Have you ever driven on dirt and gravel roads for hours with your head bent down to see up into every tree you pass in hopes of spotting a small grey lump among the branches?  If not, you have not yet had the privilege of visiting Kangaroo Island.  Sold to me as a wildlife sanctuary [Ed. note: because it is supposed to be, and previously has been, TEEMING with wildlife!], and named after the famous Aussie animal as well, I had great hopes of seeing fields upon fields of kangaroos and wallabies when the ferry pulled into port and possibly having a few koalas walk up to greet me with a hug as we disembarked.   Not so much.

The island tries to keep up the illusion.   There are warning signs everywhere along the roads to watch for different animals and drive slow.   But those animals, they are hiding…  Fine, we’ll do what one does when you need the inside track: pay someone local to take us to the animals behind the scenes!   We started with the seals since they were on the way to our farmhouse (oh, I’ll get to that…).  The behind the scenes tour in this case let you walk down to the beach on Seal Bay and watch the exceptionally lazy sea lions (yea, that was confusing to me too…) sun themselves and occasionally a pup plop down by the mom for a little snack.  It was adorable and a good break from the driving, but not what we came to Kangaroo Island to see…

We decided to head to our accommodations for the next few days and get settled before setting out on the day’s activities.   Did I mention yet that when it was time to plan Australia, the Boy (having been here 12 years prior as a teen…) told me “I’ve got this” and I believed him?  Yup, this explains entirely how I found myself staying in a 4 bedroom farmhouse off a dirt road on the deserted end of the island.   And because we were just staying in a farmhouse, there were no check in procedures or credit cards needed…the door was unlocked when we got in and the instructions were simple: stay away from the cattle.   I cannot make this up.  In fact, here’s proof:

[Ed. note: what can I say, the island is lacking in fine B&B’s on the west side of island – the side near the platypus!]  Well, wildlife and wilderness island was never my cup of tea anyway, so I determined to just roll with it and let him have his moment this weekend.  And probably book a spa package when I got back on the mainland…

We drove for hours over 2 days.   We looked in every field and every tree and stopped our car at the oddly colored rock.   We tried so hard to find the wildlife in their natural habitat and they simply refused to accommodate.   I had to cheer him up somehow…so I found tall things for him to climb.   The Remarkable Rocks are one of the strangest natural things I’ve ever encountered.   It’s a granite dome on the edge of the Southern Ocean, with rugged and beautiful rock structures perched on top, naturally.   It makes no sense and yet you cannot help but being drawn to it and sit there watching the crashing waves and wondering how the heck it ever ended up forming here.

That detour didn’t distract him, I had to find some wildlife in this place.   Surely there was something out there, maybe it was just shy of the roads?  So I agreed to get out of the safe, air conditioned car and hike along the wilderness in hopes of finding my husband a friend. [Ed. note: she loves hiking. It’s absolutely her favorite thing.] And be it luck or pity or simply feeding time, but man did we ever.   The fields were littered with kangaroo and wallabies and the hilarious echidna.  Before I could truly register what was happening, my husband was off…into the fields he went after a kangaroo.   He was RUNNING after the kangaroo across the fields of Australia in hopes of catching one to have a hug. [Ed. note: I wanted to cuddle one in the wild…]  And anyone who thought I exaggerate in these stories or the bio section now has proof that our lives are just so ridiculous I make nothing up….