The opportunity to get up close and look these magnificent animals in the eye was one of the most rewarding aspects of the daily safaris. Our guide and tracker worked together to locate the animals in the Sabi Sands bush and then quietly approach them without startling or enraging them.

We left Cape Jervis for the 45 minute crossing to Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island on a grey stormy afternoon. Cape Jervis, two hours south of Adelaide, is the location of the ferry terminal. Kangaroo Island.

Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. Once occupied by Australian Aborigines, the native population disappeared after the land became an island following rising sea levels several thousand years ago. It was subsequently resettled from the early 19th century onwards, at first casually by sealers and whalers, and then as part of the colony of South Australia from 1836.

Since then the island's economy has been principally agricultural, with a southern rock lobster fishery and with tourism growing in importance. The largest town, and the administrative centre, is Kingscote. The island has several nature reserves to protect the remnants of its natural vegetation and native animals, with the largest and best-known being Flinders Chase National Park at the western end.

Kraton or the Palace where Sultan and his family of Yogyakarta live is located in the center of the axis stretching from the north to the south, and in the secondary axis from the east to the west. It is encircled by row of the mountains called the Horizon as the border of the universe.

Visiting Kraton, you will inevitably see the palace guards all around the grounds keeping a watchful eye on daily happenings. They do it for the honor, though there is small pay attached.  Elected from the neighborhood, which is populated by traditional craftsmen and tradesmen who pledge allegiance to the Sultan of this tiny kingdom within a city, they exemplify the  calm and dignity of  lives lived correctly.

This young man was proported to be the youngest guard.