Last night when we went back to Duck Lagoon to look for koalas, there was an Italian couple camping who had been on Kangaroo Island for five days. I asked them what their favorite thing had been, and with zero hesitation the girl said “Hanson Bay”. They had apparently seen fourteen koalas during a two hour guided walk and had some impressive video, so suddenly we had a destination for today.
Hanson Bay is located on the opposite corner of the island from us, and we took a roundabout route across the northern part of the island to get there, during which we finally figured out where the kangaroos have been hiding. They’re most active from dusk until dawn, but we saw dozens of them lazing about next to the road under the trees, in pastures, and along the hills during our drive. Audrey was also excited by a goanna traversing the road – they are a decent-sized monitor lizard that according to Crocodile Dundee are best eaten medium or well done.
Before visiting Hanson Bay we planned a return visit to Flinders Chase National Park for a short hike. As we entered the park a koala started crossing the road, and for the next several minutes we were the happiest humans on the planet as we photographed him slowly getting to the other side and ascending what was obviously a far superior tree to whatever one he’d been asleep in previously. By the end of the day we had seen about a dozen koalas, but I’m confident that even if that scenario repeated itself for a year we wouldn’t get tired of them.
Once in the park we skipped the ranger station to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s perplexing encounter, and traveled up a dirt road to see the Platypus Pools. While the platypus in the area were of the invisible variety today, we nevertheless had a nice hike before heading to Hanson Bay for our two hour guided walk (it’s a private reserve, so you can only visit with a guide). No one else signed up, so we roamed the reserve on our own private tour with the resident guide who already knew where a bunch of the cute little buggers were resting, so as she told us about the animals and the 2020 fires we got to visit with one koala after another. Audrey and Kira (the guide) bonded over a shared desire to hug every animal we saw, and after a very memorable walk through koala heaven we finished our trip with a few more kangaroos before starting the drive home.
My favorite creature so far is the wombat.
That is not the correct answer. The correct answer rhymes with boala.
Had to look up Goanna. Good eatin’, hunh? Did you have the opportunity to try it?
Koala’s sleep 20 hours a day! I had no idea. Why…that is excessive-no? I’m glad ya’ll timed it right to see that one dude cross the street before he fell asleep again. I’m learning so much– Thanks for sharing your adventures! So fun.
Apparently when your diet consists solely of toxic eucalyptus leaves, it takes a lot of extra time to digest, so they don’t do much besides eat toxic leaves, sleep, and poo with great frequency.
And no, we just photographed the goanna, but since 90% of my Australia Knowledge comes from Paul Hogan’s 1986 blockbuster, I’m sure they must be delicious.