Day 11 – Brisbane

Today we took a river cruise to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  The cruise was quite leisurely.  On the way up the river to the Sanctuary, there was recorded commentary about the buildings and bridges we were seeing.  Some of the houses were quite amazing.  He told us about the Brisbane River flooding.  It’s flooded a few times, but the last time was in 2022 and he said it was devastating.  Most of the homes along the river had boat docks, but there weren’t many boats.  He said that’s because the boats were destroyed or sunk during the flood and the owners have not replaced them.

There was a couple on the cruise celebrating their 66^th wedding anniversary!  And, they said they are coming back in 2 years because the woman turns 100.  Amazing!

Besides koalas (which are so adorable), there were lots of other animals and they gave talks throughout the day on different topics.  I did learn on the koala talk that although wild koalas can get chlamydia, it is not the same as the human disease and is not transferable to humans.  Good to know. 😂 And, she said none of the koalas in the sanctuary have it.

Here’s some pictures.

And here's one from the raptor talk. (I have a photo of a peregrine falcon doing the splits, because he refused to move his foot off the food as his trainer tugged it towards her, but for some reason I can't get it to load. 😠)

And from the sheep dog demonstration.

And here are some more pictures of various signs/animals at the Sanctuary.

Such a child!  😂

There was also a platypus, but I could not for the life of me get a good picture.  😕

On the way back down the river, four of the most self-absorbed, entitled, American brats were sitting right behind us.  Good grief they were annoying.  (Imagine these words in a nasally, stuck-up voice.)  “What do you think of that house?  I couldn’t live there.  A pool is an absolute must-have.  And a huge walk-in closet.  But those are standard today.”  Then they spent quite a while running down other “friends” while trying to decide who was good enough to go on vacation with them.  There’s so much more, but I’ll leave it there.  Made the 90 minute cruise feel like 900 minutes.

At least they shut up for a minute when the captain came on, talking about the big casino (seen below.)  I forget how much he said it cost to build, but they were shut down a couple years ago for money laundering.  😄  They are back open now, but with a no-cash transactions.  

Walking back to our hotel from the dock, we saw this cool Brisbane sign.

Great day!  Now it’s time to figure out our dinner plans.

(Posted Feb 7, 6:08 PM)