Seals and Sea Lions

I saw both Australian Sea Lions and New Zealand Fur Seals both in Tasmania and on Kangaroo Island. In Tasmania they were viewed from the boat on the cruise around Eaglehawk Neck, so we were on the water, they were on shore, and I had not yet learned to use my zoom feature. On Kangaroo Island, we saw seals at Cape du Couedic, where we were up above and they were down below, so I couldn't really get any good shots. This is the same reason I don't have any pictures of the dolphins. (If I had gone further on the Admiral's Arch trail, I probably could have gotten some good shots.)

So, every single picture I have up there is from Seal Bay, where not only were we right up close to the critters, but I also randomly figured out how the zoom worked. (I did a lot of experimenting with the camera. I know I should read the manual, but somehow it does not happen.)

Since this is Seal Bay, you might expect that the animals there would be seals, but they are sea lions. Does the distinction matter? Eh, probably not that much. They are all pinnipeds, and the term sea lion covers seven species in six genera, whereas if it was one species, or even one genus, okay, that would be totally clear. Basically, if it has ears and long front flippers and can walk on four flippers on land, we will call it a sea lion. I would have thought that gives them an advantage on land over non-sea lion seals, but those guys can kind of book it on land too, at least more than I was expecting. This is actually important, because you might look at a seal and think it can only wriggle over land, and feel safe taunting it, but they will surprise you. And they've got some teeth on them.

This is not to say that I thought they looked fierce--they looked adorable, and I was snapping picture after picture because I could not stop thinking how adorable they were everywhere I looked.

Sea lions (at least the nursing mothers, but I think all), will go out in the water for three days eating all the fish they can, and then come back and collapse for a long nap. In the picture of the one pup nursing, you can see that the mother is conked out, and this was pretty typical. Our guide said that usually everyone is conked out, but we had a lot of active pups playing around with each other. They were chasing and splashing in the surf, and so fun to watch. With the one group of sleepers, you can see the changing pelt colors as they mature.

We started off at the interpretive center, and this is where Maria saw the echidna puggle and started fretting that they were going to kill it. I told her that if it needed a mercy killing, it probably would have happened already, and they wouldn't have shown it to everyone, but she was really uptight. Peter assured her it was safe, and they had a wildlife expert there who rehabilitated injured and orphaned animals all the time, but it's funny how neurotic she can be.

I did not see the puggle, because I had gotten caught up in this display on ocean pollution, and did not even know they had brought the baby out. So, while Maria was finding something new to worry about, I was getting sick over pictures of dead animals, choked on plastic or strangled by fishing line. (I picked up every little piece of plastic I saw at Vivonne Bay.) It was a cheery little place.

As we started off to the beach, we started hearing really loud calls. At first I thought it was gulls, but it was the sea lions. Their calls were higher than I would have expected, but it was the young pups playing. If it were adult males fighting or looking for mates, it probably would have sounded different. I tried to record a sound clip, but it didn't take (one more reason I should read the manual).

We were instructed to stay in a group and with our guide. This is meant to protect the sea lions from humans being idiots, but also to keep any one person from becoming an easy target for a sea lion. As our shoes were filling up with sand, Maria went back onto the platform for the walkway back to the center. She was not far from us, but suddenly one young sea lion came charging from the shore. They do sometimes go pretty far inland, and people have found them in the restrooms.

This one ended up coming down the area between us, cutting her off from us (and closer to her than to us). She began to be a little nervous. Peter just suggested that she not move. The sea lion stayed there for a while, but eventually did move back to the water, and no attacks happened. I did wish I'd brought my video camera, but you know, I'll get other chances because I'm sure she hasn't learned a thing.

(To be fair, after Maria's heel got cut up on the first day, she never got to the point where she could where anything but flip flops while we were gone, so she never had really good foot support for the entire trip. So, let's say that's the reason she did not stay completely with the group.)

Anyway, Seal Bay was a definite highlight of the trip. Even allowing a respectful distance, you are so close, and at least for us they were very entertaining. Going when you have adolescents is probably a good idea. We were there in late September.

One other thing I should mention. The guide book said that Kangaroo Island has a lot of sharks, and Peter kept saying we didn't need to worry about them, which, really, we were on land most of the time, so of course. However, we did press a bit, and what he told us is that yes, there are some around, and it is going to be mainly where there is food. So, even if it were allowed, Seal Bay would be a terrible place for swimming or surfing. It's just a really great place for watching sea lions.

