Wombat hunting

We’ve seen most of the native animals that we feel we need to see, except live wombats. South Australia is not their native area, but there is a wildlife park that has pictures of people playing with and stroking these rather stocky fellas. We set for the 4 hr drive to get there, plus putting us within a stone’s throw of Adelaide.

The drive was quite fascinating. A lot of South Australia is very flat. The road took us along the coast where there are long lakes, partly freshwater and partly sea water. Some areas appear to be salt flats.

No drive would be complete without passing a “Big” something. Today it was the big lobster 🦞. The Big Lobster (Larry) is 17 metres high, 15.2 metres long and is 13.7 metres wide, with an approximate weight of 4 tonnes. We had been told that the reason it was so big was that the plan had been drawn in cm but had been built in inches making it 2.5 times bigger than planned. However, I can’t find any reference to support that story. I guess it is just a big lobster 🦞

Unfortunately, the wombats were not only asleep, but they had dug through the metal mesh that lined their enclosure and made burrows so that they couldn’t be seen. One was asleep in a man-made sleeping area with glass so that the public could see it, but, in reality, there was nothing to see.

However, I did see a Cassowary, and emu that looks like it’s all dolled up to go out on a Saturday night with makeup and a hat. They also had a koala feeding and a snake handling session all in the same place. While one of the three koalas refused to wake up and come down to allow the punters to see home, the other two did a great job of feeding while being stroked and having cameras poked at them. These were not smelly specimens, is that because they are captive or that we have been mislead?

The weather was warm, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. The wallabies ate from our hands and allowed us to stroke them. Overall, although disappointing that we didn’t see wombats, a lovely afternoon.

Just down the road is one of the last remaining horse drawn trams, so that’s our treat for tomorrow.

Camping at the local show ground tonight.Read more