The Blue Mountains

It is day 4 of the trip and we have a planned tour to be on. It will be the last day before we get on the ship to begin the cruise. First off we boarded a small bus (holds 10 plus the driver) and headed for Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary located in the Blue Mountains of Australia. The sanctuary was set up to help with injured or abandoned birds, reptiles, and mammals. The kangaroos and wallabies wander free throughout the park. We had a blast feeding them. They beg just like dogs! Did you know a group of kangaroos is called a "mob?" Here's another fact...Did you know that all native AU animals are marsupials? I am just a plethora of tiny facts!

We saw the famous Tasmanian Devil (mean little suckers), dingoes, emu, penguins, falcons, crocodiles, snakes, sheep, goats, and walliroo. In the USA we would never have a place like this as we have way to many controls and restrictions. An OSHA nightmare. But it was a wonderful experience!

I got a picture of us feeding and petting this little guy in his tree. No fences, just walk up and say hi. They were not hiding as they do in the zoo. It was so cool.

From here we boarded back on the bus and headed for the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately because of the high fire threat (Tasmania had horrid fires), we could not go down into the mountain valley as indicated on the tour.

Eucalyptus trees grow everywhere! They're are called "gum trees" there and they are not native. They were imported there years ago and grow like weeds. There are about 800 species of gum trees growing there. They are used for railway ties and for medicinal purposes. Boy could you smell them too.

We got to see a didgeridoo (spelled several ways) that is traditionally played by the Aboriginal people. One of our group tried to play it with minimal success. We also learned about the 3 traditional stone/chalk colors that are used in artwork. They are yellow, white, and orange. They use a lot of concentric circles and dots to tell about various cycles in life. We saw many boomerang decorated that way but failed to find one we wanted to bring home. We did find a nice framed piece of art that has India ink painted on bone depicting Australian life in the bush. Very unusual, but affordable.

Here's another tidbit... 97% of all opals come from Australia. Black opals are the best quality an most expensive. Doublets and Triplets are also available, but of much less value. Don't consider buying an opal from anywhere that isn't extremely reputable and specializes in opals. It is easy to be sold an inferior stone at a huge cost because we can't judge what we are buying.