La Jeune Fille: Kangaroo Island Gets Real

Well, I told you I had some pictures for you.

Kangaroo Island is renowned for its wildlife. Unfortunately, quite a lot of it is on the side of the road in the form of roadkill. Here in Aus we are pretty used to that sort of thing and any drive in the country around sunset is fraught with the stress of keeping your eyes peeled for wandering kangaroos and wombats darting across the road out of nowhere. La JF was slightly more disturbed by the routine sight of bodies by the roadside so we thought we had better let her see some animals that were living and breathing.



We headed out to a well known tourist spot called 'Paul's Place'. I had heard about it through a UK friend who had visited back in 2004 but had never been there myself. By all accounts it was a pretty 'up close and personal' experience with native wildlife and when we mentioned it to the locals they raised their eyebrows and pursed their lips. 'Not for everybody' was the general consensus.

La Jeune Fille was either going to love it or hate it!

As we walked in through the first gate, we were met by these little guys.

La JF was captivated.


The proprietor, Paul, was however pretty 'in your face'. The first thing he did was suss out his audience, pick a likely 'victim' and place a wallaby in her arms!


This was followed fairly quickly by dropping the same wallaby onto the laps of our three.


Now had she been asked, I am pretty sure La Jeune Fille would have politely declined the invitation to have a wallaby on her lap! But as it was, she seemed to quite enjoy the experience.


She was less impressed with the alpaca, sheep and goats however who, once we were given buckets of food to distribute, got pretty pushy indeed.


The next enclosure followed this pattern. I've got to admit, I don't like emus (pronounced eem-yous) close up. They are nasty, stupid birds who think nothing of running into the side of your car for no apparent reason; and being surrounded by a bunch of them looking for food was slightly intimidating. The BA and the Small Boy didn't seem to mind being surrounded by birds.


Although La JF's body language left us in no doubt as to her feelings.


I think visitors like this just stick out like sore thumbs to Paul though. He picked on her again.


The emu egg was a little more acceptable but imagine my surprise when she took this next encounter with such good humour!

That's a fresh water crayfish known as a marron. Not to be outdone I had a hold.

And then the Small Boy got in on the act. Check out the BA in the background though!

Funnily enough, this was the one thing she would NOT do.
"I don't do crustaceans," was her comment.

She does do baby possums though!

And snakes.
In fact we all did snakes and La JF was ok with it, which shouldn't have surprised me given her fondness for horror movies.


The koalas were a little more intimidating; after all, they have claws!
This one made the mistake of grabbing La JF's hair but after a little adjustment she coped with him quite well too.


The BA is an old koala holder from way back.


But the thing the BA did, which really impressed me, was this!


Did I mention I hate emus?

We're all ok with birds though.


Except La JF of course. This one really freaked her out!


Nothing that a baby kangaroo (joey) couldn't cure however!


And I've got to finish off with the bearded dragon and the hopping mouse.


So all in all a pretty successful visit! But the day wasn't over yet!!!!!

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