It's 5:15 am and yes I'm up-and showered and dressed and drinking tea

Those of you who know me, know I am not a morning person.  But this is an instance where what little jet lag we have does us good as we get up at 4 or 4:30 and get on our way for birding.  The sun rises about 4:30, but sets early, and we need to get on the road.

We are currently in Warwick, Queensland, where the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and there are roses blooming directly in front of our room.  I'm sitting outside with my cup of tea.  It's hard to get better than this!

It's going to be hard to catchup without the world's longest blog entry.  This may need to be bits and pieces.

Monday, December 9

We landed about 8 am, took forever to get through immigration and customs.  A lady in front of us had a chicken sandwich in bag,  off she went.  This could have been us as we later discovered that Steve had accidentally smuggled a LOOK bar into Australia for me.  I enjoyed it for dessert two nights later.

As on prior trips to Australia, we were pretty perky, but a shower at the airport helped even more, and soon we were on our way.

Except Google Maps failed us again and we spent a lot of not so quality time in downtown Brisbane, which has a plethora of one-way streets and a singular lack of parking spaces (so one can stop and ask directions or buy a map).  At last I found the correct motorway and exit, and fairly soon we made it to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

The minute we stepped out of the car, Steve spotted a Pacific Baza and filming commenced.  I admit, it is a pretty cool looking bird.  I left him there and headed in to the park.  I had a koala to cuddle.

The koala cuddling is highly regulated, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity.  He was placed in my arms, trailing a strong scent of eucalyptus.  Surprisingly heavy, and a little wiggly as he tore through his leaves and wanted some more.  I think I got to hold him a little longer because it took them awhile to get him to stay still for the photo opp.  I enjoyed every minute.

There are lots of koala "nurseries" and some of the koalas were very active, running about and leaping from limb to limb.  Certainly there were some sleeping as you would expect, but many were more active than I thought they would be.

More later!  Have to go birding now.