Aboard Voyager, Off To See Oz

Aboard ship now and off to see other Aussie sights.  First, the ship called at Brisbane (pronounced "brizben").  Here, we visited the Lone Pine Sanctuary.  Not a zoo, but an animal preserve where most of the critters are running free.  First we were treated to a sheep dog show, where Sophie the Border Collie showed us all how it was done.  It was a warm day, so Sophie was a dog in a log until dude came along and let her go play with the sheep.

She rounded them all up and posed for pictures standing on the sheep's backs.  The sheep, apparently, are quite accustomed to this and were happy to cooperate.

One of the participants, however, got selected to participate in the next part of the show:

This guy sheared the sheep in just a few minutes time and he wasn't hurrying.  The wool is then sorted and packaged in huge bundles for shipment to market.  Again, the sheep seemed to care less.

Also at the sanctuary were kangaroos, tasmanian devils, wombats, dingoes, fox bats (huge!), kukkaburra birds (noisy!), platapus, emus, and lots of koalas.  The kangaroos and emus are really tame and can be approached very closely, but the koalas are kept in enclosures.  No problem, you can't wake them up anyway.

The next day, the ship visited theWhitsunday Islands.  Not much to see onshore, so we spent the day aboard enjoying the view and doing laundry.