This is what I get to see everyday now!

He decided to come down for us and pose.

This is the koala that is so low to the ground he is just above my head!

Hot Tours!

Morning life started early with a bit of breakfast, then out koala hunting before all the tourists got to the sanctuary.  My job every morning I am pretty sure, will be to put up flags where each koala is along the koala walk.  It is harder than it looks but after walking up and down a few times I was able to spot them.

He was in our backyard trying to climb the fence. He Now resides in the tree beside our house.

This is Fred, he is a cockroach that lives in our kitchen.  Dave 'accidentally' stepped on him though.

He is now dead.

Our front yard in the morning.

Superb Blue Wren

Scarlet Robin

Sleepy Koala

Scarlet Rosella

After which Ninna and I walked the perimeter of the huge fenced off area.  Our job was to cover up any holes that had been dug by the echidnas, which were only a few considering how long we walked.

Water pump on our perimeter walk.

The vast land of the sanctuary.

Rainbow lorikeet 

Momma kangaroo with her joey

  After I came back to my housing place I had to prepare for koala tours.  I have to help the tour guides spot all the koalas on the grounds.  I am getting quite good at it and we spotted a koala not 5 feet off the ground!  One lady reached up to touch it but the tour guide and I both said stop at the exact same time.  The claws on that koala would have torn that lady to pieces if she'd touched him.  There are tours allllllll day long and the night tours are lots of fun.  I can’t wait for when I get to see more of the island on my days off, which I get to pick.  Not this sunday but next, I will be going for a tour of Flinders Chase, it is suppose to be really beautiful!  I hope we have good weather for it! 

I forgot to mention one more thing!  The calls that the male koalas make are horrifying!  So right now I am sitting outside the visitor centre in the dark by myself and not 30 feet away I hear that noise.  If you get a chance defiantly look up the male mating call of the koala online cause it is weird!  Good night for now.

First Day On The Island.

The night tour began and we immediately saw dozens of kangaroo!  Some of which had joeys in their pouches or very close by.  Unfortunately for me I didn’t bring my camera, but I figured that I’ll be here for a good long while so I would get the photos tomorrow.   David, who has a PhD in the wildlife around Australia I believe, was extremely informative!  I learned that male kangaroos have very large biceps and triceps, helps for impressing the ladies I suppose.  Kangaroos are very energy efficient, so when they jump, their diaphragm and innards are pushed down and their lungs are filled up to the max with air.  It was fun to think of that when they were bounding away from us. 

The cape barren goose is almost a pest on Kangaroo Island but most places on the mainland they are all gone, mostly because of foxes and other predators.  We saw lots of wallaby bones around the edges of the bush because they like to die in the shade.   The two little French boys that were on the tour were constantly finding skulls to take home… I secretly want one too.  As soon as it got dark the koalas became so lively it was unbelievable!  They were climbing from branch to branch and sometimes even jumping!  The last koala I spotted had a baby on her back; it was so unbelievably cute I wanted to take it to bed!  The end of the tour was everyone walking through a field full of wallaby!  They were so incredibly abundant tonight I was amazed.  I was ready for the tour to end though when it did because I was so exhausted.  Tomorrow my day starts at 7:45 so I have to be up before then.  I get to go on a koala hunt so the visitors have an easier time finding the cuddly things.

I am now ready for my 4-minute shower… I might steal a couple extra minutes though. Night night!

Without a doubt the most restless sleep I have ever had in my entire life!  I was constantly waking to check my phone for the time thinking my alarm wouldn’t go off and the dreams I had didn’t help either.  They consisted of me not waking up in time to catch the bus, not being able to fit everything in my bag, and starving.  At a point one of my dreams seemed so real that I was a little surprised when I woke up to see that the time wasn’t 6:45 but 3:23 instead.  I woke 3 minutes before my alarm went off and decided that’s as good ahead start as any.  Trying to get ready and not wake my three roommates was extremely difficult.  I ended up dragging everything out into the hall and packing it there because I felt so bad about the noise I was trying not to make.  I got very hot very fast and had to take my shirt off.  As my luck would have it a guy going to Kangaroo Island came out into the hall to find me in a sports bra, sweatpants, and my big Timberlands on.  Of course all my stuff had to be strewn across the hall way as well.  I had to help him navigate through my stuff and he was very careful not to step onto my bra that was placed in the middle of everything. 

After a brief time in the bathroom I was off to the central bus station with nothing in my stomach and already sweaty clothes; it wasn’t even that warm out.  I met the same guy at the bus station and we got to talking.  He is from the UK and is here on a university exchange to intern at a hospital in Melbourne after he finishes his tour.  He has very blonde hair, a slight English accent and glasses.  The only thing I neglected to get was his name… but I figured you guys would like to know if I was meeting anyone at all on my trip so this is the best I can do at the moment.

On my 2-hour bus ride I was able to cool down and sleep for a bit before we got to the more scenic part of the ride.  We drove past barley fields that where 15km long, multiple red wine fields and olive orchards that now replace the almond orchards.  It was very beautiful as the sun was just starting to come up over the hills lighting up the yellow fields of barley making them golden. 

There seemed to be a very distinct cloud cover as the bus entered the part of the ride where there only seemed to be rolling hills and animal farms.  It was very exciting seeing the rolling hills because I had seen them in the film about volcanic activity in Mt. Gambier.  There were very fluffy sheep and hundreds of cattle mixed in with kangaroo that jumped away when the driver honked his horn. 

