The Camel Farm at Yulara

When you visit Uluru there are all sorts of tours you can do, one of them is by camel.  It was way too expensive for us to be able to do as a family, but we dropped into the camel farm to have a look at the camels the morning we left for Alice Springs.  I’ve heard there are feral camels in some places of Australia, we may have seen some on our way to Longreach as there was a huge group of them near the highway.  We were thankful for the fence that kept them off the road!  Pity it doesn’t do the same for the roos. 

Um, no, this one is not a real camel.  It’s just outside the door to the shop.

Also inside is a small museum about camels and their history in Australia.  

Nope, those camel humps are not full of water as old cartoons would have you believe.  It’s all fat!  All their fat is stored in the hump rather than all over the their bodies.  Can you imagine if we had humps?  Oh wait…beer bellies.  I guess we do.  ;)

Camels chew their cud, which is endlessly fascinating to kids.  Some kids, anyway.  Okay, just my kids.  Well, some of my kids.  You mean they throw up in their mouths?????

This is the one that fascinated me.  Their eyes are arrhythmic so they can see both night and day.  Also, their eyelids are translucent enough that they can close their eyes during a sandstorm and still see enough to be able to move through the storm!!

One more…their nostrils can almost completely close so that they don’t breathe in sand during a sandstorm.  Their noses also moisten the air as they breathe in.  Useful in a desert, no?

These camels were waiting for the arrival of a tour group which was starting as we were leaving.  I do not envy those tourist being out there in midday.

The farm features a fully working saddlery, but we weren’t lucky enough to see anyone at work that day.  We did wander around and look at the names of the camels.  I’ve never thought about it before, but it makes sense that each camel would need a saddle made just for them.

Um, pardon, but I think you might have something on your nose.  Or just under it, anyway.

Here, darling, this is my better side.

Hello.  Are you going to feed me?

Ah, kids.  They will feed me.  Wait, that tastes just like the stuff I was already eating.  Did you just pull that out of the trough and think you can fool me?

No, no wait.  This is my better side.

Okay, now you’re just showing off.

Most of the camels ignored us but there were a few that were happy to have a pat on the nose.

No, I’m not laughing at you.  Just showing you my teeth.  Really.

We had a wander through the back and saw the water buffalo.

There was also a lonely looking emu.  ‘Meemu’ as TurboBug (2) calls them.

But really, camels.  They’re gorgeous.

See that grin?  Yep, I’m gorgeous.

One last feed!  For TurboBug it’s less feeding and more come as close as you dare and then just throw it at the camel.

You can opt for a quick camel ride around the yard and it doesn’t cost all that much, but it would be a very short ride.  Since we’d gotten up close to the other camels we felt like we’d done enough, especially since we are planning to ride the camels at Cable Beach.  Because that’s what you do when you visit Cable Beach!  We are looking forward to it.

Billabong Sanctuary, Day Two

DAY TWO!  Day one is here, here, and here.  This is the last one, I promise!

So….we liked our day at the Billabong Sanctuary so much that we opted to come back the next day.  You can get your ticket stamped before you leave to visit the next day for free.  We came back the next afternoon to see some of our favourite things.  We headed back over to see the cassowary and got a good look at these black cockatoos.  The colours on their tail feathers are gorgeous!

We watched this young water hen being fed.  There were several chicks, as we watched we realised that several of the adult birds were feeding them.

There’s that pretty cassowary!

We enjoyed the cute turtles basking in the sun.  Until we came here I didn’t realise that ‘basking’ was the actual term for what reptiles do to warm themselves.  I thought it was just a saying: They are basking in the sun.  But you can use the term by itself: Look at the turtle basking!  Who knew?  (Okay, everyone but me!)

I watched a ranger and their volunteers administering medication to the echidnas.  They had sore feet for some reason (they hadn’t yet worked out why) and needed cream applied to the bottom of their feet twice a day.  The first one was easy enough and after he (she?) was done he happily enjoyed some food, sticking his snout into the container.

The second echidna was not so willing.  He was affixed to the ground with superglue, apparently.  I had no idea they could burrow themselves in so well.  The ranger dug and dug around him, but it took quite some time before she could wiggle him free.  He just dug those feet in with his spikes pointing out and there was nothing for her to grab onto.  When he finally did come out he rolled up into a ball and they had quite the task getting to those little feet that were in there somewhere.

We went to the bird show again, so we got turns holding the lorikeet again.

This time I remembered to take pictures of the tawny frogmouth.  He was hiding in the tree behind the audience.  They pulled him out during the show and afterward he backed himself right up against the tree again.  He blends in so well.

And we got to see another turtle race!  TurboBug’s trauma with the turtle the day before was forgotten.  He was a little hesitant with the turtles at first but by the end he was fine.

Back to the dingo show, where this time I learned that dingos aren’t considered native to Australia.  What?!?  They are a cultural icon!  Apparently they were brought here at least 4,000 years ago (or more).  We’re wondering how long a creature has to live here to be considered native!  They brought out the male with the familiar dingo colouring for pictures.

