, eagles, snakes, crocs, Tasmanian devils, and last but not least a group of Aborigenes :) Not sure the last ones permanently live at the Sanctuary though, but they do perform a show every day at 3:30 pm.. along with all the cuddly and not so cuddly Aussie animals. With 3 months passing by this Friday since we landed Down Under, it's about the time we make some new friends among the well-known Aussies, with koalas and roos being my favourites of them all. Ann has also been talking about Currumbin and Currumbin for the past couple of weeks, so it comes first on our sightseeing list. Hmm. Sightseeing list. After all we are here on holiday. We are tourists. We are backpackers. We can 'sightsee'!! :)
A day at Currumbin starts at 8 am, that's for the visitors. Not for the inhabitants that probably get up early to practise for their own show. And show is going on the whole day long, with lorikeets opening and closing the busy programme where most of the above mentioned fellows have their role to play. Stars of the Santuary, that's what they are called. Big starts, famous stars.. and co-stars. Little Hollywood. We arrive just in time and after a short phone call to our flatmate's mom, who happens to work at the sanctuary, get a discounted ticket and a free Behind the Scenes tour ;) And head to the first spot where lorikeets are just about to finish their breakfast. The lories at Currumbin are completely wild, and their numbers may vary from day to day depending on the seasonal flowering of local food trees and the presence of predatory birds in the area. They are beautiful and brave, eat from a plate in your hand, sit on your arm, or land right on your head to have a better view around.
Once they've had enough and fly away to come back later on for the afternoon show, we move on to the next 'stage' where koalas and wombats are getting ready to show what they can. Hmm. Not much, I would say. Eat and sleep, that's pretty much all these lazybones are keen on, with approx 20% of their time spent on eating and 80% on sleeping. Life is chill (H) Hanging on the trees, chewing the leaves, they are incredibly cute to look at though. Especially when they slowly move to change their position for a better sleep and sweeter dreams (S) 
The real reason why these little fellows are so little active is hidden in their eating habits. Try and live almost entirely on eucalypt leaves, drink no water.. and see what happens. Apart from falling into almost continuous sleep, it might reduce your brain. Seriously. Koalas have an unusually small brain, with about 40% of the cranial cavity being filled with fluid, which makes them the only animals on Earth with such a strangely reduced brain. I ain't kidding. Their closest relatives living next door at Currumbin are wombats. Although they look more like wild boars (or wild pigs :)) 
to me, they are said to be broadly similar in appearance to koalas. They are not as easily seen as many animals, but leave ample evidence of their passage, treating fences as a minor inconvenience to be gone through or under and leaving distinctive cubic scats. The question is: have you ever seen any koalas behave the same? Not even with the reduced brain :)
When the little 'wild pigs' finish munching their meal, we walk further down to see the next performance. Dingos in action. The whole park is actually based on these shows. You'd hardly see any animal if you just walked through the park. The little spoilt fellows only stick their nose out when there's some food to be served. They ain't stupid. The two dingos are especially prone to turn their back as soon as they've had their gulp. Fair enough. We gotta hurry to our Behind the
Scenes tour anyway. A quick walk through the backstage takes us to the vet hospital and food preparation area, where Ann spots a bucket of dead mice ready to be fed to the crocs. Iacc. We are also introduced to some of the furry, feathered and scaly friends, such as a small python, a few lizards (the one in the picture was actually a free range roaming at Devils Diner), a bird of prey, and another dingo. They stars of the Totally Wild and Snakes Alive Show - the next two shows at Close Encounters. While the first one brings about no big excitement as we have already met the cast in person, apart from one cute yellow-orange opossum, the second one introduces three totally alive snakes, one of them ranked as the 4th most venomous in the world. Nice to meet you, guys, I hope it's the last time I see ya! :)
Off we go to the Free Flight Bird Show, where some of the majestic eagles, kites and owls swoop low and fast above our heads on
supersonic speed, a classy pelican toddles on and off the stage, and miss parrots participate on a beauty contest. One of them enjoys using people's heads as a landing track. Hey, don't mess with my hair, mate! When they are gone, we take a walk to the other end of the park, known as Kangaroo Crossing. Hard to guess who we come across there. A gang of kangaroos enjoying their afternoon siesta on 
the lawn. At least three generations altogether. Mr and Mrs K Roo's, with Joey nr 1, 2, 3, ... , 303, and Mr and Mrs Grand and Grandgrand K Roo's. You easily notice the difference between the young Duracell Joeys and Mr and Mrs Slowmotion KKKRoos. They are the only inhabitants of Currumbin that actually have some freedom of hopping around on a bit bigger ground, and the only ones that you can go close enough to shake hands with. 'Cause I doubt you'd wanna do it with the next fellows that live just a few steps further up in the Wetlands and are known to the 
locals as Salties. Their show is about to begin as the bucket we spotted earlier in the food preparation area has now been moved in front of the hungry crocs, flapping their jaws to express their disappointment in the long wait. One greedy gulp, 2, 3, 4, .. the jaws remain wide open, the little hogs can't get enough. And as we have to leave them to drive back to Surfers, we hope they won't eat the Croco Tamer. 
posted by kairike at 11:42 PM
1 Comments:
why not a picture hugging the crocodile as well? :)
9:13 AM
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