Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Hotel Critters

Our hotel has a host of wild critters living on the grounds. Partially this is because the hotel is 5 kms out of town, and partially because the hotel provides a watering hole for the wildlife. (Actually, it was a watering plant pot, but same idea.) 

Cockatoos. Loud but pretty.




The watering hole.



Dragons. They tend to hang out as a pair and have tails 3 times their length.






Kangaroos (and Wallabies)! During the day, it was hard to get close to them. They like hanging out on the naval base however, because they sleep behind empty buildings in the shade.


Most of the time, during daylight hours, all you would see is this:
And as soon as the roo caught you watching, then all you'd see was this:

But at night time, everything changes. 

View from the vlamingh lighthouse
As far as I can tell, Kangaroo's are essentially overgrown nocturnal rabbits. Hungry, prolific, dumb as a post, super poopers, but still kinda cute. (And tasty too.)

The real problem with the kangaroos is that they like using the roads just as much as you do. Around Exmouth, you need to drive at 20 km/h at night or you will hit one. 

Or like us, one will hit you. No joke, we had come to a complete stop waiting for a number of them to cross the road and one literally hopped into the side of the car. We were t-boned by a kangaroo (thankfully he got up and bounded away.) He probably had no idea what had just happened.

It's like when they see headlights approaching, they actually jump into the road. If you're really lucky, they'll then proceed to block the road (or stay just a few jumps ahead of you continually looking back wondering why you are following them). Truly dumb creatures.

Warning, this kangaroo has a death wish.


But other than being serious driving hazards, at night they also come visit the hotel watering hole. Some nights there were over 20 roo's on the grounds (my night photos are terrible, so I'll spare you.) Here are a few pictures at dusk though.



After having seen hundreds of kangaroos this week, the iconic Aussie animal is much less interesting for me. They are, however, still kinda cute.


Awwhhh, so hopeful are those vacuous eyes. (This one is actually from the reserve and isn't wild, but the photo was to good to not post.)

Tomorrow we're off to Perth, so less wildlife and more nightlife. 

-E





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