Mon, July 1

After a few false starts we found a place to have breakfast, and then we drove out west to Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park. Honestly this place was worth the trip all on its own. We got to feed and pet kangaroos, wallabies, and quokkas, and we saw lots of koalas and Tasmanian devils and wombats and spectacular native birds from all over the continent. Many of the species were not at all endangered where they live, but you'd have to travel all over to see them in the wild... for example, this is the only place outside Western Australia where you can see a quokka. Anyone who likes exotic animals should put this place on their list. Birdwatchers should probably plan on multiple days.

In the afternoon we had some time to kill and knew we wouldn't make it back to the western suburbs again, so we tried to hike the Gabrugal Yana trail in Western Sydney Parklands, but when that was too muddy we went to Olympic Park for a quick look around and dinner.

Our reason for staying in the western suburbs all afternoon was so that I could attend the 7pm meeting of Permaculture Sydney West, one of half a dozen regional clubs in the metro area and the only one meeting during our visit. Prior to COVID their monthly meetings attracted some 300 members, but now they are closer to 50, which still impressed me very much! The structure of the meeting reminded me of the Emporia Garden Club. The guest speaker talked about preparing for disasters as the climate changes, and she shared some hair-raising stories. I had some good conversations during the social time after.