Kangaroo Island, more treasures (3)
We had planned to have a 'movie night' last night (we have a great apartment with a DVD player and you can rent DVDs for free) but we were both a little bit too tired to bother...
We got up at 8am to grab a superb breakfast and decided to head for the kaola viewing area as our 1st treat. Just 5mns up the road, in Handson Sanctuary are a line up of eucalyptus trees where you can see between 15-20 kaolas. Again, you put your $2 in the box and can enjoy the walk for as long as you like. Well, we were there over an hour. It was great fun, on the line of 'spot the koala' game. I won at this one. I managed to spot about 80% of them, including two mothers with their babies. These were the sweetest. They were either on their back on clutched tightly on their chest, cuddled up in their arms. They truly are like teddy bears. Most were fast asleep (as they do) but we saw a few on the move, and one even came right down to the ground before hopping onto another tree to eat fresher leaves. The tree he had chosen was no more than 2m high which was fabulous as we all got superb close up instead of framing their derriere most of the time. We had a ball. They were just SO cute... Australia seems to have lots of animals that are 'too cute to be true'...
After that we went to the Armital's Arch where you have a colony of NZ seals. You couldn't get as close to those (and they were not quite as cute, as they were brown) but they looked very playful. We were very cold there though as the wind was really strong.
On the way we stopped to take a look at the Remarkable Rocks (the ones features in all the travel brochures and website). They are amazing rock formations that started being sculptured 500 million years ago. We took some fun shots inside some empty stone balls... quite unusual landscape. Well worth a stop.
After that we went to the Visitor's Centre to enquire about the Platypus Waterhole walk and found a mother kangaroo with her joey. He was obviously 'freshly off the pouch' and still suckling. She let him suckle patiently for ages. It was such a lovely sight. We also spotted 4 more edchinas on the way, including a little one who was busy digging a hole by the road side... maybe looking for ants to eat? We were just 1 meter away from her for a good 10 minutes and she never minded. Others can be exceedingly shy and tend to head back for the bush as soon as they hear you get out of the car. We even saw a snake on the road...
But no platyplus. They are very very shy and they usually advise about 3 hours to catch a glimpse of them. We tried our luck for 15mns, by the pond that was supposedly the best for sightings, but to no avail.
We saw more wallabies and kangaroos though. One was right by the side of the road and wouldn't move. We therefore had to stop the car to give him 'right of way', but he was so indecisive. Janet said he was 'as daft as a brush'. Someone had obviously fed him once and he probably assumed all drivers would give him food. I also took a stunning landscape shot (at the golden hour I may add) with 2 silhouettes of kangaroos hopping around (the same mother & joey). It looked just perfect. I really hope it turns out !
Righteeo, must sign off... dinner is beckoning (and it's good so I can't rush it ! it'd be a shame), Janet is waiting. We still have to go on a noctural guided walk tonight. Hopefully we will learn more about this fascinating environment.
PS - have had no time to proof read so please forgive my mistakes ! TOO much to say and too little time....
We had planned to have a 'movie night' last night (we have a great apartment with a DVD player and you can rent DVDs for free) but we were both a little bit too tired to bother...
We got up at 8am to grab a superb breakfast and decided to head for the kaola viewing area as our 1st treat. Just 5mns up the road, in Handson Sanctuary are a line up of eucalyptus trees where you can see between 15-20 kaolas. Again, you put your $2 in the box and can enjoy the walk for as long as you like. Well, we were there over an hour. It was great fun, on the line of 'spot the koala' game. I won at this one. I managed to spot about 80% of them, including two mothers with their babies. These were the sweetest. They were either on their back on clutched tightly on their chest, cuddled up in their arms. They truly are like teddy bears. Most were fast asleep (as they do) but we saw a few on the move, and one even came right down to the ground before hopping onto another tree to eat fresher leaves. The tree he had chosen was no more than 2m high which was fabulous as we all got superb close up instead of framing their derriere most of the time. We had a ball. They were just SO cute... Australia seems to have lots of animals that are 'too cute to be true'...
After that we went to the Armital's Arch where you have a colony of NZ seals. You couldn't get as close to those (and they were not quite as cute, as they were brown) but they looked very playful. We were very cold there though as the wind was really strong.
On the way we stopped to take a look at the Remarkable Rocks (the ones features in all the travel brochures and website). They are amazing rock formations that started being sculptured 500 million years ago. We took some fun shots inside some empty stone balls... quite unusual landscape. Well worth a stop.
After that we went to the Visitor's Centre to enquire about the Platypus Waterhole walk and found a mother kangaroo with her joey. He was obviously 'freshly off the pouch' and still suckling. She let him suckle patiently for ages. It was such a lovely sight. We also spotted 4 more edchinas on the way, including a little one who was busy digging a hole by the road side... maybe looking for ants to eat? We were just 1 meter away from her for a good 10 minutes and she never minded. Others can be exceedingly shy and tend to head back for the bush as soon as they hear you get out of the car. We even saw a snake on the road...
But no platyplus. They are very very shy and they usually advise about 3 hours to catch a glimpse of them. We tried our luck for 15mns, by the pond that was supposedly the best for sightings, but to no avail.
We saw more wallabies and kangaroos though. One was right by the side of the road and wouldn't move. We therefore had to stop the car to give him 'right of way', but he was so indecisive. Janet said he was 'as daft as a brush'. Someone had obviously fed him once and he probably assumed all drivers would give him food. I also took a stunning landscape shot (at the golden hour I may add) with 2 silhouettes of kangaroos hopping around (the same mother & joey). It looked just perfect. I really hope it turns out !
Righteeo, must sign off... dinner is beckoning (and it's good so I can't rush it ! it'd be a shame), Janet is waiting. We still have to go on a noctural guided walk tonight. Hopefully we will learn more about this fascinating environment.
PS - have had no time to proof read so please forgive my mistakes ! TOO much to say and too little time....
posted by Sylvie at 8:03 AM
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