4-Day November Adventure: More Australian Wildlife

This is a continuation of my 4-Day November Adventure blog post series! Here is Part One and Part Two. 

Following the mournful loss of my glasses, we headed off to Parndana Wildlife Park, where we got to see more Australian wildlife (again). I've said this before and I'll say it again: I've petted more kangaroos than I've seen cats here. And I also remember Azhar asking why are we constantly going out and looking at animals here before on one of my Facebook albums, haha. Anyway, the wildlife park here was pretty tiny compared to the others I've been to. The first thing we noticed were the peacocks strutting about in front of us. As we got nearer, they went berserk and flew up onto the roof of the koala enclosure, shrieking awfully at us. I swear, the way the noise they were making sounded a lot like "HELP!"

We found this little creature - a bush-tailed possum - curled up in a box at the front of its enclosure. I feel like it was scared stiff of us, though I'm not sure why it didn't hide in the back where there was so many more sheltered hollows for it to huddle into. I wish I could have cuddled it all better.

In comparison, this fellow was ridiculously happy to have our attention. I love how he always looked like he was beaming up at us. Beautiful dog, although it was kind of dusty looking. I'm not surprised though, with the amount of sand and dust swirling around in the dry heat. We stayed around keeping it company for a while before we followed the rest of the tour group, who were feeding kangaroos.

Speaking of kangaroos, we found some albino ones at the park! I've never seen an albino kangaroo in real life before this ... I used to read about one when I was little, and I never thought I would ever see a living, breathing one. This one was hopping around the enclosure, being followed by the large male right behind it. Ahem. She wasn't the only albino; there were about two more, lazing around in the shade of the trees though I couldn't get a picture of them. This picture is a screencap from Nick's video camera.

So we went to feed some kangaroos. This must be my fifth time doing so since I started studying in Adelaide, haha. The kangaroos on Kangaroo Island are different though. Compared to normal Grey Kangaroos on the mainland, their fur is darker, and the base of their tails is thicker than their mainland cousins. I was only feeding one of these guys to begin with, before the other two came over hoping for some snacks as well. I didn't even intend to feed them (too much trouble to go find a place to wash off the roo saliva) but the handler gave me some feed and I couldn't just leave them hanging, haha.

This one seemed to appreciate me sticking around very much. Hahaha.

After walking around the park, we went to the gift shop. I think my eyes popped out when I saw everybody crowding around a person cradling a little fuzzy joey in her arms. Everybody was allowed a turn in carrying her, and I was so amazingly happy when I got to hold her. The joey is eight months old, orphaned and bottle fed four times a day. Her name is Molly, and she's absolutely adorable. She seemed bored by everybody though - while I was holding her, she went and started licking her itty bitty paws, like she felt she had better things to do than be carried around. Ahhhh, what a high. 

Our last stop for the day was KI Spirits, a quaint little brewery on the way back to Penneshaw. Of course, I didn't sample any of their wares but I took a quick sniff of the flavours that Sammie tried out, and it's all pretty interesting. They had flavours like honey and walnut, as well as strawberries and vanilla. It was a nice little place right in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by dry, scrubby grass and eucalyptus trees.

For dinner, we went back to Penneshaw and the hosts got us a whole lot of pizza. We sat around on the grass, watching blue wrens and fairy wrens flitting about. The gulls were kind of a given, hanging around and watching us hungrily, squabbling amongst each other over their 'territories' around where we were on the grass. When we accidentally dropped morsels off our pizzas, they came up hesitantly, snatching up the food when they felt that we weren't paying attention. 

They started to fight over a piece of dropped pizza, and some magpies swooped in and chased them off, grabbing the pizza for themselves. Tyson managed to rip up some of the pizza pieces, as it was too big for them. Even then, one of the gulls swallowed a large chunk whole, and there was a noticeable bulge in its throat. It was kind of worrying, haha.

We got on the ferry pretty satisfied with our day. We were tired and literally covered in sand. I had sand in my ears, and when we sneezed, sand would come out of our noses. Nick and I went onto the back deck of the ferry to take some last photos of the island. What a beautiful place, but also incredibly dry and empty. I loved how we could see right to the sand bed when I looked down into the water, a perfect shade of transparent teal. We didn't stay too long outside though. It was starting to get cold, and I could feel the wind nipping at my cardigan.

And even then the day wasn't quite over yet! I feel like God had one last thing up His sleeve for us, a perfect way to end the day - the cherry on our Kangaroo Island sundae.

Yes.

We were seated by the windows, Nick and I facing the back while Sammie faced the front because she had motion sickness. I had taken off my shades, so I was pretty much half-blind. Suddenly, mid-conversation, Sammie literally threw herself against the window and squealed, "DOLPHINS!"

Immediately, everyone turned to look out the window, and there it was, leaping through the waves right beside us. I think we were thrown into a frenzy; Nick reaching for his video camera and me reaching for my powered shades. By the time he had the camera out, the dolphin was gone, but we really couldn't give up hope. All three of us were as close to the window as we could get, and I think mine and Sammie's voices were two octaves higher than usual. And then it appeared again, shooting out of the water, once, twice, and it was gone.

Seriously, what a beautiful way to end the trip, Alhamdulillah. In that moment, I just felt so much happiness. The one day trip was perfect for us to see Kangaroo Island, even though we didn't get to see the Remarkable Rocks on the Western end of the island. We got to see so many beautiful things, and really I couldn't ask for anything more of the trip. 

