Today we visited the lone pine Koala sanctuary. Whilst normal people probably would have taken the ferry or a bus, we decided to bike the 22km there. We had been told the rote was almost entirely along the river and flat so it sounded simple enough...

I don't know whether we had been incorrectly informed or whether it was Stephen's bad map reading but we found ourselves away from the river and cycling through a suburb called Indooroopily! To say it was hilly would be an understatement and it was hot!

We got to the sanctuary in about 2.5 hours, soaked to the skin and absolutely shattered. We decided that that would be all the cycling for the day and that we would catch the ferry back and then drop the bikes off.

We entered the sanctuary and walked into the Kangaroo enclosure first of all. There were loads of them chilling out in the sun and we were surprised how tame they were. You could walk among them, feed and touch them. A few posed for photos!

Next it was the Koala kindergarten which housed bears between the ages of 1-2 as this is when they are weaned off their mums. They were very cute!

Then came the adults, closely followed by the koala retirement home! The old timers were generally sleeping, curled up into furry balls and wedged between tree branches, very funny.

We both paid to hold a koala and that was amazing. His name was Melvin! He was heavier than I thought he would be, kept sniffing my chin and grabbed onto my arms. Really glad I did that.

Then we decided to hold a Python. I wasn't sure about it at first as he was big but money had been exchanged and Stephen pushed me forward. I was surprised how heavy he was when he went around my neck and you could feel the power, all muscle. He had a lovely face and was cool and smooth to touch, not slimy at all. When I felt his lower half creeping around my leg and tightening as his face started to make it's way around my waist I thought it was probably time for Stephen to have a go. Great experience though and I would recommend anyone scared of snakes to give it a try.

Once we finished up at the sanctuary we enquired about the ferry but were told that it only sails once a day and that we had just missed it. Also, the woman on the desk told us that there was no other means of transport available to us as we had bikes!

We had no choice but to bike it back, another 2.5 hours of hills and heat. Needless to say we are both exhausted now and are chilling out on our balcony with a bottle of wine after a home cooked meal.

Picking up our car tomorrow morning and leaving Brisbane for A night at Byron Bay. We haven't booked accommodation so hopefully we can find something suitable....