Cleland Wildlife Park

I was going to do a post about my recent purchases from the last couple of weeks or even a bit of show-and-tell of my room but this post seems rather more timely. Yesterday I went to the Cleland Wildlife Park up in the Adelaide Hills, just past the Mount Lofty Botanical Gardens. It's a very touristy kind of park, with a lot of the typical Australian wildlife, but it's still a beautiful part of the city and a wonderful way of conserving Australian fauna. There were some animals there I'd never seen or come into contact with before and there were some I've had the privilege of seeing in the wild. Some I'm not sure I'd call it a privilege, rather the fear of seeing in the wild.

Animals like the lace monitor (which I didn't photograph because it was sleeping in a separate area) who I saw in the wild when I was on a houseboat holiday with my family. We'd found a lovely sandbank to pull up on for the night and we'd thrown out our scraps from dinner for the kangaroos and various other wildlife, not quite expecting a giant lace monitor to come traipsing down a tree. They have the sharpest claws I think I've eve seen!

Anyway, I'm getting off topic here. The park was a lovely break from the hustle and bustle of city life (well if Adelaide can be classified as city life). Nonetheless, I had a fabulous day, wandering around every corner of the park. I think I spent a good two or three hours there - I got caught up in taking photos of the wonderful and bizarre fauna of Australia. So this post will be very photo-heavy, I just hope they're worth it! As per usual, I can't offer any specific names of the flowers or animals I photographed but I do hope you enjoy the photos all the same.

These guys have pretty vicious looking teeth for little critters. They still seem adorable though, especially because this was only the second time I've ever seen a Tasmanian Devil.






These ducks and geese were just wandering around the park aimlessly. The Cape Barren Geese always get me though, they're a bit strange looking. A couple of ducks also followed me at one stage, making the strangest noises! At least they added to the atmosphere of the place.






And I couldn't dare do a post about Australian native animals without including some kangaroo snaps! This little guy reminds me of the White Rabbit in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Maybe it's his fabulous ears?







And my sister said this kangaroo looked a bit like a gangster, what do you think? I agree with her!



To break up the monotony of fauna adorning the blog in this post - here's some flora I photographed. I have no clue what it is exactly but I found it enthralling nonetheless.





This is definitely part one of a number of Cleland Wildlife Park posts to come. The animals were gorgeous and it was a great day, it seems worthy of a few posts.

Stay tuned.