Is that the Sound of a Pig on a Harley Davidson?

After bidding the rainforest adieu, we flew three hours southwest to Adelaide. Adelaide is the capital of South Australia, and the city is really not all that interesting. Albeit we are staying at a hotel in the middle of a mall, so that might explain the ho hum quality of the city. What I did notice as we were flying over was the stark contrast of Australia's interior. I'm not sure who likened Australia to a doughnut, but it really is true. All the tasty stuff are near the coasts, while the middle is quite hollow. From the air, the interior looks like a desolate, forsaken place. As we got closer to Adelaide, the landscape change dramatically to that of very green rolling hills, perfect for cultivating all those great wines that have become quite popular recently.

Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, we got up very early to catch a bus to Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island is the third largest island in Australia (after Tasmania and some island in the north near Darwin) and is about a two hour drive from Adelaide. We winded our way through the verdant Adelaide Hills and down in to McClaren Vale (a burgeoning wine region and where we will do some wine tasting on our final day in Australia). As we were rolling along, I couldn't help think that this area reminded me of Napa in the early spring or of Normandy. That is, until you see kangaroos lazing about in the trees of the side of the road. That pulled me back into thinking this is definitely still Australia.

Anyway, after a leisurely 45 minute ferry ride to Kangaroo Island, we boarded a bus for our "Kangaroo Island Highlights Tour." This could also be named the "German Retirees Tour of KI." We were definitely at least 40 to 50 years younger than the majority of the people on tour and in the minority in terms of English speakers. However, this just meant that we were able to walk a bit quicker down to Seal Bay, one of the last remaining colonies of Australian Sea Lions. Australian sea lions were hunt almost to extinction at the turn of the last century, apart of this colony, which is protected due to the band of reefs that keep seal boats from entering the bay. At Seal Bay, we're not allowed to be closer than 6 meters from the seal lions, which is harder than you think because they're everywhere! Sleeping in the sand dunes, rolling down the dunes into the water. Chris got a great video of one of the sea lions getting into the water.

Our youth also prevailed when it came to the "Birds of Prey Free Flight Display." There was a wild koala sleeping in one of the eucalyptus trees at this mini amphitheatre, so we had plenty of time to get hundreds of shots of the sleeping koala before the Germans arrived. The Birds of Prey show was actually pretty cool, and Chris got to have a kookaburra land on his (gloved) hand, while I got to pet a cute kestrel (very small hawk).

After this, we got to what I would say is the best part of our trip at KI -- leaving the Germans behind and checking in at the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Retreat. This hotel is near the Flinders Chase National Park and prime habitat for wallabies. All the rooms face onto a courtyard, where the wallabies appear near dusk in search of "roo food." Roo food (purchasable at the reception desk) is simply hay pellets and the wallabies go gaga for it. Their little claws wrap around your hand as they eat the food and the other wallabies will push out the more timid ones (kind of reminds me of the cats at home with tuna). The most amazing thing to witness are the wallaby mums and their little joeys peeking out of their pouches. I wish I could post pictures now they're so cute.

Chris and I decided to go a night walk at Hanson's Bay Sanctuary, which is watched over by a very nice couple named James and Natalie. They decided to ditch their ordinary lives in Adelaide and jobs they hated to care for the sanctuary. Although it was very cold, we got to witness many animals that only come out at night.

This included the koalas! I've only ever seen koalas sleeping in trees at the San Diego Zoo, so this was a real treat for me. Koalas sleep 21 hours of the day because the eucalyptus leaves are so hard to digest, so seeing them walking on the ground was amazing. Male koalas have a very distinctive territorial noise that literally sounds like pigs on motorcycles. Chris got a video of one of them making this noise and it's really hilarious to hear.

We also saw several kangaroos that are currently being fed hay due to the very destructive wildfire that occurred last December and killed off all their normal feed. One of the kangaroos at the sanctuary is domesticated because she was found as a joey when her mum was hit by a car. Her name is Amy and she loves to be pet and fed. I also got to pet her joey, aptly named Josie.

Kangaroo Island is so sparsely populated that there is absolutely zero light pollution at night. As a result, at the end of our night walk we saw billions of stars, the Milky Way, and the Southern Cross which is emblazoned on both the Australian and New Zealand flags.

The German Retirees will soon be here to lead us for the second half of our KI tour, but I definitely think we made the right decision in breaking this tour into two days. The wallabies alone made it worth it!

This will probably be our last post of the trip as we sadly head back to the States on Saturday. The Australian media have been obsessed with Sarah Palin as the Republican VP choice, so I can only imagine what's been covered in the US media.