We arrived at Big4 Adelaide Shores Campervan Park just in time to find out that our car would not be released to us until Monday. But we already had cabins booked for the weekend, so it would just be a free weekend in Adelaide.

I made it my mission to beat Hayden at Pokemon Go (by just being a higher level than him forever) and managed to level up to level 24. Hayden got to level 24 by the end of the weekend, but I was already there at the beginning, in case anyone’s keeping track. 🙂

On Saturday, everyone split off into groups to go do things in the Adelaide area, and Hayden and I happened to accidentally go on a double date with Kelsey and Gawan at the Hallett Cove Conservation Park. Completely unintentional as it was, lots of couples photos were taken. We hiked around and saw beaches and rocks and things. Gawan really likes rocks, actually specifically minerals (?) I think, so he knew a lot about the rocks. Also we played Pokemon (Gawan plays too) and Kelsey (doesn’t play Pokemon) was like, why. I caught so many Nidorans.

Hayden puts on his hat (why does he need so many steps???):

After getting back to the campervan park, Hayden and I decided to spend that night in Adelaide city central and go out to dinner. We took the bus to the city and it was so cheap. While we were waiting for the bus, we suddenly saw a really long line of classic cars randomly passing down the street. Woah!

We booked a cheap room in the Adelaide Central YHA hostel, and Sharky came too. The hostel was surprisingly nice. They serve free pancakes in the morning.

The next morning, we set off for the Cleland Wildlife Park via more bus routes. I was very impressed with myself for navigating the public transporation. I got us there without us getting lost at all. The bus stopped at the scenic lookout point of Mount Lofty, which I had been thinking about hiking around later that day.

Once there, Cleland Wildlife Park was way better than the Bonorong one in Hobart that we went to last cycle. There were so many different animals! And TONS of Pokemon. Hayden and I estimated that there were more Pokemon than real animals there.

We saw awake Tasmanian Devils (from which my dog Tazi gets his name). At Bonorong they had all been sleeping, but there was one that was running laps around his exhibit nonstop, kind of like what my dog Joey does when he’s at the pool. I was like, woah, they run!! In other news, I decided that my spirit animal is the Tasmanian Devil. Small, but carnivorous. It makes sense since sometimes I feel like the human version of Tazi the dog.

We fed some kangaroos:

Some emus were hanging out with some kangaroos. I still don’t like emus. They’re too weird. Hayden tried to feed one of them and the emu put Hayden’s entire finger in its beak. Hayden still has his finger.

This one kangaroo looked like it was begging at Hayden. It was cute.

Here are some really cute but super skittish yellow footed rock wallabies. They have striped tails so they are special. We did not feed them because they ran away.

Lots of birds in a few different aviaries. One bird went and sat on the sign that was about him.

Hayden spent like 15 minutes taking pictures of these “”””wild”””” parakeets so I’m featuring them here.

On our way to the park cafe for a really overpriced lunch, we saw this little Potoroo and thought it was super special so we fed it. Then we found out they were all over the park and were kind of like the park pidgeons, but more cute.

I found some wallabies that were a little less scared of people and managed to feed one. He got very enthusiastic about the food and even put his head in the feed bag.

We have a lot of pictures with his head in the bag.

Head leaves bag, head returns to bag.

I think I might be full now — no, one more bite.

That was the only wallaby that would do that, though. All the rest ran away.

More assorted things:

 

I was most disappointed about the dingos all being in hiding asleep, because they are like dogs and I like dogs, but we headed on over to the “swamp wildlife section.” There were so many Psyducks (Pokemon) at the lake.

When we passed back by the dingo enclosure, there was someone about to feed the dingos so they were all out and about. I want a dingo. Apparently they’re considered pests, so you can’t own a dog that’s more than 40% dingo in South Australia. Dingos are super smart and can break out of their enclosures in all sorts of tricksy ways.

They’re so majestic.

After Cleland, we had a couple hours of time to kill, so we took a really random 1.5 hour hike down the mountain to meet up with a different bus stop. We took the bus back to the city center and had dinner there again, and then took another bus back to the campervan park and ate ice cream there.

Next morning, Hayden and I hung out at the beach for awhile (“Sharky goes to the beach”) until late afternoon when we found out our car had finally cleared customs and was free to go!

Tune in next post for things about working on the car.

The “In Case Anyone Cares” Column

My dad found the one that has no eyes. This one was in his desk drawer.

That’s all.