Iter Facere

Kangaroo Island

Another early morning in order to catch the flight to Kangaroo Island. I assumed it was a general aviation flight, not commercial, for some reason, so I didn’t bring our passports. It was a commercial flight, and the fact that Jenny didn’t have a photo id caused a bit of a problem at check in. Oops. Underneath the rest of the day was the minor concern that we wouldn’t be allowed on the plane back.
The flight is only 25 minutes. We got to the island, and boarded the tour bus. The first stop was a little eucalyptus oil distillery. It was interesting in a way, although the almost desperate need to sell something was a little sad. We got on the big tour bus there, with the other 25 people we would spend the day with.
The next stop was Seal Bay, where we got to walk down to the beach where a colony of Southern Australian sea lions lived. Beautiful shoreline, vivid blues and limestone cliffs with massive crashing waves. The sea lions are somewhat sedentary on shore. They go out to the ocean for two or three days, constantly awake, diving down almost 300 meters to feed. When they get back they are tired, and just sleep on the beach until they need to feed again. They’re big, males up to 300 kg, females 100 kg. The pups are active, and one was on the path back to the nature center, so we got to within three meters of him. At one point on the beach, a young adult male came over to our group and sat down about ten meters from us.
The next stop was lunch, which was a several pieces of barbequed lamb, beef and sausage with some salads. We then walked around the site for a few minutes, saw a wallaby and some koalas, then back to the bus.
The next stop was the Remarkable Rocks, which live up to their names. A giant granite dome, 200 million years old right on the coast. Again huge waves, crashing surf, deep blue water and skies, wind and crashing surf. Breathtaking views.
Next the Admiralty Arch, a natural arch in the stone, which is also a New Zealand fur seal colony. The pups are quite inquisitive and cute, staring at us with giant goo goo eyes.
Finally we went to the main center for the national park. Jenny and I walked around the parking lot,, looking for an echidna (no luck) or a kangaroo, which we found, The kangaroo had a joey in her pouch, and sadly was so used to humans that she came right up to Jenny looking for food. She let Jenny pet her awhile, and then moved away a few feet. We followed, and again she let Jenny pet her a bit. The joey would pull his head in from time to time, but he too was pretty comfortable with our presence.
That ended the trip to Kangaroo Island. We flew back to Adelaide, both of us convince that tours aren’t for us. The driver was a great guy, full of information and very helpful,but the rigid schedule just isn’t out style. We would have enjoyed the island more if we had stayed overnight, and had a car. Of course, you might still want a guide to get you to the penguins at night, but more time and freedom would have made a better trip.
Adelaide is not winning awards with us for most pleasant city we’ve visited. We went out looking for a restaurant, avoiding the interesting block we visited last night. We confirmed with the car driver from the airport that that was an unique part of town. But the city around our hotel is dead. We couldn’t find a restaurant within the five or six blocks we walked. Everywhere we went, things were closed, and what was closed was cheesy. The central part of town we’re staying at is a lot like Wilmington. Dead at night and those who are moving around are bored to death. We ate at the hotel, which was fine since lunch was still filling us up. Up to our room and we’ll post to the internet. Tomorrow I think we’ll go see a couple of museums, and maybe find out where the restaurant row is.

posted by Jim @ 1:36 PM