THINGS TO DO IN AUSTRALIA

While in Australia, you will want to do some things unique to the area.  Perhaps top of the list is a Kangaroo pocket ride.  If you are much over 5 ft 5 in. you will have to do some hunkering down to fully get into the pocket though some Kangaroos are quite large, and, of course, you will want to see out as it is thrilling.  The rides are only for a few minutes (you won't want longer because Kangaroos hop, remember and you get a little shaken up).  I haven't been to Australia for maybe 25 yrs, but when I was last there, the Kangaroo rides were not expensive, around $10 as I recall.

Another marsupial is the Wombat.  To get a pocket ride in a Wombat is more difficult because they are much smaller than Kangaroos.  To do this you almost certainly  have to go through the new Australian Size-Reduction machine, an experience unique to Australia at present.  Say you are 5 ft 10 in., you will have to be reduced by a factor of 10 to, say, 7 in. tall, but the machine can easily do this.  You have to decide, however, if you really want to take a chance on this because  there is a bug in the machine and it cannot always restore your height, though this is quite rare.  But a Wombat ride is much different from a Kangaroo ride because a Wombat is a burrowing animal so the pocket faces to the rear to prevent the pocket doesn't get filled up with dirt (isn't nature wonderful?.  Wombats can move quite fast, actually, and the rides are, again, quite thrilling.  there can be a problem, however, in that the ride can be very smelly.  The companies that organize Wombat rides clean the animals assiduously, but you are "back there," if you know what I mean.

You can also get a ride on the back of a Kanagroo, but I don't recommend it because of the tendency for Kangaroos to stand upright.  Though the saddles are Western type with a horn to grab onto, it is very difficult to stay in place, and you can get hung upside down with your feet in the stirrups or on your back if your feet are free, possibly getting hurt.  And Australian laws are quite lax on personal injury cases where you have signed a document saying you realize the hazards.

If you are very small, you might want to get a ride on a Greater Glider, which is a marsupial possum, similar to a very large flying squirrel that can fly from tree to tree up to 100 ft.  But again you could go through the Australian Size-Reduction machine  to get down to size, though as stated above, has a certain hazard, though small.

A different sort of experience is to go to Kuranda and hunt for opals.  Don't worry if you can't find one because there are lots in the trinket stores in all sizes and types for a reasonable cost.  While there you can attend an Aboriginal native show including a musician who can blow continuously, apparently for as long as he wants.  He has developed a knack of breathing in through his nose while he blows out with his mouth. through a long tube.  It is a strange sound.

A simple pleasure is to go out in the countryside at night and look at the Southern Sky with its abundance of stars.  You can enhance this experience by sipping on a mug of Kangaroo tail soup while looking at the sky.  A wonderful way to end the day.

Well, this is enough for one trip.