The real Australia, for tourists, at Lone Pine Sanctuary

You haven’t been to Australia, if you haven’t seen a Koala and eaten – sorry I meant petted –  a roo, which is a kangaroo for us northern hemisphere dwellers.

We decided to tick that off the list rather sooner than later. Hence we went for the Lone Pine Sanctuary located in the southwest of Brisbane. Lone Pine’s entrance fee is fairly expensive, but it’s worth it, particularly when you travel with children. The park has a lot of the Australian wildlife on display including Koalas of course, roos, wombats, emus, platypus, snakes, birds and reptiles. It took us about four to five hours to slowly stroll the park including lunch-feeding our little one.

Mount Coot-tha lookout

After we left Lone Pine and as we passed the junction to mount Coot-tha on our way back to the hotel, we made a quick decision to drive up to the lookout. We enjoyed a stunning view of the Brisbane area.

When it started to rain slightly, we thought it’s a good idea to head back to the hotel and still catch up on the jet lag. We have just made it back to the hotel, when a tropical thunderstorm hit Brisbane. It was pouring rain with heavy wind gusts, lightning and thunder. As we looked out our window, we could barely see the next block of buildings and streets were flooded. After two hours it cleared up again. Good opportunity to grab some dinner.