When you go to Australia, people will always ask "did you see any kangaroos or koalas?" and if you haven't, what else were you doing during the visit?? The problem is, you don't want to go to a zoo to see "native" animals, and you can't go roaming around the outback safely without a guide, and that could get expensive. Since we're in Adelaide and there aren't too many places that these animals exist in nature, we went to Cleland Conservation Park. The space all the animals lived in was very open, built on the environment, which was refreshing after coming from the zoo which was 80% concrete.
The Tasmanian Devil was hard to photograph because he kept moving around. Cute little bugger though!
The koalas actually had a line to see them, because they slept so much and would be rotated out for people to get pictures with. Not nearly as friendly or soft as we expected. Back to the kangaroos!
These guys were super soft and very friendly. We hung out with the roo's for a long time.
Random bug on a railing.
The emu's were a surprise. The bellowy sound they make, and the sheer size of them when they stand up is pretty scary. For the most part, though, they were very chill and just got to know us. Once we gained their trust, they would eat out of our hands.
Cuteness continues! The wallabies were awesome. They were like ratty little cats that just wanted food and love. It's becoming more apparent that all animals are the same, as all humans are the same.
The bandicoots were no exception! They were running all around the park freely. You'd randomly see a few running across the path, and even though they were really skittish, you could feed them. Marina even almost picked one up! This place is amazing, and we'll definitely be coming back often.
We missed the last bus and were talking to some American tourists who shared our feelings of how friendly everyone here is. They were waiting for a cab, so we decided to walk the very long hike down the hill to the bus. Less than 5 minutes later, an insanely nice German family picked us up and gave us a ride all the way back to town. At night we popped over to the Garden of Unearthly Delights for an amazing circus act, followed by a man who could breathe through his eyes. This guy has such an enlightened outlook on life and we left feeling immensely better about the world. I'll have to get a picture with him.
Last weekend we ran into this Aboriginal didgeridoo player on Rundle and he asked us to play along with sticks. He was, again, just a genuinely friendly person who just wanted to share his culture with the world. Aside from the white-trash meatheads with mullets (there are quite a few), the people around here are awesome and I can see why so many people want to visit.
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