We wanted to see Psycho in action again so we waited near his enclosure before the crowd arrived.  At first he was basking but as the time drew near we saw him disappear into the water.  It was very creepy!  He was so silent, we could make out that he had positioned himself near where the ranger would feed him but then he disappeared.  The water was not deep at all, it doesn’t take much to conceal a croc.  They can hide in the water for an hour without surfacing, tricking their prey into thinking it must be safe to approach the water.

This time I got a video of that awesome snapping sound.  So. much. force.

 

Some kangaroos were hanging out near the croc enclosure, they happily ate from our hands.  TurboBug loved feeding the kangaroos.  The only downside was that about a week later we saw some wild kangaroos that came right up to us and TurboBug didn’t understand why he couldn’t give them a pat!

We went to the afternoon wombat talk and the kids got to give Tonka another pat.

TurboBug was delighted when he moved his foot after he’d touched him. 

One last time.  That croc couldn’t stay away from my kids.  Or vice versa.

Billabong Sanctuary, part 3

Here’s part one and part two.  I wish I could remember the details about this (stuffed? preserved?) croc.  (Bad tourist!  Always take a picture of the sign!)  This was a real crocodile that had lived at the Billabong Sanctuary (I think) and he’s huge.  We were careful not to touch him (as requested on the sign I forgot to take a picture of).  I was surprised he was out where he could potentially be mishandled but he’s been around awhile so they must not have too many problems.

Look!  Pademelons!  We hadn’t seen any since leaving Tasmania.  They seem so small now compared to the wallabies and kangaroos we’re used to seeing.

I’m not sure if we were supposed to feed them, but there were no signs saying not to and they were very keen to be fed!  TurboBug absolutely loved them, they were just his size!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen pink cockatoos before.  Aren’t they gorgeous?  I think there were three, one was flying back and forth between perches.

There was even a free flight bird show, we learned about kites (I seriously did not know there were birds called kites), owls, curlews, and more.

At the end we were all able to hold a rainbow lorikeet.  He especially loved JitterBug.  The ranger would move him from person to person (the bird, not JitterBug!).

Then the kids went and got eaten by a crocodile again.

We got to feed the turtles again in the afternoon session.  It was in a different spot this time and the turtles could more easily climb ashore for some tasty fish.  There were a couple of eels as well, which they advised us not to feed to keep our fingers intact.  As I mentioned in a previous post, turtles don’t have teeth so even if they do get a finger they can’t do too much damage.  Thank goodness I knew that or I would have panicked that afternoon.  It’s hard to see but this picture below records the exact moment a turtle latched onto TurboBug’s thumb instead of the fish skin he was holding out.  In the moment I wasn’t quite sure what to do, I didn’t want to bash the poor turtle in the face to get him to let go, though that was my first instinct.  I squashed that instinct because of the no teeth thing, I knew no one was going to lose a thumb to this creature.  TurboBug was screaming and got quite the fright before the turtle let go. 

After some cuddling he recovered and was happy to join in on the turtle race with the others.  (Wait.  Did you say turtle race?  Yes.  Yes I did.) The turtles could move surprisingly fast and knew just what to do.  With so many turtles in the lake I wonder how many times each turtle has raced?  (I didn’t realise until later that all four of my kids are in this picture, though at varying degrees of visibility!)

Then it was time for the dingo show.  The sanctuary has two females (both white) and one male.  I hadn’t realised dingos from different areas of the country can have different coloured coats.  They are all the same species, just variations on colour.  The white dingos are alpine and found in mountainous regions.  They brought the girls out for a meet and greet, it was lovely to be able to give them a pat. 

See the other colours on the sign?  The rust coloured one on the left is the most common and is found in the outback.  The black dingo is much more rare and lives in forest areas. 

Next was the croc feeding.  How exciting was this!  They took us around to a few of the enclosures and we got to see them feed several estuarine crocodiles.  They were able to get some to really launch themselves out of the water.  Crocs are amazingly fast and powerful.  And scary.  The ranger was talking the whole time, they gave us lots of information about crocodiles, including that saltwater crocs are not only found in saltwater!  They prefer the term ‘estuarine’ since that better describes their habitat.  Look how big they are!  See his tail sticking up out of the water?

It took several tries for some of them, but we got to see some jumping crocs!

These are freshwater crocs.  They are much smaller.  I wish I’d asked why it was they could all be kept together in the same enclosure- are the males not territorial?  All the estuarine crocs were either by themselves or with their mating partner. 

We enjoyed the croc feedings so much that we went to both sessions that day.  This croc is called Psycho.  Unlike the other enclosures where the rangers went right in, this one had a special fenced area for the ranger to stand in while feeding the croc.  Even the viewing fence was higher at this enclosure.  Psycho is young and very powerful and they don’t trust him to keep his distance. 

We learned that if there is any chance crocs could be in the water, don’t risk it.  You won’t be able to see them, they will hide very still until their prey comes close enough to the water for them to grab.  Look. at. those. teeth.  They told us their jaws slam shut with a force of over 3500 lbs psi.  Wow.

I had to grab a picture of this sign listing aboriginal names for the animals.  There are so many different aboriginal language groups that the names vary greatly.

Just when you think we’re done…we went back to the Billabong Sanctuary the next day for more!  One more post to come.