Wildlife and Fun Facts

This morning we headed out west to the Blue Mountains and the Waradah Cultural Center. Our first picture is of the Three Sisters rock formation that sticks up from the valley floor. Pretty rock. Pretty rock.

Then we spent some time in the cultural center itself to see a 30 minute presentation by some indigenous aboriginal people explaining part of their various traditions and demonstrating some of their traditional dances. Stopped for lunch in the little town of Luera where we had fabuous meat pies for lunch. And then on to the Featherdale Wildlife Park to see a vast array of Australian animals. Of course the biggest hits are always the koalas. Here’s the requisite photo of us beside one:

But here’s another much better picture of a koala on his own without our ugly mugs messing up his close up.

And we were also lucky enough to catch not only a glimpse of but an image of a wee joey:

BTW, kangaroo fun facts….did you know?

-        That females can store fertilized embryos for later use?

-        That they can also choose the sex of their offspring?

-        That they can alter the composition of their milk based on the age and needs of their joeys even when they have two totally different aged offspring nursing at the same time?

-        They can’t effectively move backwards – only forwards and then sideways if needed.

And while we are this little educational sidebar….I forgot to mention from the Great Barrier Reef part of the trip….did you know that all little Nemo clownfish are born male? And that if they lose the one female in their ‘family’ the next dominant male becomes a female? Guess they left that out of the Disney film.

Tonight we have our going away dinner here in Sydney as tomorrow we head off to New Zealand where we will be two time zones back closer to the U.S. but with two hours MORE between us time wise. (I'm so confused!)