Cudlee Creek Wildlife Sanctuary

I orginally wanted to go to the Cudlee Creek Zoo because I wanted to see the white kangaroos. You know the song..Six White Boomers? Well we saw where Santa gets them from when he visits Australia! The Cudlee Creek Wildlife Sanctuary of course!

You can buy a packet of food to feed the animals as you go round.

This young white joey with his mum, took awhile to get brave enough to come up for some food but when mum was getting some and the other kangaroos started to come over, he decided not to miss out.

The sanctuary had obviously had the kangaroos for a while as some of the bucks were quite big.

The middle of the sanctuary was a large walkthrough area with a central lagoon which had a large bird population.  They obviously felt safe because there were many babies and we even walked past a nesting pair of  Magpie Geese, who weren't phased by our proximity at all.

Western Australia has the black swan as its emblem. When I was in Perth nearly twenty years ago there were still swans on the Swan River which runs through the city. This time there were none (that we saw anyway). In fact the only swans I saw in WA were at Cape Le Grande near Esperance.

It was good to see them up close at Cudlee Creek. For a large bird it has the shortest legs!

They had a wide variety of birds included these beautiful predators, white bellied Sea Eagles.

 I was simply astounded to see a pure white one of these also!

 I'd been trying to get a pic of a Tasmanian Devil at the two other zoos, but they were always hidden away. There were two at Cudlee, one was spread out in amongst some logs, but this fellow was out sunning himself! funny looking things! A bit like a giant rat crossed with a wombat and a quoll.

In amongst the bird avaries was these lovely pheasants. It was hard to get these shots due to the wire, but I still tried.

This wombat woke up when we came past and came out of his nest to see what we had to offer for lunch.  Geoff started to feed him until I noticed the sign that said "Please don't feed me, I'm on a special diet" Whoops!

There was a walk through farm area and we came across this duck with a crazy hairstyle. Weird, funny and cute. It was also very friendly and followed us around hoping for a handout.

The little marmosets were hopping through the trees in their enclosure, but were quite inquisitive when we stopped to say hello to them. One even came over and ate a sunflower seed out of Geoff's fingers!

Strange bedfellows in the farm area. This pigeon and bunny were quite happy in their little hidehole.

There were many large male peacocks flaunting their fine tail feathers. But later we saw this pretty white peahen.  Obviously hiding from the noisy males. I don't blame her.

This large rodent (can't remember what it was called now) was the size of a wallaby, it was quite timid but came out for a nibble on some seeds that we threw into the enclosure.

Bambi! No it wasn't being bred for venison you hungry meat eaters! How can you even contemplate eating anything this cute? Savages!

This littel wading bird was no bigger than the a coke can but it had abnormally long legs to assist it walking across lilly pads etc.

The sanctuary also had a number of monkeys but because I've shown pictures of them before from the zoos I won't do so again here. 

Entry to Cudlee Creek Sanctuary was very moderately priced and well worth the visit. Make sure you visit if you ever go to Adelaide!

Adelaide Zoo

We decided to visit the Adelaide Zoo because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Panda Bears! While we there Geoff made friends with a very protective male Baboon. If there hadn't been a perspex screen between them I think it would have taken Geoff's face off! Geoff wanted its attention and he got it. Moral never show your teeth to a Baboon if you value your life!

The Panda's were napping when we visited.  They were in an airconditioned enclosure, behind sheets of tinted glass. It was difficult to get decent photos of them, due to the relfections.

They'd definately made themselves comfortable in their temporary homes.  Every day the zoo closed their area to visitors so the Pandas could relax without the stress of camera flashes and staring eyes.

 Although they looked pretty relaxed to us!

 I finally got to see some giraffes. They are such an ungainly creature, but they are quite beautiful. Of course they had a really high fence and it was difficult to get a good shot of them.

We absolutely love the meercats. This female kept posing for the photos while on lookout duty.

 Geoff kept a running dialogue for everyone "Look at me...Look at me... Is this my best side?....Or is this side better?

The young meercats were busy below digging around the compound looking for mischief to get into.

This male lion was alone in a pen with the females caged next door. The female took great delight in teasing him through the fence, while the male brushed up against the mesh showing off his muscles.

 He was getting quite cranky and would let out a loud roar everynow and again. I think he seriously would have liked to smack all of us watching with one of his huge paws. This is definately the face ofone ticked off male!

You can see one of the female lions at the back over near the male's cage. Meanwhile this girl couldn't have given a hoot at how good looking the male thought he was. She was just sick of the noise so she got up to move away from the courting pair.

 Flamingos. The photo below is of one particularly colourful flamingo, his bright orange plumage quite unusual. I found them a surprisingly attractive bird.

 These were the only penguins I got to see this trip! Much to my disgust. There was supposed to be a colony of blue penguins living on Graphite Island just off Victor Harbour, but we found out when we went there that they had either moved on or died out.

Mmm, not sure about this species....he escaped while we were there and insisted we feed him!  I was certainly tempted to return him, but he seemed a bit neglected so I brought him home.

Not sure if this poort seal was just bored silly or enjoying a swim, but it just went as fast as it could around and around in this small oval shaped pond. It didn't play with the ball, didn't stop but just kept going around. We got dizzy watching it.

This young baboon was cute. His mum dumped him so she could have a drink, but he kept pulling at her so she growled at him and he went off and annoyed one of the other baboons.

This looked interesting to the young one so he stole a bit of the sugar cane  and ran back to mum. Brat!

While I enjoyed the opportunity to see creatures I would never normally got to see, it is still a shame to see them in cages.  Adelaide Zoo is doing a good job to try and make their habitats as real to life as possible.  But that afternoon we went to a private zoo at Cudlee Creek across the road from the caravan park, and even though it was a small zoo, the animal enclosures were the best we've seen at imitating the animals native habitats.

Cudlee Creek

I found the drive through the mountains towing the caravan, very stressful! I hate, driving on mountain roads to start with and this was one hell of a mountain road with lots of twists and turns, steep ascents and descents.  I was very happy to arrive at the caravan park.

It was a lovely little spot, a bit run down, but cheap rates and a 20 minute run down to Adelaide, made it an ideal location away from the rat race.

The meadow we parked in was full of little yellow flowers that opened in the morning sun and  went to sleep in the cooler evening.

Cudlee Creek ran behind the park. A gentle little stream, a little overgrown, but sparkling clean and with the potential to become a ranging torrent in the wet season.

Not sure what sort of tree...thought it could be a lillipilli, but who knows?  It was amazingly tall and just smothered in yellow blossoms.

We were suprised to find a little dam further down the valley towards Adelaide.

Oh windy round, you were sent to try me! "Look down" ; "Look at the view" Geoff kept saying. My response "Just you watch the road and don't worry about the view!"

At Cudlee Creek there is a tavern which serves great meals. All through South Australia rose gardens abound. At the tavern, I saw this beauty...check out the size of the flower!

Cudlee Creek Bridge.

I tried to get a picture of the meadow we were parked in with

all the little yellow-gold flowers but this was the best I could get. You can just see the yellowish tinge to the grass. What a view to wake up to every morning.