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Do you ever have days when it is really hard to get up? I am not talking about that normal ‘I don’t want to get up feeling’, but actually being unable to get up because your body is so shattered you physically can't get up? Well I had that feeling when the alarm went off. I fell asleep so quickly last night and so deeply that when my alarm went off I really couldn’t get up. For the 1st time on the job I hit the snooze button and went straight back into a deep sleep. When my alarm went off at 7:30 I only actually got out of bed because Mrs G came into the room with the news that we only had 90 mins before our group tour left! There is nothing like your boss coming in with that news to get you up and ready in about 20 mins.

So far on this trip all our tours have been private, but today’s half day trip was a group one, so we really couldn’t dilly dally. I was rather impressed; for the first time on this trip we were all ready and waiting by 9am! That was a miracle, truly! It normally is HB and myself ready, with F a few minutes behind us. Then we usually play a game of guessing how long it will take for Mr and Mrs G to come down. Not only were we all ready and waiting at 9am, we were the first people to arrive. Yay us.

The group wasn’t that big, about 6 more people other than us. Our guide was very friendly and had lots of interesting things to say about what we were seeing. We had decided that to help HB look out for animals, and to make it a little more interesting for her, we would have a scoring system. Kangaroos and Wallabies were 15 points, Koalas 20, cows/sheep /horses were all 5 points. The first place that we went to was a Koala sanctuary. Not many Koalas but plenty of Kangaroos and Wallabies.

The Kangaroos found on Kangaroo Island are a sub-species of the Australian Grey called the Kangaroo Island Kangaroos! Wow that is certainly original. The Wallabies are basically very small versions of the Kangaroos, and are actually very sweet. They soon turned out to be HB’s favourite animals. There are between 20,000 - 40,000 Kangas on the Island, and for every Kanga there are 4 Wallabies! That is a lot of Wallabies. Compared to that, there are only 1500 Koalas. This is why we only saw 2 Koalas at the sanctuary. Of course they were sleeping Koalas, although one did open an eye to look at us, decided we obviously were not important and went back to sleep! How dare it!

As we took our little walk down the paths HB and I had a little chat about not picking things up. Whenever we go for a walk, no matter where we are HB MUST pick up a stick. It is as if she has been biologically programmed to pick one up. It isn’t a problem, it is rather sweet, and she always gets very attached to the stick. If she could she would bring each one back with her. The reason we had our little chat about her picking things up was because she will pick anything up, and put her hand into anything to get it. Not a problem you say. Well, yes it is considering where we are. Where she likes to put her hand would also be a perfect place for a snake or spider to live. Not only that but seeing as we are travelling around to exotic places I don’t know which plants are poisonous and which ones aren’t. It would be one thing to touch Poison Ivy, which would make her itch, but it is quite another for her to touch a Foxglove which looks pretty and for her to end up in A&E. This chat became a recurring theme throughout the trip. Only once did she end up with a rash on her hands.

The next stop on our tour was Flinders Chase National Park; in December 2007 a bush fire burned 90% of the park! As the bush is so dense, the fire burnt unbelievably hot. As you could imagine all the trunks and branches were killed. But the root system survived, so 2-3 weeks afterwards new shoots began to grow. The whole area looks like the surface of an alien planet. All the new growth is at the bottom, but due to a lack of micro organism in the soil there is nothing to help decompose the dead tops. As I said it looks very eerie. As is the case with a lot of forests, fires maybe devastating but they are crucial for new growth and helping species get stronger as only the strong will survive. Darwin’s survival of the fittest at its best.

Somewhere inside the National Park is a rock formation called the Remarkable Rocks. When you first see it from a distance, it doesn’t look like much; in fact it looks like a giant drowning. It is as you get closer you realise how remarkable they are. They look like different things depending on which angle you look at them. We saw a snapping turtle, a crocodile skull, a vulture, Darth Vader’s helmet, whale, fish, and a dinosaur. We had a great time climbing all over them. At the edge of them was a nice drop down into the ocean, so we got nice and close to the edge of them. The whole atmosphere there was very peaceful and relaxing, part of me wanted to just sit down and watch the ocean go by. As it said in the brochure ‘this is the sort of space where standing still and trying to take it all in is energising, spiritual almost’.


The final stop we made was at Cape de Coudedic, this is a beautiful lighthouse with 3 cottages that were built 110 years ago, but are still in top condition, the perfect place for a summer get away. The whole point of going here was not to see the lighthouse but to take the short walk down the cliff to watch the New Zealand Fur Seals. Very cute, but incredibly smelly. There was one that kept us entertained for a good 10 minutes as he couldn’t get comfortable and kept rolling around. Then he got hiccups. It truly was funny to watch.

The rest of the day was spent playing Pixie Hollow Memory with HB. I kid you not when I say the rest of the day. HB and I really did spend 4 hours playing Memory. HB beat me twice to my 32, not that I was counting or anything. Yes I know I could have let her win, but what would I be teaching her? I never let children win at games; they have to beat me through their own skill. Yes I know a 5 year old doesn’t have much skill in games but the look on her face when she beat me was priceless.

The end of the day was the same as every other - dinner, shower and bed. Trust me I was one happy person when I could crawl into my bed and settle down for a nice long sleep.

Coming up tomorrow a full day’s tour of Kangaroo Island and some naked people on the beach!

To be continued...

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