Day 3 – Wildlife Tours

One of the goals of this trip was the opportunity to see budgies in the wild. We haven’t. But we have seen a ton of wildlife. Today we went on a wildlife tour run by Boutique Tours Australia. As opposed to a giant bus traveling through a wildlife park, this tour was small, just ten people, and we went out onto rangeland and into the bush. Our vehicle was a 4-WD Mercedes van driven by our Naturalist guide Steve. Steve was a crack-up. Besides us there was a couple from LA, and a group from France.

The instructions the tour company gives you about appropriate clothing are pretty clear, sturdy shoes and weather appropriate clothing. Despite this, three folks had on flip flops, and one of the women in the French group was wearing what appeared to be heels, though the sole of her shoe was perfectly flat. I’m sure there is a name for the style, but I’m also sure I don’t care. Despite the poor shoe choices, they were all fairly pleasant company. And to Steve’s credit, he didn’t baby them, we did just as much hopping out of the vehicle and hiking around as any tour would. I know, I asked.

Here is what we saw:

All that was during the day. Part of the tour included stopping for dinner at a pub. Then we headed back out with a spotlight for some night spotting. No pictures of that obviously. We didn’t get back to the hotel until almost 11 pm.