Thursday, April 24: Sunrise From Providence Guest House; Wildlife Day: Koala, Glossy Black Cockatoo, Bull Ants, Australian Fur Seals, Wallabies, Echidna, Kangaroos, Another Gourmet Camp Lunch, More Koalas, Lively Dinner With the Chef at PGH.

Five am start for us again.

Dana went off for a walk while I enjoyed the sunrise view from our balcony.

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Nice full breakfast, attended by Liane, Tony’s gracious and cordial wife, highlighted by her homemade granola and croissants.

Rick arrived on time, with our companions for the day, Kevin and Tracey, interesting, nice kids from Atlanta. He was a dancer with the San Francisco Ballet until he broke his foot, now in real estate management in a family business, she a nurse practitioner in child oncology.

We set off on a wildlife day. First stop presented the best koala encounter to date.

Next was a somewhat rare treat, three or four of the extremely rare (~400 of the Kangaroo Island sub-species) glossy black cockatoos…

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one of them chewing vigorously on its only food: allocasuarina seeds.

Then a stomp walk across a bull ant nest, giving them what I am sure is a much needed emergency defense drill.

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Then a visit to Seal Bay,…

to watch some rather active Australian Fur Seals and guess at the meaning and intent of their behavior….

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Then things kicked up a notch when we slipped into a Broombush thicket for Wallaby sightings.

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And then a real stroke of luck when the prize performer of the day showed up – an Echidna. A very cool story (the only mammal other than a platypus that lays egg.) Maybe even more adorable than the koalas, it favored Dana and me with a little promenade, right toward the camera.

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Rick had been telling us that the animals react to good pheromones emanating from humans, which in turn are produced by calmness and confidence. I dare to think that the otherwise nervous Echidna in this case became pretty comfortable after cowering at the base of a tree.

We’ve seen kangaroos everywhere (most common road kill) but today we saw two in a new light: 1. getting food from a tree…

2. a pregnant female licking sap (gum) from a pink gum tree .

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A break for lunch.

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And finally, back to the koalas, various shots throughout the day.

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Back to the Providence Guest House where Dana got a warm welcome from Charlie…

an excellent dinner by and with Liane, joined by Tony, lively convos after, especially with a happily assertive Leeann, and, after some attempts at blog drafting, sleep.