Koala Rescue

Tuesday 4^th Nov

We head towards Brisbane and across the toll bridge arriving early in Ros neighbourhood in time to pick up something sweet for coffee.

We arrive at Ros’s just in time and have a nice visit with her reminiscing about our travels and telling her her travel advice was excellent.  What a great visit. Ros served Lamingtons or Lammikins which are white catke dipped in chocolate icing and then rolled in coconut.  She told us that when she was a child a neighbour would make them for the races.  She would call in all the children to help dip and roll the Lammikins.  I can imagine them licking their fingers between the rolling!

Ros’s time is spent as a volunteer at a local hospital and she also helps to look after her grandson.  Her son Greg and grandson arrives during our visit.  We have a nice chat with him about our trip and he reminisces about his trip to Canada.  By lunch time we need to head out on the road so we say our good-byes, exchange email addresses and head south.

I bought tickets on the Melbourne Cup. Choosing the family lucky number 13 unfortunately did not result in any winnings. Lots of fun at the local TAB, the betting shop, leading up to the national race. They even provided helpers for first time betters to make the betting easier.

Today’s destination is Byron Bay.  We are not far from our end point and we arrive in the early afternoon.  Our first stop is at the local campground where we find they want $250.00 for a small cabin.  This is way outside our budget of $100.00 a night so we carry on through the town to see what is available.  Not far outside of the core, we find the Byron Sunseeker Motel and after a great conversation with the owners (Kiwi’s) they offer us our accommodation for two nights at $125 a night.

A walk to town resulted in a great sight. The police were re-routing us from the sidewalk as they were trapping something up ahead.  There was a very large crowd outside Woolworths watching.  I was sure it was a large python, but no, they were rescuing a baby koala from the tree.  They were afraid it would be run over or chased by a dog as it was well outside its territory. What an ordeal, the animal rescue team put on a great performance and I even managed to video the whole thing.  The baby koala was a year old and so cute!

The local koala rescue is on hand and he climbs the tree using ropes and finally with a long pole and a dark garbage bag, scares the koala towards the main tree trunk and down to the ground.  His assistants quickly catch the little fellow and he will be safely relocated to a more hospitable location.

Dinner at the local RSL – Roast lamb for Alan and Tasmanian Salmon for me.