Poetry in motion...

I'm in Port Douglas, just a couple of hours (and a 20% increase in humidity) north of Cairns. This is where the rich and famous hang out - not that I've seen anyone rich or famous yet... maybe they look just like you and me???

Today I went koala and 'roo hunting, not literally hunting as I don't believe in that sort of thing and I didn't actually have to 'go' anywhere except the local wildlife sanctuary (The Rainforest Habitat) but I stroked and scratched a koala (and had my photo taken with him) then followed some kangaroos around their paddock.

Kangaroos are actually one of a group of animals called Macropods (literally 'big foot'). The group includes Kangaroos (Red, Eastern Grey, Western Grey and Tree Kangaroos - I kid you not, they climb trees), Wallabies (Black, White, Red-necked, Striped, Bushy-tailed, Nail-tail), Bettongs, Pademelons and Potoroos. Some are little bigger than a rabbit and others as tall as me with all variations in between. The one thing they have in common is how cute they are.

While I was sitting by their feeding station waiting for the Emus to stop hogging the food, something set the 'roos off and I was lucky enough to see them bounding from one side of the paddock to the other, through the trees and around the water (don't be mislead by the word paddock, they have plenty of room). Interestingly enough, most of the time they do this four legged thing whereby they lean on their forepaws and bring their hind legs up, dragging their tails behind them but when they hop, they are poetry in motion.

I also saw a shedload of birds and some crocodiles and had a couple of excellent (and free) guided tours. The whole thing was well worth the money.

Bad news for the day, though, is that I can't find the USB cable for my camera so I won't be uploading any photos for a while. Good news, though, is that I've got all those memory cards I bought for the Galapagos Islands - about 1,000 photos worth so let's hope New Zealand isn't too pretty!