Day 6 and 7 - Billabong sanctuary and about town

On Monday June 25th we went to Billabong Sanctuary with the boys parents.

Billabong sanctuary is pretty much what you'd expect from an Australian sanctuary - free roaming roos, koalas (which I discovered are smaller and fluffier up North), birds, snakes etc.

Two things made it different than a Victorian Sanctuary - cassowaries, which are like a small emu with head gear, and crocs, both freshies and the big estuarine beggers. As the weather had been cool and wet the crocs were not eating (they shut down in cold weather), but the show was still informative.

Under the fruit bat trees we saw dingos and cassowaries being fed (not one to the other), and I held a koala, juvenile croc and a carpet python (not together). The Americans were funny with the reptiles, one woman in particular kept jumping back during the demonstration every time the snake looked at her, and when it was her turn to hold it was keeping her arms out as far as she could while saying 'quickly- take- the- picture- quicky- quicky- quicky' through gritted teeth, and had also announced earlier that the croc felt slimy. I don't understand people like that who insist on holding reptiles and turn it into a big drama. Meanwhile the snake was more interested in my camera.

That night Chris' parents came round for dinner then we headed over to Ron's for a night out with the boys. We started off playing cards, then went to one of the other guys places for some fire twirling, which was a bit different. We then headed over to another place for late night munchies before heading off.

The next day was spent just hanging around town, and also planning the rest of the holiday. We went to the open air mall in the morning. We had a nice lunch then went looking for thongs, which I wanted for the beach. As it turned out the place I got the thongs from had a buy 2 pairs get a third free deal so I had to buy some other shoes as well, then one pair turned out to be too big (hard to tell with the security tag) so I exchanged them for two pairs which were on special and only came to $5 more then the pair I was exchanging... I had to get them... they made me.

After the mall we went home to plan for the following day, then went to sizzler for dinner, which was much yum yums. I bought a main to go with the buffet incase their wouldn't be enough I could have, but as it turned out I needent have bothered, the buffethad an excellent range and was very fresh. We then met up with Jen and Craig, who had just returned from the mines, for coffee at Cbar on the strand, then Chris and I went for a late night walk along the beach. I loved the novelty of being able to go for a pleasent walk at night in the middle of winter, people who go for late night walks in Melbourne at this time of year certainly don't do it because its relaxing.