Kangaroo Island, Day 2

We woke up early the next morning. The shower wasn't great, but if any woodland creatures had made their way in, they made it back out by the time we got there, so that's all I can ask. Honestly, my sisters and I may have been the only ones who showered. We were definitely the only ones who changed clothes.

After a quick breakfast we headed on over to the Remarkable Rocks. "Remarkable: is a word that we came across a lot on the trip. We had already been to Remarkable Cave, here were the rocks, and there would be a whole mountain range in New Zealand called the Remarkables. In each case, it means something different.

Remarkable Cave is remarkable because it shows you the shape of Tasmania. The Remarkables are remarkably beautiful. The Remarkable Rocks? Well, it's just kind of amazing how those twisted shapes could come about from the granite. You can climb around quite a bit, but there are areas that you should not go past as it becomes very dangerous, and Peter told us of at least one death. The orange you see is from lichen, not from iron like the sand and rocks at Uluru.

We next headed over to Cape Du Couedic, which has several attractions. There is an old lighthouse, and the remains of the lighthouse keepers' cabins and storerooms. There is also the Admirals Arch.

As you look out at one point, you will see two islands off shore. These are the Casuarina Islands. If you go down this walkway and stairs to see the Admiral's Arch, you see that this spot of land is only tenuously attached to the rest of Kangaroo Island. Someday it will collapse, and there will be three Casuarinas. It is fairly stable now, but I wouldn't want to be down there during an earthquake.

From the Cape you can get a good view of a colony of New Zealand fur seals, but what was most exciting for us was that while we were at the storehouses, we could see a pod of dolphins in the water down below. We were so far up that they kind of just looked like black crescent moons, but it was still kind of a thrill.

We had lunch over at Flinders Chase National Park, and an enormous crow was watching us, trying to find a way to subtly check out our meal. Their information center is pretty good, and you can see a lot of pelts and things. I was mainly interested in that because Peter had told us they had an echidna skin, and I was curious about the spines. They are kind of like sharp, brittle bones. They are hollow, and the tips were off, so it was not as sharp as what you would find on one in the wild, but yes, it is formidable. Probably not as painful as a porcupine, but much more than a hedgehog.

The last hike was Snake Lagoon. I went about halfway, and did not find it particularly pretty, but I at least needed to try it.

It might have been more beautiful a few years ago. The stumpy plants you see with the grassy tops are Xanthorrhoea, or yakka. On December 6th, of 2007 there was a series of lightning strikes. I can't remember if it was fifteen strikes that started seven fires, or there were fifteen fires, but acres and acres were burned. Yakka grow slowly, perhaps an inch a year on their own, but in times of stress they will shoot up these spikes, as shown, and then they can pollinate and send out seeds, and try and create some new life in case the old ones die off. After the fires, there were spikes everywhere.

We also stopped off at Hansen Bay to take a look at that beach, which was quite nice. It was important that we make the pelican feeding at 5, but that will be its own entry also. Then it was back to the ferry, where we could eat dinner and look for penguins while we waited for the boat. There did seem to be one little penguin around, but I couldn't get a good look.

I'll post separate entries about Seal Bay and the pelican feeding before we get into our trip back, and Melbourne and Adelaide and everything that happened there.

Kangaroo Island, Day 1

We saw and did so much on Kangaroo Island that I can't do it justice in one posting, and even so, there are lots more photos than you will see here, so don't forget to head over to http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/.

From Hobart we flew to Adelaide, but I will treat Adelaide with Melbourne and it will make more sense. Adventure Tours picked us up in Adelaide by bus. We took about a two-hour ride to the ferry, and then the ferry crossing was forty-five minutes.

Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It was discovered in 1802 by Matthew Flinders, and named for the large mob of kangaroos that came to greet the ship. I don't know how large the mob was, but there had to be at least thirty-seven, because that's how many they killed for food.

It's really pretty unspoiled. The island is settled, but even the main town is fairly small, so you see wildlife everywhere.

One thing that was interesting about Tasmania is that it was the first place where we ran into other Americans. When I posted about Kangaroo Island from the road I mentioned that our tour group was like a mini-United Nations, but that seemed to be the case with many of the other tour groups too. There was lots of international flavor.

Our first stop was Prospect Hill. You can see two photos from my highest point, showing how far up I had made it (that's our bus below), and how much father there was to go. Remember, the thing about Adventure Tours is that there is a hike every couple of hours. They go to neat places, but it's kind of brutal for the less fit. (No wonder there were no other Americans!)

