Sydney, and a bit of the east coast

My work has brought us to Australia, or Perth to be exact. And rumour has it that people from the east coast don't consider Perth to be a part of Australia. As part of the introduction process to my new role I got to visit the east coast offices, and check if this theory has any truth behind it.

My first stop was the Gold Coast.  Golden sand beaches, palm trees, sunshine, and surfing. So far this sounds just like the coastline around Perth.

My next stop was Newcastle.  You would be forgiven for thinking that the saying, 'it's like taking coal to Newcastle' came from Australia. Newcastle, the Australian one, is home to the world's largest coal export terminal.  Western Australia has similar bragging rights when it comes to iron ore.

My final stop was Sydney.  With the iconic opera house and Sydney harbour bridge, you would be hard pressed to find anything quite like it anywhere in the world, let alone in Australia.

Sydney is one of those 'must see' places, and so I was glad to have some time at the end of a hectic week of travelling, meetings and work to be able to be a tourist in this city.  Unfortunately Bron wasn't able to join me this time, but this is definitely a place we will be back to visit together :)

Down at the beach in Newcastle:

Early morning sunrise at my accommodation just outside Newcastle:

Sydney harbour bridge and the opera house

Sydney city centre

THE opera house

And THAT bridge

I also had some time to visit Manly Wharf

One of Sydney's favourite surf spots

And there is some great national park land right next door

The view back towards the city from North Head

And the waves crashing below

Another view from North Head

Back in the city, at the botanic gardens

Darling harbour

So, Sydney has some great sights that has put it on the world map as a place to visit.  But there are also some great attractions right here in Perth.  More blog posts to follow...

Getting our Tourist on at Caversham

Want to see and touch kangaroos, koalas, and a wombat? Head down to Caversham!

Caversham Wildlife Park is Located within the Whiteman National Park about 40 min from Perth and is home to a wide variety of native Australian animals, birds and reptiles. We arrived in the morning and spent most of a Saturday exploring the park. The park is well laid out and easy to explore with lots of shade and picnic spots throughout. The staff are also very friendly and happy to chat and answer questions.

Sleeping flying fox

Their wings are amazing, gossamer thin yet so strong and flexible, 

Squirrel glider, one of Bron's favourites from the day! 

We were hoping this little guy was going to jump out of his box and show us how he 'flies' but he didn't. Instead he went back inside and lay fidgeting on top of his sleeping buddy. He is really tiny with the biggest fluffiest tail! Too gorgeous! 

Tasmanian Devil, the largest of the carnivorous marsupials.

We were really lucky to see this guy, the cage looked empty all day and we decided to take a last look on our way out of the park and were happy to see him having a quick stretch in the sun before curling up in his log.

A burrowing Echidna 

Lizard

Our top 3 highlights and must see attractions at Caversham are the koalas, the kangaroos and Meet a Wombat and Friends.

The koalas rest on shoulder height supports resembling trees in a large open enclosure where they are fed fresh eucalyptus leaves every day. Apparently each bear has its favourite spot and can be found in the same resting place each day. One is allowed to enter the koala enclosure under supervision of a park guide and get up close to the snoozing bears. One is also allowed to gently stroke a bear on the back with the back of your hand. The bears on touching duty rotate hourly and are given a day a week off.

It was really special to be so close to koala bears. They seemed very relaxed and not at all troubled by the presence of humans. Koalas sleep for 18 to 20 hours a day since their only food source is protein poor eucalyptus leaves, the park guide likened this to living solely on lettuce and celery. So most of the bears are pretty sleepy but you can catch them yawning and stretching if you stay to watch for a while. We loved the positions they fall asleep in, every which way and looks like they might fall out of the tree! There were some baby koalas who are still a bit unstable in the trees in the closed enclosure next door. They were so sweet. We also saw an adult bear run back into a tree, they can move much quicker than one would expect from a sleepy bear.

Sleepy Koala bears! 

We love their feet and pads. 

We love how the positions they fall asleep in and are amazed that they don't fall out of trees!

The kangaroos and wallabies are in a large open enclosure that stretches across the park. One can walk freely through the enclosure, gently stroke the kangaroos on the back and also hand feed them food pellets. We walked through the enclosure during the heat of the day so most of the Roos were resting. We enjoyed gently stroking some and feeding them food pellets. They take food so gently and their muzzles are so soft. There were also lots of baby joeys, mostly in their Mommy’s pouches. I must say it was quite odd at first to see extra legs and snouts sticking out of a pouch! It was really cool to see Roos and Wallabies up close, they were really gentle and chilled. Life as a Roo at Caversham is splendid, food comes to you and you can poop where you lie!

Roos! 

Meet a Wombat and Friends is an opportunity to see a Southern hairy-nosed wombat, a golden brush tail possum, a brown spotted quoll, a kind of mini kangaroo, a bobtail, a blue tongue lizard, owls, cockatoos, and various parrots up close. A park guide is stationed near each animal ready to explain about the animals and answer questions. This was a fun interactive activity and a nice way to see some of the animals one wouldn’t easily see in the wild up close and awake.

A bobtail lizard.

They can be more orange and with touches of green.

The defining feature of a bobtail, their stumpy tails! 

Blue-tongue lizard

Golden brush tailed possum

Brown spotted quoll

Bubs the wombat weighs a whopping 30 kg! 

Inbetween meeting wombats, koalas and kangaroos, we enjoyed animal and bird spotting while exploring the rest of the park. Bron’s favourite animal of the day was the squirrel glider and Justin’s was the koalas. We also enjoyed seeing some of the birds we hadn’t seen it yet and ones that are harder to see in the wild such as kookaburras, cassowary, owls, and an eagle. Our only disappointment was that they don’t have any platypus.

Tawny Frog Mouth 

A bird of prey, not an owl but part of the nightjar family 

Sooty owl 

Barking owl

We heard one in the park calling and it was indeed quite an odd barking sound

Laughing kookaburra 

Female black cockatoo 

Beautiful rainbow lorikeet that we see all over Perth

Other beautiful parrots seen in the park

We had a super fun day out being tourists at Caversham.  It is definitely worth a visit and we highly recommend it to any visitor to Perth. We will certainly be taking all our guests there. We plan to return to explore Whiteman Park at some point as well.

Creatures we saw include:

Koalas

Kangaroos

Wallabies

Golden brush tail possum

Brown spotted quoll

Quokka

Southern hairy-nosed wombat

Dingoes  

Tasmanian Devils

Echidna

Flying foxes

Squirrel  gliders (think of Scrat’s girlfriend in Ice Age 3)

Owls

Kookaburras

Various parrots

Wedge-tailed eagle

Emus 

Bush thick-knee (looks bit like a dikkop)

Southern Cassowary

Bob tails (kind of lizard)

Blue tongued lizards

Various snakes