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 Wednesday 10th of August 2016 and they would come to pick me up at my hotel at 11:45. So I  had time to enjoy both tea and diet drinks in my room before it was time to get out on the street. I was waiting for 5 or 10 minutes before I saw the van from Boutique Tours.
It was gorgeous weather and it looked to be a beautiful day out in the wilderness. The Driver/ Guide came out to say hello and he opened the door for me. There was an empty row (2 seats) in  the first row and I took my seat. I was very relieved to learn that I was the last passenger to get on board.
We were 10 passengers going for the Boutique Wildlife Tour, a girl from France and a guy from UK. DARN! I forgot to congratulate him for leaving the EU!!! And there was 7 people from US of A. Or as our Driver/ Guide called them: “Team America” We were driving through Sydney and we will drive south to a village called Berrima where we will stop for lunch. We will take off to a place called the Canyonleigh after lunch to see if we can spot any wildlife. Then we will come back to Berrima to look for Platypus and to have dinner at the oldest pub in Australia. Open since 1831! This really promise to be exciting!  We're running in to a bit of traffic
 Driving towards Berrima on the Sydney - Canberra - Melbourne highway
And I can add another **** crossing sign
We arrive to Berrima after almost 2 hours on the highway. We have passed a new warning sign for me, the Wombat crossing sign. But we never saw any Wombats. Berrima is a really nice little village (Town) It was prosperous millions of year back as it was exactly one day (start in the early morning and arriving in the late afternoon) riding the horse  from Sydney.
So this was the first stop on the way from Sydney to Melbourne which took 4 days back in the days. 13 pubs and 3 churches in the village. 400 inhabitants, but then, they built a railway and the railway was a few kilometres away so the village died. From 400 to 53 inhabitants and 12 pubs closed. The 3 churches are still open and one of the pubs Anyway, there was no luck and money coming to the Berrima. The cities along the railway. Well, villages’ along the railway have now developed in to modern cities. But in Berrima the time stopped and today it looks the same as back in 1831 with beautiful sandstone houses. So driving in to the village was like riding in to an old cow boy town.  Australian Magpie and Magpie Lark
We had our lunch at a coffee shop and after that we left Berrima and we stopped on a farm road and we spotted some kangaroos. We left and we were soon back on the highway. After 5 minutes  we took off and we drove towards Canyonleigh were we will search for Australian wildlife.
We were in a pasture landscape and we took off the road and we were in the middle of pastures. We drove to check the treetops for koalas before we parked the van. We never saw any koalas and we parked the car. We will go down in a valley and the dirt path was pretty step. And we were all relieved when our Guide/ Driver told us that he would walk back up and come down to pick us up with the van. We started to walk down the slope and I took off as I wanted to put some distance between me and the group as I was keeping an eye out for birds. It took us maybe 15 to 20 minutes to reach the bottom.  We're getting out of the van
 The most interesting on the way down
I didn't spot any animals on the way down, neither did anyone else and they were disappointed not to have seen any koalas. I walk around in the forest at the bottom of the valley waiting for the driver/ Guide to come back with the car I see 3 or 4 people in the pasture and I'm soon to discover that they are looking at a wombat. I go down to the gate and the French girl is standing at the gate - Don't you want to look at the wombat? - I want to but I cannot open the gate I opened the gate and we entered the pasture. The wombat walked towards the forest and the French girl and I were a wee bit disappointed. But we were soon discovering more wombats. I stopped counting after 10 wombats.  Wombat
          There is another Wombat
   
Our Driver/ Guide came back with the van and he entered the pastureland. He parked at the far end of the pasture and we walked over there. Our Driver/ Guide was looking for koalas in the  trees and he found one. The passengers were happy as I don't think anyone of them had seen a koala before.