Our next stop was a eucalyptus oil distillery. They also did tea tree oil and emu oil, and they talked about the properties of all three, but the presentation on the manufacturing focused on the eucalyptus oil. They did have a father emu and two chicks nearby, and there was a lot of eucalyptus around.

The distillery is owned by a married couple and the wife is also a certified wildlife carer. she had a young joey sleeping in a sort of sling hammock, as pictured. Eventually he woke up, and later on he started hopping about.

Actually, he broke my heart a little. As he got more lively he started approaching people, and he seemed to want something. They tried offering him bits of food and water, but of the main two people he was approaching, one had on a loose vest, that was kind of hanging in the front, and the other had a camera around the neck, also hanging. Yes, I think he was trying to find a pouch to crawl into, and it wasn't really something any of us could pull off. Later on at Seal Bay there was one solitary sea lion pup that kept crying and trying to get some attention, and I was really starting to cry for all of the orphans in the world.

We had lunch at the distillery. On this trip everyone helped with the meal preparation and clean-up, so it had more the feel of a family camping trip, except that we were still getting to know each other. I think a lot of the bonding happened at dinner that night. At this point, we were still learning names.

I want to put up many sea lion pictures, so I am not going to write about Seal Bay now, but it did actually happen on Day One, the Saturday. Our step after that was Little Sahara.

With a name like that, you would probably expect lots of sand, and you would be correct. There are very steep sand dunes and the purpose of the stop was to go sand boarding. I had been amazed at the amount of sand that ended up in my shoes at Seal Bay, so when our guide Peter suggested going barefoot, I thought it made sense. I found the sand to be difficult walking though. I probably should have worn my Tevas at both places. Of course, the other problem with the bare feet was that they were completely unprotected from the very bloodthirsty insects. They were shaped like mosquitoes, but way too big. So I guess my advice for here, other than being in shape, is wear flip flops and bug spray.

We stopped by Vivonne Bay, mainly because it was voted Australia's best beach in 2002. It was nice, but we all ended up liking Hanson Bay better (that may have been Peter's influence on us). It was pretty, but kind of different. There is a creek leading to the beach, and maybe it is because of the fresh water coming into the salt, but the rocks are all mossy green, and whether it is land vegetation or sea vegetation is hard to say.

Our last stop before camp was Hanson Bay Koala Sanctuary. This should not be confused with Hanson Bay, though clearly they are in the same area. Really, it's just a stand of tall eucalyptus trees around a trail, but as you look up you see gray balls of fluff, and it is kind of exciting. It was our first time seeing koalas in the wild.

Well, wild may be a bit of a misnomer, since it's a sanctuary, but at the same time, it is not a zoo. No one is feeding them, and they are free to leave. At the same time, why would they leave? There's plenty of eucalyptus, and I don't think koala move much more than they need too. Because of the toxins and nutrient levels in the leaves, they need to sleep twenty hours a day and eat three and a half hours a day. With only half an hour for migrating, you need a pretty compelling reason.

You should notice a red tag in the koala ear. This koala has been spayed or neutered. They aren't native to Kangaroo Island, but once brought there they thrived, and became a bit of a pest. Some farmers started shooting them, but you can imagine how well that went over, so now they have a big sterilization program going on. Peter volunteers with this, and he will tell you that people look at a koala and think it is all cute and cuddly, and it is not. Well, I'll concede that they might not be cuddly, but they are still really cute.

You may notice it was dusk here, and so as we got to the farm and started cooking dinner, night had fallen. The rooms were cabin style, but joined together, and the kitchen and dining area was a separate building. We were advised to make sure to have the doors to the bathrooms closed, because the walls of the bathroom did not go all the way up or down, and you could end up with company. (Julie and Maria hated the accommodations, by the way. They would not get into the bed because they didn't trust the sheets, but they were freezing, so when I woke up they were huddled together in a single bed for warmth.)

After dinner we visited for a while, and those of us who were interested took a nocturnal nature walk. We didn't have to go far to start, because a possum had snuck into the dining hall, and was sitting very still up in the eaves. I guess it thought we wouldn't notice, but we did. (They look completely different from the North American opossum.)

As we actually left the building, we only made a small circle around the property, but we saw lots of animals. There were some birds, wallabies, another possum, and two large kangaroos grazing, that let us get pretty close without caring. Even then, they did start to move away, but not in a panicked manner. It was all very good-natured.

I did crawl between the sheets, even though I did have some concerns about what might be in the shower the next morning.

http://www.tourkangarooisland.com.au/
http://www.adventuretours.com.au/2-day-kangaroo-island-tour/