In this project you "work" from morning to night but you don't feel like working. Conditions are not like a 5 stars hotel, that's for sure, but you certainly get out of it richer then you got in!
We use to wake up at around 7h30 am to prepare the bottles of milk (powder with hot water. Each baby has it's own quantity and medication if to add in it, if needed. You start feeding the babies around 8 (inside). After that you have breakfast yourself (usually cereals withy milk or toasts).
Then you take the older kangaroos (teenagers!) in the bush for a walk and exercice. Then the wombats needed exercice too so we were back in the bush with them too.
After that you have to hang some clean "nappies" (that you use to clean the babies while feeding them) on the ropes outside.
Lunch time! Almost always pic-nic like (sandwichs, etc.). It had to be done fast (we are not there to lose time are we?). Then eating lunch all together outside looking at the australian bush, taking our time was really nice.
After that, 4 hours after the first bottle we gave at 8 a.m. it was time to feed the babies again (at noon).
Then comes the "give grass" and fresh water to the older roos, sweet potatoes to the older wombat, feed the birds and parrots and sometimes go in the bush to feed some other birds that lives there.
Some of the "almost ready to be released kangaroos", those who lives outside, have to drink their milk too so you go outside and give them then you put them to bed. Sometimes with their bottles in the bed, you wrap them in their "pouches" which are covers!
2-3 times a week you have to change the eucalyptus branches that the koalas are eating (taking out the old ones and giving them new leaves to eat). Also do the same for the parrots.
Somebody has to pass the broom too once in a while (outside).
Sometimes wood needs to be cut to feed the fire so you cut wood!
Sometimes you have to fix a shelter for possums or some other things that needs to be done on the site. Fixing a fence or whatever needs to be done.
At 4 p.m. (4 hours later) it's, again, time to give the Joeys (babies kangaroos) their bottles of milk.
Some of the wild kangaroos needs to be fed too (those who have been released and also some others that know there is a "free food all you can eat" at the volunteer project site!!). That means that there are about 50 kangaroos looking at you in the bush or around the house! (you can see their eyes shining in the bush!) You have to open some barrels full of cereals and a type of "cookie" and throw it on the ground so they can eat it. Usually at this time you see the sun going down on the bush (and it's amazing!). It's the most magical hour of the day with the bush walk in the morning.
Now it's your tune to have diner! Inside, all together we cook and eat watching t.v., talking, etc.
As you gave the bottle at 4 p.m. and it's now 8 p.m., you have to do it again! (it can take up to 2 hours, depends on how many babies there are). You give the babies wombat their bottles of milk too!
Then you watch a little t.v., take a shower or read, whatever... until it's midnight (4 hours later = feeding time!). This time you are preparing the bottles for the present feeding, the next one at 4 in the morning (don't worry, Glenda insist to do it herself so you don't have to cut your night of sleep in 2 parts!).
When this last feeding is done, you go to bed happy, dreaming of that kiss you had just before going to bed (a baby kangaroo liked your ears)!
