DAY 5 - 6: KOALAS, KANGAS, AND A NEW GRAND SLAM CHAMP

Saturday, Jan 25 Day 5

Melbourne

Our guide, Paul, picked up the Goodsisselbergs (the 6 of us) at our hotel and drove us to the You Yang Sanctuary, land of eucalyptus trees and the only animal conditioned to eat eucalyptus--poison to every other living being.  On the way to the sanctuary, after stopping briefly at a cricket match we were told might last three days...

Paul schooled us about the adorable marsupials (which are not bears at all), including the fact that koalas live a solitary life, only seeking other koala company during mating season. The male koala mates with as many females as he can, while the females only mate until they become pregnant. It was around this time the men in our group were thinking the life of a koala is not so terrible. The girls were on the fence--gestation period is only 35 days, after which time the babies crawl on out and suck on the mother's teat for the next six months. For about ten days, there's this icky thing called "papping" in which the babies eat something really nasty produced by the mother's waste system. So...it's a mixed bag! But dang, are those little marsupials CUTE! They didn't much mind our presence so we were able to get some pretty good pictures, especially when Paul put his binoculars right up to Larry's iphone and took the photo that is now the screen saver on my phone.

 Here's Steven, aka Ranger Rick, sniffing the scat (which our guide lovingly picked up and broke in half!) to prove that the eucalyptus does indeed go right through the animals!





We happened to see this little wallaby hopping along the road, and he was kind enough to pose for us so we could share him with you!








We also spotted some "jolly magpies" which was a confusing concept since Paul had already told us that animals did not feel emotion (in response to a probably rhetorical question about how the female koalas felt about the males mating with anything in heat). Somehow our guide talked us into picking weeds- apparently the tourists are cheaper labor than the locals! Here we are with the evidence of our hard labor.

Next, we visited the Serendip Sanctuary, where kangaroos run "in the wild" between rows of carefully planted trees that seem to serve as super highways for bouncing kangaroos. 

After our hectic day of chasing kangaroos, we were happy to sit down for a five-course dinner on the Colonial Tramcar, where we ate on a moving tramcar as it rode both forward and backward through the streets and neighborhoods of Melbourne. The highlight was a "selfie" photo the chef took with us when they finally let us off for a breath of fresh air. (It did not smell particularly good while they were steaming the broccoli, and we shared one of those "Did you do it?" moments until the distinct cruciferous odor broke through and we all giggled for a bit.)

The last night in Melbourne was happily spent at the men's finals of the Australian Open, where we clearly had more fun than Nadal.

Most people in the stadium on Sunday night were just hoping for a good tennis match, but I was looking for this guy... That's him giving us a pre-wink "I see what you're up to over there" after we tried taking a not-so-not-obvious selfie with cutie in the background on Friday night. (See him in the background there?)

Sadly, he was not on duty Sunday night, or perhaps he got fired for fraternizing with the silly patrons. Sigh... and even more unfortunately, I took a major bird crap to the back during the match, which got a good groan from most of our section. So much more than tennis! Anyway, Stan was a good man, and Nadal was courageous. It wasn't what anyone expected, but it was a good show.

Today, we're on to Kangaroo Island and we'll see you there! 

xoxo -The Sisselbergs (via Beth)