Billabong Sanctuary

I started my volunteering experience with Billabong this week, and I absolutely love it. Don't get me wrong, it was a long day with quite a bit of work, but it was definitely worth it. I learned how to pick up and hold koalas, saw some baby koala joeys up close and personal, held snakes and lizards during a ranger show, and maned the cash register and camera for the animal photos. We also swept cages, raked leaves, cleaned the kitchen, and prepared food for the wombats. The Sanctuary is a really cool place to begin with- a lot of the animals are free ranging, and have plenty of space and wonderful people to care for them. My car ride home was really interesting- I was car pooling with one of the rangers, and she regularly takes home one the wallaby, Arnie. In addition, we had a baby wombat in the car too; Tonka mom was sadly hit by a car down in south Australia, but the baby survived and was sent up here to Townsville to be cared for. He's super cute and really small. So many animals to cuddle! I'm going back again, in 2 weeks, for another round of volunteering. Hopefully, I'll be smart enough to being my camera with me, and catch a few pictures of some of the animals!

Tonight we went to the local market held the first Friday of every month, and on every Sunday. Packed with vendors and their handmade goods, I ended up buying quite a few things. Some of my purchases are really unique and cool- some are just pretty. I had to resist strong temptation to empty my whole wallet tonight... but I did get suckered into buying a bunch of sunflowers at the end of the night.
The flower vendor was just starting to get rid of them at that point, and they were too pretty to not buy for half price :) After a quick walk on the beach, in the war ocean water, we caught a bus back to campus. Another beautiful day.