4-Day November Adventure: Sights, Sea, Seals and Sand

I got about five hours of sleep after my last day of volunteering before I was up again to prepare for the Kangaroo Island day tour. We got really lucky with this one; the tour is the first of its kind, cheaper than the usual day tour prices in order to cater for the student crowd. Nick and I met Sammie at the Adelaide Central Bus Station at about 6.30 am so we could get on the bus headed for Cape Jervis, where we would take the ferry across the Backstairs Passage to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. 

The view on the way there was beautiful, just miles and miles of rolling hills, yellow-tinged grass and trees. We spotted a couple of wild kangaroos on the way there too, grazing in some long grass. We passed a couple of small towns, and there were loads of cows to be seen like little blobs on the landscape. We reached Cape Jervis after two hours in the bus, and the weather was pretty good. Not too sunny, with some cloud cover and a slight breeze.

The ferry ride was uneventful. We explored the decks and waited around hoping to see some dolphins. The guy who arranged the tour, Tyson said that there are usually some who follow the ferry as it moves through the water. No luck though, so we headed indoors to find some seats and buy something to snack on. The ride took about 45 minutes, and there was no reception to be had on our phones. Vodafone apparently has no coverage on the island, but Telstra and Optus do apparently. Kind of ridiculous, but oh well.

Once at our destination, we piled into a tour bus and set off with our driver, Glen giving us occasional snatches of information about the island. There used to be aborigines who lived there when it was connected to the mainland, but when the sea level rose about 2,000 years ago they moved away, leaving the island uninhabited until Matthew Flinders landed there in 1802. Now there's only about 4,500 people living there, and this place is way bigger than Singapore! 

Our first stop was Prospect Hill, which is the highest point of the island. We had to climb up a whole lot of steps to reach the top. It wasn't so bad even with the heat, but it was the sudden onslaught of crazy flies that kind of threw off our groove. I can't believe I just typed that. Moving on. The view from the top was spectacular! I could see green-blue seas in the distance, and we pretty much had a 360 degree view of the island. 

If you look closely at the picture above, you'll be able to just see our bus at the bottom right. Looks tiny from up there. After about five minutes admiring the view and battling the flies, we made our way back down the steps. The air-conditioning within the bus was a welcome relief to the dry heat outside. Once we were all settled in, we headed off on an hour's journey to the Seal Bay Conservation Park, famous for its basking Australian Sea Lions.

When we started our guided walk of the beach, Sammie, Nick and I stuck close to the guide so we could hear as much information as possible. We walked down this hill from the main entrance of the park, and it wasn't until we reached the platform leading to the beach that we saw all the sea lions scattered across the sand. We arrived just in time to watch as a sea lion swam right up to shore and dragged itself out of the water. I was so amazed by how close we were to these creatures, it was amazing. 

Suddenly, from behind us we heard this loud noise like a small, long drawn out horn. We turned around to see THE MOST ADORABLE LITTLE BABY IN THE UNIVERSE come waddling out towards us. We moved around to give it clear passage to the beach, as it had come right from underneath the wooden steps we had gone down earlier. It was so cute oh my god I was squeaking with happiness. 

The guide said that the baby was looking for its mother, and that would be why it kept making that strange honking noise (unglamorous way of describing it, but yeah). In that moment, as I watched the baby continue its awkward way down the sand, I knew that this trip was worth every single cent spent. Alhamdulillah, we were so lucky to have gotten the chance to see these creatures.

This fella was asleep underneath the platform when we headed back up to the main entrance. This is definitely the closest I will ever get to an Australian Sea Lion, and I'm happy I got a good shot of it snoozing away below us. It looks so cuddly.

After that, we headed straight for lunch at Vivonne Bay. The trip was kind of uninspiring, like the one to Seal Bay - nothing but scrubby bush, dry looking trees and lots of sand. I expected to have our meal by the seaside or something, but it was a sort of small resort place instead. The eating area was quite nice, and we all had DIY kebabs. It was quite tasty, and they served fruits as well, which was really nice. 

After lunch, we headed for Little Sahara, which is a series of sand dunes somewhere north of Vivonne Bay. The main tourist activity there? Sandboarding! We trudged up two hills of fine sand to reach a mammoth of a hill, where a mini sandstorm was swirling at the top. We had a bunch of boards to share between us, so we took it turns to climb to the top of the hill and sliding down. The climb was ridiculously difficult. Not only was it steep, but the wind was blowing like crazy, and sand was whipping straight into our faces. 

I waited at the bottom while Nick and Sammie went first. When Sammie arrived back at the bottom where I was, her entire face was dusted with sand, and her teeth and lips looked like she had been dipped into the stuff. First tip learnt that day; keep your lips pursed shut on the way down.

I went down twice, and both times it felt like agony getting to the top. Sliding down was fun, even though I didn't go as far as I hoped I would. By the end of the session, I was covered in sand. I'd scratch my head and it would snow around my shoulders, like very fine dandruff. I'm also sad to say that I lost my glasses somewhere around the dunes. I had hooked them to the front of my top, and when I got into the bus, they were gone. I was depressed for a while, but there was really nothing I could do but wait till I got back and put on the horrible old pair I wore here to Adelaide. Good thing it was sunny all day, so I could wear my powered shades without a problem.

That concludes part one of the Kangaroo Island tour! Stay tuned for part two. :)