Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, August 02, 2010
A visit to another planet
Mate, I just had an awesome weekend in Oz. I friend of mine from LA was in Adelaide for ‘business’ and needed a travelling companion so I volunteered. I met him in Adelaide and we did lunch at a cafe before heading off to Cleland Wildlife Park. Standing in a paddock with kangaroos, emus, wallabies, wombats, koalas, tasmanian devils, dingos, potoroos and crazy neon birds with their synthesizer-like calls was like being on Mars. Here’s a wombat.
They are strange animals – they reminded me of a mix between a pig and a dog. They were very playful and feisty. Marsupials, no less. Here’s me petting a joey in gray kangaroo’s pouch.
Yes. These kangaroos were sweet and tame and if you give them a little food they’re happy to have you take a peek in their pouch. Their pouch is weird. It’s not just a passive little pouch. The mouth, at least, is muscular and you could feel the momma kangaroo contract and relax it. Here’s a 6-legged kangaroo.
Here’s a 2-headed kangaroo.
These kangaroos might just be the sweetest animals I’ve ever met.
Were the emus sweet? Not so much.
But they were quite exotic looking.
The tasmanian devil (here eating a chicken head) was not sweet. They’re not especially aggressive or evil, they get their name from the cries they make at night which apparently are a bit spooky.
The enormous pelicans were not sweet, but they were enormous and from the moon.
Were the koala’s sweet? 
There’s an urban legend (in Oz) that the eucalyptus leaves make the koala’s high which is why they’re so docile and sweet. It’s just an olde wives tale. Or is it? 
My favorite extra-galactic animal was the red kangaroo.
These guys were so sweet, they’d let you pet them even if you didn’t have any food for them. They were so gentle and nice, even to Walid (who argued with them about free will then called them racists).
The rest of the trip was awesome too, but more like living on earth.
p.s. if someone suggests that it was my fault that we didn’t get to see a spectacular ocean-side outcrop known as ‘the apostles’, they are probably exaggerating.
They are strange animals – they reminded me of a mix between a pig and a dog. They were very playful and feisty. Marsupials, no less. Here’s me petting a joey in gray kangaroo’s pouch. Yes. These kangaroos were sweet and tame and if you give them a little food they’re happy to have you take a peek in their pouch. Their pouch is weird. It’s not just a passive little pouch. The mouth, at least, is muscular and you could feel the momma kangaroo contract and relax it. Here’s a 6-legged kangaroo. Here’s a 2-headed kangaroo. These kangaroos might just be the sweetest animals I’ve ever met. Were the emus sweet? Not so much.But they were quite exotic looking. The tasmanian devil (here eating a chicken head) was not sweet. They’re not especially aggressive or evil, they get their name from the cries they make at night which apparently are a bit spooky. The enormous pelicans were not sweet, but they were enormous and from the moon. Were the koala’s sweet? There’s an urban legend (in Oz) that the eucalyptus leaves make the koala’s high which is why they’re so docile and sweet. It’s just an olde wives tale. Or is it? My favorite extra-galactic animal was the red kangaroo. These guys were so sweet, they’d let you pet them even if you didn’t have any food for them. They were so gentle and nice, even to Walid (who argued with them about free will then called them racists). The rest of the trip was awesome too, but more like living on earth. p.s. if someone suggests that it was my fault that we didn’t get to see a spectacular ocean-side outcrop known as ‘the apostles’, they are probably exaggerating.
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