Australian Holiday - Warawong Wildlife Sanctuary - 28 Oct 2006

Saturday Morning Dan and Brian headed to Rundle Street Mall in the CBD after breakfast. This is not an enclosed mall, but a street closed to traffic and dedicated to shopping, people watching, and teenage loitering. Brian wanted a camera bag to house both his Nikon 35 mm film camera and HP digital along with his lenses for the Nikon. They found just the thing.

We headed back to the hills for an afternoon at the Warawong Wildlife Sanctuary, founded 35 years ago by a farmer who turned his dairy farm into a home for endangered Australian wildlife. We started our tour with the Birds of Prey show. The presenter was great, introducing us to a kookaburra named Jack, a barn owl, a falcon and a wedge-tailed eagle. Throughout the presentation a couple of magpies harassed the birds of prey, until the keeper finally lured them into a cage using meaty tidbits and shut them up to protect them from the eagle. The birds were quite amazing. The barn owl hovered silently overhead and the falcon flew about snatching bits of meat tossed into the air. The eagle was our favorite; not what we would call beautiful, but extremely powerful and very majestic. He ate a rabbit carcass while sitting on the keeper’s hand, chewing it up bones and all. He was very affectionate toward his keeper, who said that eagles, once tamed, become one-man birds. An eagle’s vision compares to a human’s like a 10 mega pixel digital camera compares to a 4 mega pixel.
Wedge Tail Eagle - One Bad DudeLoving Couple
After the bird show we toured the rest of the sanctuary. First, we petted the kangaroos, who were lounging on a grassy slope. Brian and Sarah said kangaroos are lazy, which they did nothing to disprove. They look quite comfortable lounging around; almost human in their posture and expression.

Next was the platypus pond. We really wanted to see one. The sign said to be very quiet and watch for bubble trails in the water. We waited for a while, then spotted bubbles 20 or 30 meters across the pond. We waited patiently and silently, cameras poised, for 10 or 15 minutes as the creature slowly but surely moved in our direction. Finally, it came close enough so we could get a good look. It was not a platypus, but a big turtle. Quite disappointed, we moved on. Further along the trail we spotted bandicoots and wallabies (miniature kangaroos), one wallaby posing nicely for pictures with a Joey in her pouch.
We returned to the Adelaide CBD for supper at Good Life Modern Organic Pizza – Brian and Sarah’s favorite. We feasted on garlic and olive breads and three pizzas: Margarita (tomatoes and basil); free-range chicken with baby potatoes, garlic, rosemary and parmesan slices; and Barossa Valley double smoked bacon with pineapple and Australian Swiss. So good!