Wow! What an amazing day we've had!

It started with a road trip to the north coast of the island and to Stokes Bay, which initially looked a little uninviting with it's many boulders piled on the beach. However, following signs and a tunnel like passage through a giant rock fall lead us to an idyllic beach, excepting the fierce wind and very dangerous rip! It gave me an opportunity to try out my new bikini.

Our next port of call was at a view point on Constitution Hill, which over looked the beautiful Snelling Beach. Tilda was renamed Hilda during this trip...very slow up steep hills!

Our main activity of the day was next... a visit to Paul's place wildlife sanctuary. We thought that we might end up being the only ones on the tour without kids but we were in very good company. Our first challenge was to find our way into this menagerie, which had no obvious entrance and was finally accessed (with help) through a series of occupied pens. We arrived to find other group members busy feeding a variety of animals. Paul was a fabulous character, full of life, cheeky, witty and clearly passionate about his wildlife. I'll not bore you with the details so here's a brief summary:

I held a marron (lobster type thing), baby kangaroo, a possum, a koala, a bearded dragon and a Shingleback. The koala was called Lou and was very soft and smelt of eucalyptus!

I fed kangaroos, emus (they peck too hard!), sheep, a lamb, geese, chucks and a turkey. I also got to hold and feed a baby roo from a beer bottle (containing milk!).

I saw echidnas, a boa, loads of birds and I had a cheeky Galah called Diago sit on my shoulder and peck at me! That's not all, but it's enough for now! It was amazing fun and I spent a lot of time laughing, especially when I was given a big bucket of food and asked to share it with my fellow guests. I was mobbed by about 8 roos who all put their paws on the edge of the bucket which meant that I couldn't move it. Mean time, Paul is shouting at me asking me to share out the food!

We were quite hungry by the time we'd finished so we headed to the bright lights of Kingscote, the island's largest town. It's still a teeny town but we got some food and walked along the water front.

We headed north again to the idyllic Emu bay to look for dolphins, who were not in residence :( The beach was lovely despite the wind and the sandy leg lashings! No bikini this time, it was my fleece all the way.

On the way home we stopped at Duck Lagoon, where wild koalas are often seen. Lesley did a great bit of spotting and we saw just one koala up a big tree. After a scenic route home (dodgy navigator!) we had another healthy supper and I've settled in for an early night. I'm tired after the excitement of today!