All By Myself...

Until this past weekend, I thought Celine Dion was the most annoying French Canadian woman on earth. Well, turns out I was wrong. I sat in close proximity to a woman on my tour of Kangaroo Island who definitely gave her a run for her money, and that's without even belting out 'My Heart Will Go On.' This lady was just a small part of a cast of rather odd foreigners on my one day tour of the island, that while beautiful and informative, left me feeling like the world's biggest tourist. I was definitely a snap happy tourist, but only got up the courage to ask for someone else to take my photo once. At least I can prove I was there?!

For a bit of background, Kangaroo Island is the third largest island off the coast of Australia, and if you sail due West of KI, the first country you will land on is Argentina. Kangaroo Island is known for its beautiful scenery and wildlife, along with being the home to the only pure strain of Ligurian bees left in the world. So no trying to sneak any bees over with you if you ever go for a visit! Our tour consisted of visiting the following highlights - Seal Bay, the Remarkable Rocks and Admiral's Arch. We also got to see a bird of prey show, where I got to show off my Australian bird of prey prowess by correctly identifying the Wedge-tailed Eagle for the group. When did I become such a teacher's pet? Or maybe I'm an Australian bird groupie? Sadly, because I was one of the few English speakers on the tour, my smarty pants knowledge was lost on the masses..

Did you know that sea lions were closely related to dogs?

Laughing kookaburras

The mighty Wedgie

The Remarkables

Admiral's Arch

In order to outdo my own touristy self, I followed the Kangaroo Island tour up with a trip to the Adelaide Zoo the next day. I was rather impressed by the place, actually. Not only did they have two REAL Chinese pandas (Wang Wang and Funi), but they had a nice assortment of other animals in a clean and well laid out setting. As in other zoo-related posts on this blog, I felt like a bit of a creep cruising through the zoo with no children in tow, but I didn't have time to kidnap one before I went. Biggest disappointment of the day - not seeing the elusive bilby. Next time!

Pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be using my flash here. Sorry, Wang Wang.

This is a Tasmanian Devil. He was doing laps when I snapped this, which entertained me and the other 5 yr olds nearby.

Had to include this guy

Escaped from Meerkat Manor

King Julian! (for Jaime)

Don't think this Mandrill appreciated having his photo taken

Long necks

This is a wombat. I have no idea what they do...