Wombats and Koalas and Kangaroos, oh my!

Our most frequent question in e-mails has been, hands down, whether we've seen kangaroos or koalas yet. This sample might be skewed by the fact that we correspond regularly with Erin's class back at The Clifton School, and those kids are seriously hankering for news of wildlife sightings!

I do think that our girls had the impression before we arrived that there might actually be a kangaroo or koala around every corner. And so the first month may have been a bit of a disappointment in that regard.

But at the end of February, friends came over from the states. We weren't about to let them leave before we had all seen some kangaroos and koalas. And so thanks to Heidi Freed and Mike, Marcia and Will Kochel, we finally saw those koalas, kangaroos, and a whole lot more. We visited both Cleland Wildlife Sanctuary and Deep Creek Conservation Park/Victor Harbor during those days and soaked up the Australian wildlife scene.

 Our first koalas played hard to get - tough to get much sleep at the wildlife sanctuary, I guess.

  Better luck with this sweetie, a rescue koala who is more accustomed to human interactions.

 Possibly my favorite Aussie animal, the echidna. Clearly, scratching an itch is a challenge.

 Alison braved getting close to the kangaroos, despite surprise at their size.

Picking her way through a field of 'roo poo. There were a lot of kangaroos hanging about, with predictable consequences.

 One of our first sightings "in the wild" - this was a baby whose mama was in the nearby bush.

 Fairy penguins at Victor Harbor. Who me, moulting?

 Wild creatures of a different sort...