$200 later we're on our way!
Kangaroo Island is expensive to get to - and going there would take our meager daily budget through the roof. KI (as locals call it) is a small island off the Southern Coast, and you need to take a ferry to get there. Not only for yourself, but due to the lack of any public transportation, you also need to bring your car. In total when we added it up, it would cost us $348 round trip with the car. Basically blowing our daily budget for the next four days before we even got on the boat. It's one of those tricky travel choices. On one hand, you want to save your money and make wise choices, and on the other, you don't want to be so budget conscious that you miss out on things that you might never have a chance to do again.
At the price of $348, we had basically decided not to go, thinking that we would concentrate a little more of our time in the wine regions that I was so looking forward to. On a whim, we pulled over and checked in with one of the very friendly Australian tourist information centers. Let me tell you, these centers have more information that you could ever get through in a lifetime of trips, and are usually staffed by friendly retirees that tackle you the second you walk in, throwing information at you about any and everything you could need. At this particular info center, when we walked by the display on Kangaroo Island, a pamphlet caught Steph's eye. It was an offer for two people and their vehicle round trip to KI, with two night's accommodation (in a real bed!) for just $200 per person. Yes, that's more that $348. But just by a little bit AND we could sleep in real beds for two whole nights!! Budget out the window.
At the price of $348, we had basically decided not to go, thinking that we would concentrate a little more of our time in the wine regions that I was so looking forward to. On a whim, we pulled over and checked in with one of the very friendly Australian tourist information centers. Let me tell you, these centers have more information that you could ever get through in a lifetime of trips, and are usually staffed by friendly retirees that tackle you the second you walk in, throwing information at you about any and everything you could need. At this particular info center, when we walked by the display on Kangaroo Island, a pamphlet caught Steph's eye. It was an offer for two people and their vehicle round trip to KI, with two night's accommodation (in a real bed!) for just $200 per person. Yes, that's more that $348. But just by a little bit AND we could sleep in real beds for two whole nights!! Budget out the window.
Kangaroos are not shy.
Arriving on Kangaroo Island, we visited yet another information center, made plans to visit a few different places around the island, I made notes about where to see more koalas, sea lions and penguins, and we were off. Our first stop, of course, was to get some fresh oysters on the beach. It's almost impossible to go wrong with any sort of seafood that has been out of the water for less than 24 hours. After the oysters we stopped by a local sheep farm and tasted all the different types of cheeses and yogurts they had to offer. Bellies full and plenty of daylight left, we headed for the wildlife reserve park.
This is one of those parks billed as a place to come and interact with the animals - a 'feeding the kangaroos and wallabies' sort of place. I have some mixed feelings on this sort of thing. While it's nice to be able to see these animals up close and personal, it's hard to get behind having them in cages, relying on humans with tiny bags of pellets to walk by and throw food at them. Luckily, the fields where the animals were kept were quite large, which did make me feel a bit better about them being caged in. After looking at tropical birds of all colors, wombats, water buffalo and crocodiles, we came to the fenced in kangaroo area, where guests were allowed to enter and hand-feed the 'roos. I was thinking that they would be a bit skiddish, and I might have to chase them around a bit. Wrong, of course, these kangaroos see you coming from 100 meters away, and are lined up waiting for you when you get there. It was almost a little scary, kangaroos hopping in from ever direction, pushing each other out of the way, almost nibbling a little too much of your skin while trying to get to the food. And kangaroos weren't the only animals in the pin. There was also a very aggressive turkey, who didn't leave my side from the moment we stepped into the pin - but instead of grabbing at my hand, he would just dance around in an almost bizarre mating ritual until I would throw a few pellets at his feet. Animals are so weird.
