Kangaroo Island - Seal Bay Conservation Park

The weather was much better today. Still cold, but not so windy. We headed into town to get provisions, and then on to Seal Bay on the South Side of the island. Seal Bay is one of the key wildlife attractions here, with a colony of over 700 Sea Lions - they swim great distances and can be away from home for a few days while searching for food, as they can eat up to 10% of their body weight each day. When they get "home," they like to sleep on the beach.

Seal Bay Conservation Park is set up with boardwalks so you can view the sea lions without bothering them. You must take a guided tour to access the beach, and can get within 10m of the animals. These guys differ from the seals we are used to - they can walk on all four legs, and are agile on land. Enough nature talk, here's some pics:

A little windy, but nice and clear when we arrived (I know the colors look too vivid - but that's what it looked like. These pics came out of two different cameras, as the photos here are a mix of mine and Lou's:

We saw the first large sea lion as we were on the path down to the viewing area - once we passed, he scurried across to the other side of the path:

Saw a few more in the sand dunes along the path, then came upon this happy couple on the edge of the beach - a full grown male and female, sound asleep:

And a smaller guy - with half an eye on us:

About this time, the weather changed quickly, and we got wet while waiting for a short shower to finish:

We braved our way down to the ocean - watched a few young male sea lions frolicking in the waves. Then we were lucky enough to capture one coming ashore:

Looking quite proud of his accomplishments, and posing for the crowd:

And then ... NAP Time!