We spent the 3rd day in Swan Valley. We started out late to avoid the Monday morning rush hour, and reached Caversham Wildlife Park around 10am or so. It was a superbly HOT HOT day, unlike the low 20degC weekend that just passed. Even so, it was cool in the shade.
The wildlife park was very much like a zoo, but with close up encounters for the Kangaroos, Koalas, domesticated animals and Camel rides. We walked around viewing the native animals...let's skip the description and head straight to the Kangaroos. The poor Roos. They weren't prepared for a little boy called Ignatius. He wasn't shy at all, and gamely took the kangaroo feed to try and feed them. However, they were all full from the earlier visitors, and only wanted to get some shut-eye in the hot morning sun. However, Ignatius unrelentless poked the food up their noses, and when that failed to get a reaction from them, he even stood up and shouted at them to "WAKE UP! WAKE UP!". It was most amusing...to us. I'm sure the Roos thought differently!
Here's a short video of him circling round a sleeping Roo, trying to feed him.
After that, we came upon the domestic animals portion. They had a little rabbit enclosure that only allowed children UP TO 5 yrs old. Initially, Ignatius did not want to be in there himself, but after another Singaporean boy (born Jul 04) popped in, he went in as well. The 2 little toddlers seem to have their own language, and put their heads together several times to whisper serious stuff to each other!
Besides rabbits, Ignatius fed a billy goat. As usual, poor Billy. After placing the long strand of hay in Billy's mouth, Ignatius seemed to find the long end hanging out offensive...and started pushing it further and further and FURTHER into Billy's mouth! I thought he was going to poke the back of the poor goat's throat and choke him! Luckily, Billy knew how to step back away from the little terror, and pushed the stick of hay back out (with his tongue presumably) and continued chewing on it at a leisurely pace.
Here are some photos of the day, with Daddy on his camel ride, and us with the Wombat!
After about 2.5hrs in the park, we were all suitably hungry. But to our horror, the vineyards/restaurants were all CLOSED on mondays! We drove from one vineyard to another, until finally, we found the Black Swan. It was worth the circling. The view was good, the food was great, the service was excellent. The bill was something to look at too! haha... It was a pity that we didn't have the time to visit the Margaret River Chocolate Factory as we had to head back to Canningvale.
During our stay, my dad's sister cooked for us almost every night, and Ignatius simply loved her dishes. Let's see if Mommy can re-create some of them at home!
Day 4.
Today marks the start of our long drive down to Pemberton. Our intention is to drive to Mundurah for breakfast at Cafe Moka (as recommended by a Life! article), then to Bunbury for the Dolphin Discovery Centre, then Busselton for the Jetty, and finally to Pemberton to stay for 2 nights at Pumphill Cottages.
So off we went! We found Cafe Moka easily, and had a nice yummy breakfast! Their food is good. There are some pics taken at this place...but in Kou Fu's handphone. Will download them later and post them. After satisfying our tummies, we headed down to Bunbury.
As we reached the entrance of the Dolphin Discovery Centre, the staff came out to shout to us that the dolphins had come into the bay! Hurry! We scooted in, paid up, and ran down to the sea. Unfortunately, the dolphins left before we could say hi. No matter. We changed up and took a dip in the clear blue (and cold!) water instead!
We spent quite a while here, coz the keys to one of the cars got locked in the trunk! Once that was settled, we headed to Bunbury town to get some lunch, the first of many Chinese meals we would have... And then it was off to Busselton!
The Busselton jetty was quite a letdown. We were hoping to catch the train to the Underwater Observatory...but it had stopped running. Not sure why. So it was a LONG and HOT walk, 1.8km, out to the observatory. Once there, we didn't get to see much either. I think it was the wrong season, and there were no tides to carry rich swells to attact schools of fishes. In fact, the walk back, we saw more than at the observatory. Some boys were fishing off the jetty, and we saw an octopus and 2 rays! Gong Gong and Ah Yi, who were a bit further behind, even saw a puffer fish! Ignatius fell asleep on the way back, and we grabbed some groceries before heading down to Pemberton.
We were trying to make it to Pemberton before darkness fell. It was 6plus in the evening. It was the forested part of West Australia. There were no other cars on the road besides us. We should have known. But we didn't. And the kangaroo hopped onto the road and took Daddy by surprise, it breathed its last.
said...
hey u mean WW killed it? oh dear!
I love the half nekkid boy so cute .. round tummy!
said...
yeah... God rest the Roo's soul. We kept telling ourselves "he's in Kangaroo heaven. We'll say a little prayer for him tonight" the rest of the day and half the next day as well!