Day 1 - Getting to Know the Locals

First off we ventured out to explore some of the beaches north of Cairns. Visitors have plenty of options as every couple of kilometers off the main road there is another beautiful beach. Palm Cove stood out as the most memorable with palm trees lining the scenic beach. Heading farther north the most exciting stop of the day was The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary outside of Port Douglas. The sanctuary was similar to a zoo, but much more interactive. Best way to describe our experience here is through photos:

The Wallabies were happy to take food out of your hand. The little guys seem as if they could be pets, they show some personality and like human interaction (at least when you have food for them!). And when not looking for food, they would lounge around in the shade. Doesn’t sound too much different than a cat or dog.

There were some huge crocodiles.  We didn’t get interactive with them.

The emu were somewhat persistent and weren’t afraid to come up to you looking for food. We opted not to feed this one, and that was a good decision. We found the emu later on stalking a kid with a bag of food.

Me and a new friend, the Rainbow Lorikeet. This bird was pretty smart. His first target was Dana and he would fly up in the air and see if Dana would offer up a landing spot. After a couple of failed attempts as Dana ducked and dived to avoid him, he refocused his eyes on my shoulder. As this was unexpected, that brought out all sorts of emotions out of me. Surprise, apprehension, excitement to name a few. Dana clicked away and chronicled the event well, so I’ll post a link to those pictures as well as you might get a laugh out of them.

This kangaroo was throwing away syringes when we walked up. Is this the Barry Bonds of kangaroos? His chest and arm muscles were pretty intimidating compared to the other ‘roos.

Sneaky Emu took a treat when the zookeeper wasn’t looking. At least those two pelicans waited until they got fed.

Koala

For additional photos of the animals: https://picasaweb.google.com/114612877246919085926/RainforestWildlifeHabitat#

For additional photos of my close encounter with the Rainbow Lorikeet:  https://picasaweb.google.com/114612877246919085926/RainbowLorikeet#

I am leaving out one other memorable animal from of our visit to the Sanctuary. This animal is native to Australia and is worthy of its own post. Will follow up with that one next.