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.
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