Angela Away

[Angela Bauer]

Here is the situation. My beloved husband and I are leaving on 31 October in late afternoon on a 6 week trip to Australia. Everything is cunningly planned so that when we reach Melbourne on Thursday 5 November their time the crowds for the big race will have just left. Don is making 2 different wildlife documentaries. The one made in Victoria and South Australia is all about the relocation of koala from French Island south of Melbourne to Hall's Gap, but will also show the koala colony on Kangaroo Island near Adelaide in South Australia. Once we have all the coverage of koala Don needs we will fly on to Perth. South of these 200km are the remain numbats, a small striped anteater that until 40 years ago lived in many places in Australia. In their own way the numbats are as adorable as the koala, it is just they never had the same quality of press agents!

I will have a laptop on the trip into which I will be loading still photos as they get taken. Just charging the many batteries will be a challenge in most of the remote places where we will be staying. Only occasionally will I have internet access, so as I get the chance I will check for messages here.

Because of the Melbourne Cup Race festivities we are arriving in Sydney. Already we have plans to meet some of our DD ABDL pals one evening in Sydney. We will drive down to Melbourne, but no plans came together for a meet with Melbourne area ABDL. If interested leave me messages that I should be able to read while in Sydney, but we have hardly any time in Melbourne itself.

Sorry, since we do not know how long the relocation will take, I am not sure when and for how long we will be in Adelaide. All I can say for sure is we must leave Perth in time to be home on 15 December. Any ABDL out there let me know. Maybe we can spend an evening together. Same for you lot in Adelaide, just we all need to be flexible. It is the weather and koala determining our schedule until we reach the numbats.

Best to everyone, Angela

[loopy]

Hope you have fun in the land of oz

I'm planning a trip to there soon

[BabyChris121675]

Damm... I have always wanted to visit Australia and see that country from the time I was a child. Two countries I wanna go to before I pass on to the great beyond, Japan and Australia. I have always wanted to walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and I have always wanted to go to the Tokyo Dome to see the Tokyo Giants play baseball.

Angela, have a safe trip. Please show us some pics, and be careful.. I know from a friend that the flight to Sydney is LOOONG.

BabyChris12675

[Repaid1]

You guys have a great time, sounds like a wonderful time. What is the plan for the documentaries? What I mean is it going to air on Animal Planet or similar? I hope your going to move up to a Molicare over your normal Attends for the flights, those Airplane toilets are a bit tricky. Have fun, be safe!

[bbtimmi]

Hope you have a great time. I just got back from two weeks in Australia and New Zealand. Stayed in Sydney, Melbourne, and ChristChurch. No diapers so I am glad to be home.

[Angela Bauer]

Hi All DD Members,

So far our expedition to Australia has been even better than my husband Don and I dared to hope. We flew from Los Angeles to Sydney where we met some long-time ABDL pals and visited Taronga Zoo. From there we drove south to Melbourne, arriving on Thursday 5 November so the Cup Race crowd had left. We had a meal with our local ABDL friends, paid our respects at the Melbourne Zoo and reached French Island by the ferry. Because of the terrible wildland fires this year fewer than normal places could be found in which to relocate koala. Thus the rangers and researchers spent extra days scouting and selecting individual koala. The goal was to find koala on French Island who liked the species of eucalyptus actually available in mainland locations in need of koala. The actual round-up of the koala and doing the necessary physical exams went very well.

We followed particular koala from the time they were selected until they reached Hall's Gap, in the Grampian Mountains on the road to Adelaide. After we had seen those koala happy in their new trees, we drove on to the port of Adelaide to take another ferry to Kangaroo Island, which has a large koala population.

Now we are south of Perth where at last I saw and photographed a handsome numbat in the wild. They say you never forget your first numbat.

Here are a few of the pictures I have taken so far:

The alert fellow is an adult male numbat. His scientific name is Myrmecobius fasciatus. "Fascinating Anteater" is a fitting name, as is Banded Anteater. Unlike most animals that eat ants, the numbat as small front legs and claws, which has to make catching termites difficult.

The lucky young female koala is shown on French Island, where she was living in the most common species of eucalyptus found in Hall's Gap. Before being relocated she was fitted with a tracking radio, allowing rangers to follow her progress in her new home.

That almost tame adult echidna lives fairly close to where we stayed on French Island.

The female Pretty Face wallaby lives at the Melbourne Zoo in a yard where visitors can approach her. She is adorable.

[Snugglebug]

South Australia is so lovely! I really miss it. I do hope you had the opportunity to hike Morialta Falls whilst you were in Adelaide.

In case you didn't, I've got a couple pics in the photo section.

[Angela Bauer]

G'Day Daily Diapers,

Later today we are flying from Perth to Sydney. There we need to spend the night before catching Qantas for the flight home with a stop-over in Honolulu. Don needs to spend a few days in Hawaii, so I will fly home to Los Angeles ahead of him.

Although nearly always in Australia the weather cooperated with us, things just took a few days longer than planned on French Island. That is such a beautiful place none of us minded. The consequence is all we saw of Adelaide was the rental car drop-off. One of the documentary crew drove us from there to the Kangaroo Island Ferry. That is also a lovely island. We are simply thrilled with the material we photographed on digital video and stills there. By the way, we are very happy with the coverage in Hall's Gap. To save time we did fly from Kangaroo Island to the Adelaide airport to go on to Perth.

Everything Don has told me about the numbats is absolutely true. They are adorable! Last evening I did manage to spend quality time with long-standing ABDL pals from Western Australia. Of course it was so disappointing that I could not spend any time with ABDL friends in Adelaide.

Right now our plan is to return to Australia in November 2010. We want to fly to Perth first, see the numbats for a couple of days, then fly to Adelaide. We need to drive from there to Hall's Gap, then on to Melbourne, well after the Cup Race! I have always wanted to visit Darwin, if there are flights from Melbourne. Then the trick is to find a way to return to Los Angeles from Darwin. Somehow I suspect there will be a connection in Sydney.

I expect to be home in time to be at my office the morning of 14 December. ASAP after that I will catch up with DD messages.

[Honu]

E como mai Angela! BabyMaggie and I are both glad you and Don had a great time down under and are back now. We enjoyed Honolulu in November and are now preparing for our first real Christmas together. Last year was going to be that, but my son came over from Germany and stayed with us so it was even better! We aren't open about our lifestyle so we stayed very discrete last year. This year, we can be much more open with each other.

Mele Kalikimaka!

Honu

[Snugglebug]

The consequence is all we saw of Adelaide was the rental car drop-off.

I'm glad you got to enjoy a lot on your trip, but a shame you didn't get a chance to explore Adelaide, especially Morialta Falls. I still have piccies from a hike through that park, as well as other shots in and around Adelaide, in my folder in the Photos section.