The bus driver referred to himself as a scallywag because he is the only bus driver that stops at the bakery on his way to the ferry.  I was so happy to hear that because I hadn’t eaten since noon the previous day and was famished!  I ordered a lovely vegetarian pizza thingy that was so delicious and washed it down with a well-deserved bottle of water.

I am on the ferry now and it is a very rocking crossing; the swells are huge and it is raining.   I will be very happy once I get to the sanctuary and hope they will let me shower my nastyness away.  If they don’t I think I’ll just raise my arms which will most likely persuade them otherwise.  The ferry ride is 45 minutes and my eyes are getting heavy, the rocking seems to be putting me to sleep.

An hour drive later to Kingscote by myself and I have met Cat.  She is the new manager of Hansons Bay Sanctuary.  I got do my own grocery shopping that the sanctuary pays for, don’t worry mom I got lots of veggies and beans.  The closest town to the sanctuary is an hour away, which means we have to get what we need and hope it will last until next Thursday.  I slept most of the way to the sanctuary except when the driver when to THE Hansons Bay instead of the sanctuary.  He was driving like a madman down a dirt road covered in potholes!  After he realized we weren’t at the sanctuary we turned around and I got to see my first echidna digging for food!  It was very exciting.

Unpacking and making myself feel at home was quick to do, but I am not sure how at home I feel yet.  I am the only volunteer here other than a lady who is in her late sixties.  All the other people who are close to my age stay in the staff member housing.  So far I have met Megan who is from Whales, she arrived with me today, as well as Claire.  She is from Toronto and has been volunteering at the sanctuary for 9 months.  She says that the island is absolutely beautiful!  It’s a little cloudy at the moment so I don’t really see what she means.  The drive here though was stunning; all farmland and fields that stretch for miles.

We got a walking tour of some of the grounds by David.  He is in his late forties and will be staying in the volunteer house with Ninna (sixty year old, I think that’s her name) and I.  I have now received my volunteer t-shirt and have learned that I am only allowed one 4 minute shower a day…this is going to be tough!

Unfortunately I am now starting to feel a bit homesick because it doesn’t seem like there is much here to do.  A new volunteer named Michaela will be coming next Thursday so maybe I’ll have some one my own age to hangout with at the house.  Hopefully I wont have any trouble making friends with the staff members who are a couple years older than me and we can find something to do.

I am trying my best to look on the bright side of everything when I don’t feel so happy.  Tonight at 7 which is in 2 hours, I will assist in a night tour.  We should see more koalas, more kangaroos, possums and wallabies.  I get to go ahead and do the spotting of things with my big a$$ torch.  For now I will decided on my shower and watch Pokemon.

Exhausting... Not Relaxing!

Today was meant to be my relaxing day… it was not at all as soon as I stepped outside the hostel.  I waited at the bus stop for an hour in the blistering heat, got so fed up I called a taxi and waited for it outside my hostel.  It never ended up coming to get me.  Instead a taxi drove by and I chased it down and hopped in.  We drove for about 25 minutes and I finally came to West Beach; it was quite windy but I wasn’t going to let that spoil anything!  As I walked down to the beach barefoot I realized I didn’t have my camera… I had left it in the taxi!  I called every single taxi company in Adelaide!  Finally one of the taxi companies I called said they would call me back if they had found it; I had to call them back I was so anxious.  I was told they couldn’t get a hold of the driver and I should call back in a good hour.  I collapsed to the concrete pavement realizing I wasn’t going to have a camera for the rest of my trip.  I told myself this is all a learning experience and that something will come of this.  I walked for about an hour up the highway humming a mantra that my dad taught me to do when things get tough; it is supposed to help you clear any obstacle or trouble you are having.  I got to my bus stop and then my phone rang… it was the taxi lady saying she had recovered my camera and asked when she could drop it off.  So after bussing back and not having a pleasant day, I finally recovered my camera at 9 o’clock this evening.  I was so relieved to get it back safely and even more so because it is a $300 camera and if I had really lost it for good I would be in big trouble!

So here I am…in my room, having not eaten in 8 or more hours, smelling a bit funny with a small headache.  Stores are closed so I might just have to eat a cookie or see if they sell food down stairs.  I shall then have a glorious shower and play my music and sing while I wash!  Then I will pack and sleep until 5:30!  Tomorrow my animal adventure will really start! I know my trip can only get better from here... hopefully.

At 7:15 Sharon and I did yoga on the lawn while the sun was just coming up over Mount Gambier.  It was very relaxing and peaceful in the warm air and hearing the chatter of the birds around us.

At 9 we headed to the Telstra store (our version of TELUS or Rogers) to finally get my phone plan fixed and working!  It took the guy about 2 minutes to get my phone up and running… it was so easy I felt like such a goose. 

I was glad to say goodbye to Janet and Merve one last time before I left!  They were really excited for my adventure to start.

Now I am in the Adelaide YHA hostel… and I am clean and don’t smell like an animal.  I’m thinking of going to the beach once I finish Blogging; hopefully I put on enough sunscreen not to get burnt.  Today will be my relaxing day before all my hard work starts on Kangaroo Island.

Just before I forget Mom wanted some photos of Robin and Sharon’s place… hopefully this is good enough. 

Kitchen.

Living room and dining room.

Front door... all made of copper.

Half of the front yard.

Side yard.

Muscovite ducks, the black one got into a fight with a fox and won!  He has a damaged wing to prove it.

Fruit and nut trees in back yard.

More Back yard.

Car...

Other side yard.