This morning we got up early to take a bush walk by
ourselves before breakfast. We got
out about 6:30 and began our hike through the dense bush, praying that we would
not encounter the black tiger snake (4th most venomous snake in the
world,), or any of the myriads of deadly spiders. We also hoped not to get lost in the bush- no cell
reception. We kept walking and
walking, and at one point considered turning around, . We persevered, though, and eventually
came out of the bush and onto the cliff path back to the hotel. No snake bites, no spider bites, just a
healthy appetite for breakfast.
The quality and quantity of food here is amazing with 3 multi course
meals along with all liquor (we didn’t have any for breakfast) you can
drink.
After a huge breakfast, we met our morning guide,
Jamie. He was a retired sheep
farmer, born, raised, and rarely off KI.
He was quite a colorful character who regaled us all morning with
stories about his family and several of the locals. The morning was spent visiting a variety of sites of
interest in Flinders Chase National park.
Our first task, though was to find a koala. Just outside the park there is a koala sanctuary where
eucalyptus trees that the koalas are partial to have been planted, and the area
protected from feral cats, the koalas’ primary predator. .Koalas were
introduced from the Australian mainland and have thrived here. We spotted a koala high up in the crook
of a eucalyptus and he, fortunately was awake. Koalas sleep about 19 or 20 hours a day, This may be due to
the fact that the eucalyptus oil that they feed on causes some
intoxication. They also don’t get
much nutrients from the leaves, so they must conserve energy.
Driving through Flinders Chase NP, we stopped at a few of
the more spectacular rock formations and vistas. The first was “Remarkable Rocks”, not very imaginative. These rocks were formed several million
years ago by eruption of magma through the ocean floor, followed by years of
erosion. Some like to believe that
the same people who built Stonehenge, came to Australia and built the remarkable rocks. (or
maybe aliens!) In any case, they
were pretty cool.
Next was Admiral Arch, a stunning stone arch created by wave
action along the cliff face.
Our final stop was Hanson’s Bay, the bay adjacent to Penguin
Bay on which our hotel sat.
We got back to Southern Ocean Lodge in time to download
photos, and have an early dinner so we could get out for a night time walk in
Hanson’s Bay Wildlife sanctuary.
Many of the more interesting mammals are nocturnal and we had hoped to
get to see some of these, including a couple of additional koalas. The abundance of wildlife far exceeded
our expectations. First, on the
way to the sanctuary, Allistair took a short detour to an old sheep farm
adjacent to Southern Ocean Lodge.
There were a bizillion kangaroos and wallabies. This was just about dusk, making for
some nice photo-ops.
When we got to the wildlife sanctuary, we were greeted by a
koala at eye level in the crook of a eucalyptus. He was happy to pose, and show us his climbing
abilities.
We then heard some terrible noises that sounded like huge
hogs coming from a tree not too far away.
We found a male and female koala having a disagreement about you know what. It seems that she had a headache and he
wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The mating call of the koala is pretty disgusting, no wonder she didn’t
want to have anything to do with him.
We found several other koalas including one on the ground.
The best find of the night, though was a pygmy possum,
almost never seen, partly because of their size, only about 3in. long
(excluding the tail).
We also saw
two other types of possum, the ring-tailed possum and the bushy-tail possum.
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| Bush-Tailed Possum |
 |
| Ring-Tailed Possum |
Other finds of the night included another echidna,
some
wallabies, including a joey trying to climb into his mother's pouch
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