Day 527: Hopping along

03/01/2023

It feels like we have all been going Lachnado super speed since departing Glasgow on the 21st of December. We are not even sure what day we are up to, which is always nice on holidays, we needed a slower morning playing at home.

The morning rituals have not changed, babyccinos and sunnies are still the go-ahead.

Lachlan has always loved a good book, the kids have enjoyed all of Nali’s reading in the morning and at night.

Before it got too hot, we rolled down to Great Nanny’s. We were coming in hot with shoes and wheels flashing.

Lachlan had discovered the claw gadget and was doing his thang. This was all hot work, so the kids set up the sprinkler outside to run through. Great Nanna was struggling to keep up with Lachlan.

After a lovely Erindale Banh mi, we have missed those too, we had an exciting afternoon planned. We made our way to Hugh and Jamila’s for the first time to check out the World’s largest physical movie collection at the Mitcham Blockbuster.

The kids had a great time, Lachlan was having almost too much fun and gradually he found that everything was moving to higher shelves above his reach.

Jamila mentioned Zooper Doopers and the kids looked puzzled. Once she pulled one out they quickly made up their mind. Lachlan was gobbling them down, even jumping on this Big Sister to help her finish hers off.

Hugh was annihilating Liam at FIFA before he threw a hissy fit and the kids had a shot.

Thank you for the lovely visit Hugh and Jamila. It was a short trip back to HQ where the kids had spotted Grandpa DAVE finishing off cleaning up the pool for them, easy entertainment for the afternoon.

On Monday, “Kyogo Furuhashi’s late equaliser denied Rangers a famous Old Firm comeback victory and preserved Celtic’s nine-point lead in the Scottish Premiership”.

This morning we headed straight up the hill to Cleland Wildlife Park for a fun day with extended family. We were running a touch late so the kids were thrilled to be greeted by Xavier at the entrance.

We did not have to walk long until the kids spotted kangaroos. Eloise and Xavier had both been here plenty of times before but they were excited to show Lachlan around as it was his first visit.

Eloise was brave and jumped straight in there to feed the kangaroos. With a bit of help from Aunty Becca, Lachlan was enjoying feeding these strange animals too.

Lachlan recognised a wee wallaby, he had seen these before at the Clyde Valley Family Park in Scotland.

Xavier was super confident and did a fantastic job making sure all the kangaroos got some breakfast. Lachlan was rationing his food, feeding the kangaroos one pellet at a time.

Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning “large foot”)… Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia and New Guinea. The Australian government estimates that 42.8 million kangaroos lived within the commercial harvest areas of Australia in 2019, down from 53.2 million in 2013… Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs, large feet adapted for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head. Like most marsupials, female kangaroos have a pouch called a marsupium in which joeys complete postnatal development… The kangaroo along with the koala are symbols of Australia. A kangaroo appears on the Australian coat of arms and on some of its currency, and is used as a logo for some of Australia’s most well-known organisations, such as Qantas, and as the roundel of the Royal Australian Air Force. The kangaroo is important to both Australian culture and the national image, and consequently there are numerous popular culture references.

After all the kangaroos and wallabies were full we moved on to visit the wombat and echidnas, all the animals were out and about enjoying the sun too.

At 11:00 there was the main attraction, koala cuddles, well, koala pats at least. We were a bit unsure how Lachlan would react, he has met a lot of dogs since we landed in Australia, how was he going to fare against a real-life drop bear? Eloise was not as prepared as last time and did not have her disguise in place.

It was then time to rendezvous with the Feijen walkers, Lachie hitched a ride, Xavier was not too sure about this and did not want the responsibility of looking after Lachnado, fair enough.

After some midday treats, we headed back into the beautiful wildlife park for round two, starting at the questionable pond.

Super Mum was obviously a big fan of the rock wallabies or perhaps it was the beautiful view of Adelaide. For those playing along in the UK, you could easily spot a few rather large sheds out to the north near the water.

Unfortunately, the mob of emus had sought refuge in their designated rest area that we could not access. There would be no feeding kids to the angry mob today.

It was then through the aviary before calling it a day.

Cleland National Park, formerly Cleland Conservation Park, is a protected area located in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia about 22 kilometres (14 mi) south-east of the Adelaide city centre. It conserves a significant area of natural bushland on the Adelaide Hills face, including Mount Lofty Summit and Waterfall Gully. Formerly a conservation park, Cleland was combined with the bordering Eurilla Conservation Park in November 2021 when it was upgraded to the status of national park. The area includes Cleland Wildlife Park, a major tourist attraction, with the draft plan suggesting that the Wildlife Park will be a part of the new Cleland National Park, but this is open to public consultation until late January 2022. The park is classified as an IUCN Category II protected area.