Today I embark on a 3 day tour of Uluru with Mulgas Adventures!

After a pre-dawn departure, our first stop is at a farm. There are the usual Aussie animal suspects — kangaroos, wallabies, and ostriches. But they also have camels! For a small fee you can ride one. I don’t partake but it looks fun.

And today will forever be known as the day I saw a baby kangaroo (a joey) inside its mother’s pouch. More on that in a minute.

This ostrich entertains us for awhile. Its neck extends really far — on the right below is its resting position, but it can easily reach its neck over that top bar.

And this guy has some fierce claws.

Here’s one of the camels NOT giving rides. He’s a photogenic dude until he opens his mouth a few photos down… check out that jawline.

And now for the ‘roos!

Can you tell that this little lady’s pouch is heavy? She’s got a nearly full-grown joey inside.

Can you see its head poking out?

Why hello there, little joey!

This cracks me up — a stray limb popping out of the pouch.

Here’s some fascinating info about kangaroos and their offspring, as told by our tour guide and confirmed on Wikipedia —

The gestational period is a mere 31-36 days, at which point the baby (joey) is the size of a lima bean. The mother licks a path to its pouch and the joey follows it, staying there for 18 months. About halfway through that period it will begin to venture outside the pouch for periods of time, like the joey in the photos above. And since the mother has two teets, she has enough room for two joeys at any given time.

Female kangaroos are perpetually pregnant. Once she gives birth, she will conceive again the very next day (literally) but has the ability to delay embryo development (!) until the oldest joey has left the pouch. The mother is in total control of the pregnancy; this is also helpful in times of drought or food scarcity. This is called embryonic diapause. (This last word makes me giggle as it sound like “diapers.”)

One other fascinating thing about lactating kangaroos (I bet you didn’t know what you were getting into with this post…) is that the mother’s individual teets produce different kinds of milk for each joey, depending on their developmental needs.

Okay, back to the camels.

Our farm visit is short but memorable. I will forever be excited about finally seeing a joey pop out of its mother’s pouch.

This post is sponsored by Muglas Adventures, who generously hosted my 3 day tour of the Outback. Opinions are my own.