Don't Judge a Book by its Cover!

We were excitedly anticipating going to the platypus house, but we had no idea what to expect. And upon driving up, we were a little concerned. It looked somewhat like a shack - a tin building with an unassuming facade . . . not sure about this one. We walked into a gift shop and cafe, but again, it was quite unassuming. We were hoping the tour would be ok, as we had a little girl who kept screaming, a building that was not the greatest, and gift shop that had some interesting stuff in it but just seemed a little understated. We were taken into a room where our guide filled us in a bit about the platypus and the echidna, and it is a good thing our guide had a strong voice and a patient demeanor, because the little girl gave us all a little more than we wanted. Then we were treated to a visit to the male and female platypus. Worth every minute! The platypus are not as large as I expected - they are slender like an otter, about 15" long with a 5" tail, and they only weigh about 3 pounds. The males have a spur with a venom in it that is not fatal to people but can hurt for months afterwards.

We loved watching the platypus. Hope you do, too, but pleasse ignore the screaming child in the background:

Then we went to see the echidna. We sat on the ground, and they just wandered around us. One time, the little one actually crawled on Don's leg to try to reach some food. It was quite funny. The echidna has a tongue that is about 12" long and its spines are sharp but has no hooks, so they are not like a porcupine. It is "anteaterish" and walks around minding its own business eating ants and other insects.

And this little echidna crawled on us, walked around us . . . so fun . . .

These two animals are so different from others we have seen . . . a great learning experience.