07:00am to 06:00pm

Today was my second day at the scantuary. We started off raking some of the paths in the park, then i went around on the background tour again with another ranger. We changed the water and fed them all along the way as we started with the larger cleaning of the park. We raked all the enclosures for leaves and the pathways around the enclosures. When we finished the background morning feeding and cleaning, the others were just started on the morning tea. There were cake, a plate with cut fruit and lots of biscuits :) after tea i helped with the koala feeding, they got 3 different types of eucalyptus leaves. I washed up all the food trays from yesterday and then we started preparing the food for tomorrow. The other volunteers and i pretty much prepared all the food just us, the others volunteers finished some of the last food preparing and i brushed and washed the floor. Meanwhile all the rangers were out cleaning up and removing already fallen trees in the park, the dangerous trees will be cut down by professional loggers on monday. We went to lunch break at 02:00 pm so it was kind of late, the sandwich we got were 2 slices of toast and then we had the choice of either ham & cheese or ham & cheese with a slice of tomato, Great! We could toast it in a toaster, but there was a long queue so i just started eating it raw, once the rangers were ready with their toasts we went outside at a suuuuper cozy spot with a small table and a chair for everyone. It was really funny one of the rangers brought the white cacatoo from the kitchen out aswell and it walked from shoulder to shoulder and begged for a bite of toast, it eventualy got one pice, but that just made the begging worse. Now it was about eating your sandwich before the cacatoo grabs it, so one of the rangers put her back in the kitchen and we could relax. When we finished lunch we continued cleaning the paths, we cleared all the background by hand raking and moving branches, i got close to one of the fences in the crocodile arear and all of a sudden the next largest croc jumped out of the water, Roaaaar!!!!! we all got a shock! it was really big it was 4,3 meters long and the largest crocodile they have is 4,5 meters so its pretty close. We had to let Josh in, one of the many black cacatoos and they asked if i would do it, since it always seems to be the new once it likes. I got a handfull of sunflower seeds and went out there and kate told me to knock on the branch, i knocked on the branch and it crawled down on my arm, Woooooooo! i have never had a black cacatoo siting on my arm eating from my hand, that was an experience of a life time. Then we walked back to his enclosure and i let him in on his own branch :) Just before we were about to go home i got a volunteer shirt. Now i can fit in with the others :) On the way home we went by Kates house because she had had Kimberlys car so that it wouldn't get flooded in all the water, we just helped Kate move some sandbags from the front of her garage and then we went home. What a day, it was really nice and time just ran away so before we got from the zoo and by kates house and back home to the hostle it was 06:00pm :O


The park will be open on saturday, im so excited!!! :)
Speak to you soon,
Soren

After another place :)

Before we started

Josh grabs my arm

Me feeding Josh

Today i started at Billabong Scantuary

Finally i startet at the scantuary, we got picked up at 07:00am by 2 of the rangers. We had to drive the long way around because the smaller bridges are remaining closed for now. When we arrived we went into the kitchen where we had some small talks and got a short briefing. They have a yellow Cacatoo staying in the kitchen, its just sitting on its branch and it is really chatty there were a small Lorikeet who also just ran from shoulder to shoulder and stayed at the kitchen, so we had to look out for the Lorikeet because somethimes the Cacatoo can get jalous and bully him. They dont have any employees room, they had one small rack for our bags and we could just throw our stuff somewhere if there were no space left on the rack. We went with one of the rangers around the back of the park feeding birds and kangaroos, and picking up the worst poo. We brought a barrow with us, but it was kind of hard to get around the trail in the park because it has all flooded away and there were big holes in it. We dont clean up all yet because it is all muddy and there is a lot of fallen trees laying around, so the park remains closed for now. Today was just did a quick cleaning and feeding, we feed the koalas with 3 different types of eucalyptus leaves, they were so cute.
Pictures comming later.

Helping locals Clean and move back in.

Everything was soaked, Yesterday we were 6 at the hostle that volunteered to help clean some homes out in the flooded arear, we were 3 boys and 3 girls. we primary helped an old man, he picked us up guys up at the hostel and called a cap for the girls. On the way to his home he asked if any of us had a drivers licens and i had, so he asked me if i would like to take his Big Ford ranger and just follow him while he took his smaller Mercedes, it was kind of funny to drive in the other side of the road, i just had to remember that! when we arrived he payed the cap and showed us where to start. we cleaned out the mud from his basement. The girls gathered all the trash that was stuck in his fence while we guys moved a lot of crushed stones from the road back up into his backyard all moved with a wheelbarrow. later on we cleaned out his laundry machine and fridge and let them dry. when we were finished at his house we used the remaining crushed stones to fill some holes in the neighbours driveway. we also cleaned up a whole garage and hosed down all of the mud in the neighbours garden. It was kind of annoying he never looked where he hosed so he just got me all soaked from top to toe. But it was kind of funny that there was a lot of small fish swimming around in all the pods on the side of the road. After 3 hours he was happy and he called a cap to the girls and once the girls were gone he asked us guys to help him move back in the fridge and the laundry machine. Then he asked if we would like a beer and he insisted in paying us for the help. He wanted to send the girls home first because he did not think they did as much as us guys. So he paid us more and that would be fine because we stayed longer, but he paid us a lot more, which was unfair since we all helped and of course when we got back to the hostel one of the other guys couldn't keep his mouth shot! so yeah the girls were really pissed off. But we did not expect to get paid so it was good anyway.

Update: Ross River open and crocodiles flooding in!

We have now got a new rainfall record in Townsville over 1 meter over the past 7 days. Click the link to see the situation this monday morning:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1221662367990987&id=529629870416437&_ft_=mf_story_key.2124660977579977%3Atop_level_post_id.1221662367990987%3Atl_objid.1221662367990987%3Acontent_owner_id_new.529629870416437%3Athrowback_story_fbid.2124660977579977%3Apage_id.529629870416437%3Aphoto_id.1221662367990987%3Astory_location.4%3Astory_attachment_style.video_inline%3Apage_insights.%7B%22529629870416437%22%3A%7B%22role%22%3A1%2C%22page_id%22%3A529629870416437%2C%22post_context%22%3A%7B%22story_fbid%22%3A2124660977579977%2C%22publish_time%22%3A1549228555%2C%22story_name%22%3A%22EntVideoCreationStory%22%2C%22object_fbtype%22%3A1%7D%2C%22actor_id%22%3A529629870416437%2C%22psn%22%3A%22EntVideoCreationStory%22%2C%22sl%22%3A4%2C%22dm%22%3A%7B%22isShare%22%3A0%2C%22originalPostOwnerID%22%3A0%7D%2C%22targets%22%3A%5B%7B%22page_id%22%3A529629870416437%2C%22actor_id%22%3A529629870416437%2C%22role%22%3A1%2C%22post_id%22%3A1221662367990987%2C%22share_id%22%3A0%7D%5D%7D%7D&__tn__=%2As%2As-R

Update! Stormflod in Townsville

Hi
Here is an update of the weather!
Zoo is closed for unknown time, everything is closed really. Noone knows when the tropical storm will stop, i was planing to go to the aquarium today, but now they have closed aswell for unknown time. If the rain conteniues it will be a new rainfall record, last record for rainfall over 10 days was in 1953 with 900 something milimeters within 10 days. Friday we had 415mm within 24 hours. Right now the worst area have had 2-300mm rain within 6 hours, wich is crazy, many roads remain closed for unknown time.
All we can do now is wait for the rain to stop.

I took some footage og the rain at the hostel: