Hi,<BR>I've been doing a lot of research on this board and on the web but of course still need help.<BR>We are going to be in Sydney and Cairns in January. Can someone tell me the pros and cons of going to Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney vs Rainforest Habitat in Port Douglas? It seems you can hold koalas and pet animals at each. The Rainforest Habitat seemed nice because of "Breakfast with the Birds."<BR>Also, in Sydney, I've seen there's an hour and a half drive to Euroka Clearing (lower Blue mountains) where you can have breakfast with the kangaroos. Is this worth going to?<BR><BR>Thanks!

Didn't go to the Rainforest Habitat in Port Douglas but Featherdale was fun. It's not very big but we did get to pet the koala bears and feed the kangaroos & other animals. They are really cute and there were a number of other animal to see. Featherdale is on the way to the Blue Mountains so you can do both in 1 trip.

We went to a few of these parks...it would be a tie between Lone Pine in Brisbane (where you can really hold the Koala) and Rainforest Habitat (where we could take a picture, but couldn't hold it). The birds are really great at RH and the area where the roos and wallabies run around was very pretty. I don't know that I'd spend money for the breakfast with the birds....The loose ones fly around over your head, so eating there didn't really appeal to me. To me your best bet is do the RH in Port Douglas for the land aniimals and then the fabulous Sydney Aquarium for the river animals (even a platypus!) and fish.

Leslie,<BR>If you're in Port Douglass I would recommend you do a full day rainforest/daintree river tour and this experience will far outweigh feeding kangaroos and emus by hand or seeing/holding koalas. I just returned from three weeks in Oz and the Port Douglas Rainforest Habitat is interesting and fun but pales in comparison to the real thing. Breakfast with the Birds takes place under a Carnival type tent with Birds flying around trying to eat your food and go to the bathroom on you. It's way overrated and overpriced for the experience. Feeding the Kangaroos and emu by hand was fun though and probably worth the low admission fees anayways. To hold the Koala you have to pay a litte extra (donation of $5-10AUS) but the exhibit must be manned - it was not when I was there. Have a great trip!

Hi, Leslie!<BR><BR>Can't talk about your Port Douglas option, but here's a bit on the NSW possibilities:<BR>Featherdale is small but worth a visit, as you really can cuddle the koalas (or, you could a couple of years ago -- if this is of vital importance you may find it advisable to contact them first to make sure the policy hasn't changed.)<BR>The best time to visit is early, as soon as it opens, as they usually have a carpark full of tour buses as the day progresses. It is best accessed by fast train (interurban, from the Blue Mountains platform at Sydney Terminal) to Blacktown, from where you can get a taxi for a few dollars. It would be about a 2km walk.<BR>Euroka Clearing is wonderful... I often go down there early in the morning and just sit among the wildlife. But, then, that's easy for me because I live just a couple of kilometers from the entrance to the National Park, at Glenbrook (after which it's another five or six kilometres along mainly dirt track). Again, early in the morning or at near-sunset, so you avoid the tourist buses, is best. There is just one problem with Euroka.... since the kangaroos are wild and uncontained, you can't guarantee you will see any! If someone has been there before you and scared them, or if they have just decided to be perverse and wander en masse into the undergrowth, you may drive all the way for nothing, as happened to me last time I took some visitors down there. We saw one lone kangaroo! The time before that, there were scores, and we walked among them as they grazed unconcernedly, joeys in pouches (you can't quite touch them, however.) Euroka is best accessed from Sydney by hiring a car and driving straight to Glenbrook up the M4 (about an hour and a quarter). Otherwise you can get to Glenbrook easily by fast train (the same interurban mentioned earlier), but then you have to work out how to get the last 8 or 9 km, as there is no public transport inside the National Park. There is usually a taxi meeting the trains at Glenbrook Station, but I don't know how willing he would be to drive all the way to Euroka (he wouldn't have any problem with the two km to the entrance) because of the dirt road. People do hike, but most of the ones I see doing that have a tent with them for an overnight stay -- to do this you must apply at the entrance to the Ranger and pay a fee.<BR><BR>Hope this is of some help in making your decision.

Alan - Your information is very helpful as usual! I will be in Sydney in January. Pardon me if this is a stupid question, but since it's the height of summer will bugs be a problem as you travel west out of Sydney to Featherdale or other parks you've mentioned?

Hi, Evan!<BR>in answer to your "bug" question, I often warn people about the ever-present flies in summer, but it's more of an inconvenience than a problem... if you forget the repellant, you just spend a good deal of your time performing what is fondly known as the "great Australian salute" to clear the cheeky ones away from the area of your face. It's not nice when one of them lands in your soup, but they don't carry any poisonous barbs or anything like that. The further you go west, the worse they get, but Featherdale and Euroka are not rally that far out of the city, so the number of salutes you need to perform per minute won't be markedly different from if you were standing in front of the Opera House. Also, the time of day is important... early and late is better than the middle of the day, as they love nothing better than a hot, sweaty face to practice their landing tactics on!<BR>You really should read Clive James's "Unreliable Memoirs" for some great descriptions of Australian life with the "blowies".

Great information, Alan, thank you! I'm from New Jersey where the bugs aren't a problem so I'm a little concerned! I should be easy to spot in Australia - I'll be the one with 6 cans of repellant and 2 sets of mosquito netting! Thanks again!