And they were very enthusiastic when our Guide told them that he had found a koala. But when we were looking for it it took quite some time before we found the koala again. The reminded me of me when I was on the car going to Mareeba Wetland. I was running around in the car like a dog exciting to ride the car when I was looking for my very first kangaroos. I still remember the excitement to see the first kangaroo. But by now it is yawn. So they were happy when we saw the koala again and we had to cross a small creek. Our Guide brought material from the van and he built a small bridge over the creek. But I, as an EX command jumped over the small creek, well, it was more like a small stream.   We see the koala high up in the tree
We left the koala and we went to look for an Emu, YAWN!! A more boring animal is hard to find. But I never said anything. We never saw any Emu but we saw a wallaroo. I was confused with all the wallaby, kangaroo and wallaroo. Today was the first time I heard the world wallaroo. Our Guide told us that 95% of the Australians would call everything a kangaroo if you pointed at whatever you pointed at and asked what it was. Well, I suspect that this is because they don't want to answer stupid questions and to go through the trouble to explain the difference, but I never said anything. But you will never have to be confused as I have collected some data from wikipedia below. Anyway, I was happy, I had learned something and I had also seen my first wombat. First the warning sign and then the real thing.
  A “kangaroo” crossing our way
 A “kangaroo” crossing our way
 A “kangaroo” crossing our way
 A wombat pitching cam on our road
We were going to drive back to Berrima for our dinner at Australia’s oldest pub. I was excited, well, at least I was hungry. But we will first look for platypuses in the creek across the road form the pub. We had seen a Yellow-tailed black cockatoo and we stopped to take pictures. And we had lost count on how many wombat we had seen. It had been a good afternoon and we left Canyonleigh. I discovered a Wallaroo hiding when we were leaving the farm land. We got out to have a few pictures. I got a picture of the wallaroo jumping away and when I checked the picture I discovered that he was covering his arse. I asked our Guide/ Driver about this and he told me that the Wallaroos are running this way.    Covering his arse when he jumps away
Everyone in the van was happy with the day so far as we had seen plenty exciting animals. We drove back towards Berrima and it was almost dark when we parked the car across the road from the pub. We were going to see if we could see any platypuses. There was a sign and I learned that the path was called Quarry Path going along the Wingecarribee River. We walked down to the river and we followed the river and we kept a sharp lookout for any signs of platypuses. But unfortunately, we never saw any signs of any wildlife. We could hear some birds but nothing else. We went to the pub for dinner. I ordered a 10$ rhubarb crumble with ice cream. I asked if they had any whipped cream, the real thing! This was conformed and I put 12 $ on the counter. Add whipped cream for 2$ I went in to the pub to order something to drink. A pot of tea and I asked if they had big pots. The bartender brought out a pot. - That is a cup, I said I pointed to a beer mug and the bartender looked very puzzled when I asked for a beer mug of tea. Suddenly the whole pub was next to me. - I never seen this before  Walking along the Quarry Path at the Wingecarribee River
 Walking along the Quarry Path at the Wingecarribee River
 The pub
We finished our dinner and it was very good. We were going to look for possums and other nocturnal animals in the trees. We were looking up the trees and our Guide held a red light. He stopped and he said that there was a Tawny frogmouth in a branch above us. This is a bird I had wanted to see since I saw it in a bird book back in Mareeba wetland. Here it was and I could see that it was a beautiful bird even though it was pitch dark. Well, the bird was lit in red. Yes, the red light doesn’t bother the nocturnal animals so we do this out of respect for the wildlife. We are here to enjoy the wildlife and the nature, not to duck anything up! And even though the frogmouth looks a little like an owl it looks like a frog mouth when you stand under the bird. He was out hunting for possums or whatever so we were very surprised to discover a ringtail possum family in the tree. I think that this possum is called ring tailed. I tried to take a few pictures of the possum but it didn't went very well.   A possum far up the tree
 A possum far up the tree
It had been a wonderful day and I think I can speak for all the passengers when I say that we had really enjoyed it. And I can really recommend the Boutique Wildlife Tour with Sydney Boutique  Tours. Maybe a wee bit too expensive, 300$ but we got to see wildlife.
And imagine how much money we could have had spent in the bars. So 300$ was cheap, and no hangover! As I was up front behind the driver we spent the time talking and I think all the other passengers were sleeping in the back. Time passed quickly and suddenly we were on Williams Street and time for me to get off at my hotel. I stopped at Metro to buy some provision. I stopped in the reception to ask them to give me a wake-up call at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning. Whale watching departs at 12:15 but I have decided to go for some early morning birding at the Botanical Garden before the whale watching You just need to klick HERE to find out if I find something in Sydney's Botanical Garden. 
    
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
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