Dangerous bipeds

Australia is known for kangaroos and koalas, but who has ever encountered a cassowary? Today we saw two of these protected, flightless birds at the Billabong-Sanctuary south of Townsville. They can grow up to 2m tall and weigh 60kg, they look similar to emus, but more colorful and peculiar - two long, hanging red skin flaps swing around when the cassowary moves its blue head. Cassowaries are enormously important for the rainforests of Queensland because they help spread seeds. However, they are considered very dangerous because they have powerful feet with up to 12cm long claws, with which they can attack potential enemies (including humans). Well, our two cassowaries obediently ate grapes out of the hands of the zoo visitors.

The kangaroos and wallabies were also very obedient, you could pet them. The venomous snakes also stayed obediently in the display cases and the crocodiles obediently opened their jaws when the camera approached. The koalas obediently let themselves be photographed with the numerous children and the dingoes obediently walked through the zoo with the keeper. It was nice and obedient at the Billabong-Sanctuary, but somehow you would rather see the animals live in their natural freedom - even if I don't necessarily have to encounter a 7m long saltwater crocodile in the wild.

What else did we see? We drove for hours in the motorhome through the dried-out forests and fields of Queensland in over 30 degrees, a desolate, partly burned area where you'd better not have a breakdown. It was over 300 km today. Imagine: crossing Switzerland once and seeing fewer people than in a shopping mall...