This is one of those parks billed as a place to come and interact with the animals - a 'feeding the kangaroos and wallabies' sort of place. I have some mixed feelings on this sort of thing. While it's nice to be able to see these animals up close and personal, it's hard to get behind having them in cages, relying on humans with tiny bags of pellets to walk by and throw food at them. Luckily, the fields where the animals were kept were quite large, which did make me feel a bit better about them being caged in. After looking at tropical birds of all colors, wombats, water buffalo and crocodiles, we came to the fenced in kangaroo area, where guests were allowed to enter and hand-feed the 'roos. I was thinking that they would be a bit skiddish, and I might have to chase them around a bit. Wrong, of course, these kangaroos see you coming from 100 meters away, and are lined up waiting for you when you get there. It was almost a little scary, kangaroos hopping in from ever direction, pushing each other out of the way, almost nibbling a little too much of your skin while trying to get to the food. And kangaroos weren't the only animals in the pin. There was also a very aggressive turkey, who didn't leave my side from the moment we stepped into the pin - but instead of grabbing at my hand, he would just dance around in an almost bizarre mating ritual until I would throw a few pellets at his feet. Animals are so weird.
The best photo I have of the suicidal Koala.
All in all, we had several animal interactions, with two standing out as more memorable than the rest. First, on KI, it seems like the animals want to run out in front of your car without the slightest provocation. We were quite proud of the fact that we managed to avoid hitting all fifteen or so koalas, kangaroos, giant lizards, and wallabies that tried to commit suicide in front of us. One night, on the way home after watching an especially amazing sunset, a koala walked out in front of the car, and after I swerved into the oncoming lane to avoid him, he sat right down in the middle of the road and stared at me. Steph had to jump out of the car and chase him back into the woods like a crazy person. The very next day, while driving in the same spot (taking it a little more slowly this time), a koala walked out into the middle of the road in front of us and collapsed. Steph swerved around him (we alternate days driving), while I yelled out to stop the car. I was out of the car before it stopped moving, running back along the road to check on the injured koala. When I got to him I found him breathing laboriously, with a small pool of blood forming on the road under his mouth. Clearly he was in pretty rough shape. We moved his little body off the road and into the shade of some bush, and then steph drove like a mad woman to the closest town for help, while I stayed with Kenny (I had named him by this point) and rubbed his back, hoping that this provided comfort, not further alarm. When Steph finally returned alone twenty minutes later, she explained that help was on the way. Apparently the woman who was on her way was acting with the sense of urgency of a grocery store clerk when she learns the stock of sour cream has dwindled, instead of the EMT hopped up on cocaine that we were hoping for. When she finally arrived she rolled still alive Kenny in a blanket, put him in a cardboard box and took him away. I never did find out if he made it, but we talk about him often.
Cheeky possum will not take a hint.
The second memorable animal encounter on KI happened on our last night on the Island. We were camping on the farthest Western tip, making dinner under the stars. It's a little less glamourous than it sounds…we don't have a table or chairs, so we sit on whatever we can find, and on this night we couldn't find anything except the cooler. So I crouched on the ground, while steph sat, cooking with headlamps on trying to keep from kicking dirt into the food. But hey, we're cooking under the stars, right? What could be better? Well, better probably starts when in the middle of eating dinner a possum walks up and demands his portion of the food. He is, in fact, so certain that food is owed to him that even after Steph brandished a wine bottle and chased him around the camp (seems like she's doing quite a bit of animal chasing these days) he still managed to grab our bag of bread and try to run off with it. We wrestled it away. Then I looked up with my headlamp and realized that we were basically surrounded by at least four possums. We threw all the rest of the food in the car, locked it up and went to bed. But not before I asked Steph to walk me to the outhouse for fear of being attacked by hungry possums. Oh, Kangaroo Island. How interesting you were.
Right now we are in Airlie Beach directly off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands. After KI we travelled north through the famous OZ wine regions, through the Red Center, and then 2000 kilometers east to the Great Barrier Reef, where we are now. I'll fill you all in on the rest as soon as I can. As always, internet is a little hard to come by, and we are spending WAY too much time in McDonald's (free wifi) because of that. Hopefully soon that'll change.
-EC
Right now we are in Airlie Beach directly off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands. After KI we travelled north through the famous OZ wine regions, through the Red Center, and then 2000 kilometers east to the Great Barrier Reef, where we are now. I'll fill you all in on the rest as soon as I can. As always, internet is a little hard to come by, and we are spending WAY too much time in McDonald's (free wifi) because of that. Hopefully soon that'll change.
-EC
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