Brisbane, Australia
I would have to say that my favorite part of visiting Australia would be my stop in Brisbane. I am a huge animal lover and from a young age I spent my time surrounded by them. When I was a kid I grew up with 30 rabbits, 7 chickens, 2 ducks, 2 turtles, 2 dogs, guinea pigs, a cat, a cockatiel, and sometimes I would catch a wild dove that I would spend time taming. I also spent time on my grandparents farm in Missouri in which we had cows, chickens, goats, and dogs. I enjoyed having numerous animals as pets but I also was fascinated with wild ones too. I could get lost in a zoo a million times and still not tire of it. I have never experienced a hands-on zoo before like they had in Brisbane though. I was so excited to visit the Koala sanctuary in Brisbane and if you get a chance I recommend it to everyone. At the sanctuary, they have a huge enclosed area a little smaller than a football field full of kangaroos and wallabies. They give you a bag of food and let you loose to walk around and feed them. The wallabies were more on the shy side and would hop away when you approached them but I was surprised at how docile and friendly the kangaroos were. While at the sanctuary I also got to hold a koala and pet a dingo. It was my coolest zoo experience to date and if I ever return I am sure to visit again. I know that an animal sanctuary does not make a city and it is not all that Brisbane has to offer but it had such a affect on me that this is what stands out in my experience of traveling there. I wish they had more places like these for I would be sure to be first in line to visit.
Holding a Koala
Interesting eyes
I was still nervous here…
…but I came around
…and thought it was the coolest thing ever!
Shy wallabies
You can find more photos from this trip at www.ariagiovanni.com
October 29th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
your lucky there were no alpacas, those things are very um greedy for the threats they are all up in your grill and will eat the feed right out of your hands if you not carefull, no wombats, i wanted a pet wombat, but they arent allowed to be deported, i want a silver fox, but its hard finding one that is domestically raised, and not trapped or worse a fur farm reject, koala’s are lucky they just get high eating euclptis leaves all days while cilling in the trees, not a bad life, did you know asrulia is home to the biggest cockaroaches and earthworms, and where were the aligators
October 29th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I love your pictures..
November 6th, 2008 at 9:40 am
There is a place in northern Wisconsin that is a very hands on zoo experience. You start out the door and are surrounded by goats pigs and huge turtles, all in the wide open. In the middle of it there is the petting section for smaller animals that they cannot let run wild. Petting and holding porcupines, raccoons, skunks, wallabys, etc… is really cool. Plus the larger part of the park has many deer wandering the property. Being set in the woods, it truly is a unique experience. http://www.wildwoodwildlifepark.com/
I wanted to tell you that I really enjoy this blog. I am dissappointed you are not more vocal. You seem really passionate about your travels, and I would think you would like to talk about it more.