Kangaroo Creek Farm

When we were on our trip to the Okanagan I remembered about Kangaroo Creek Farm. I had seen it several times on tourist advertisements when on previous vacations. I had always said that I wanted to go, and now with a daughter who loves animals as much as I do we made sure to include this as a place to see on our trip.Parking is reserved for handicap only down in the farm. When you visit you park on the main road, there is lots of parallel parking, and you will see a sandwich board sign letting you know where the farm is. We put Evie in the baby carrier and walked down the hill to get in. We weren’t sure what we were in for, but I was really excited.

On their website you will see that entry into the farm is done by an honour system of donations. There is a little box by the gate to go in. The recommended donation is $5 per person. Please do donate, this helps run the farm and take care of all the creatures there. As soon as we went in we saw animals. It was incredible! It’s like a little piece of Australia has been tucked into the Okanagan. There are of course kangaroos, but there are also ducks, goats, capybaras, pigs, and so much more.  When went just before lunch time thinking it wouldn’t be too busy because people would be leaving for lunch. We were partially right. We learned later that the best time to go is in the evening after the kangaroos have their naps during the hottest time of the day. If you want to feed the little ones though, it is best to go first thing in the morning when the farm opens this way you have a better opportunity of getting to experience feeding a baby joey.I will never forget Evie’s face when she saw all the kangaroos for the first time. She was so happy. We let her out of the baby carrier and stayed close to her. We didn’t want her running and frightening any of them. She was so good about that though.

One of the staff members came up to us and gave us all a willow branch to feed to the kangaroos. Even Evie got in on feeding them. All you have to do is hold out the branch near them and if they are hungry they will start to nibble on the leaves. A huge highlight of the visit for me was getting to hold and feed one of the baby joeys. Evie sat beside me for a bit and watched. She kept looking at the one I was holding, and over to another little joey. There were two albino joeys and one was being held by another visitor right beside her. I was in my happy place getting to hold and feed a joey. I have always dreamed of going to Australia, and this has helped with that dream a smidgen. I have always been so intrigued by kangaroos, even doing a report on them in grade three. This just made my day.

Evie did decide to go walk around with her Dad, but when she saw that I was holding a bottle of milk for the joey she seemed to become a bit jealous. Without the words to express how she felt, she got very upset. We figure it was  a bit of wanting to hold the joey herself, and not being impressed that her mommy was feeding another baby. If you have the opportunity to check out Kangaroo Creek Farm. Go! We will be going back to visit again this summer on our next trip to the Okanagan. It’s a very special place here in BC.