Kangaroo Island

There’s a definite animal theme going on here - we just got back from a 2-day trip to Kangaroo Island just off the coast near Adelaide which we had been told by other travelers was worth a visit (and, yes, there are lots of kangaroos there). Thousands of years ago, it was part of Australia, but the ice caps melted, sea levels rose (does this ring a bell?) and Kangaroo Island was separated from the mainland by about 18 km (which we crossed by ferry). It’s about 150 km by 55 km, so quite large. There were only 14 of us on the first day of the tour, so it wasn’t too hectic and we had a lovely driver/tour guide called Richard who knew the most amazing amount about the island - history, geography, flora, fauna etc. The pictures are of a hairy frog-mouth (fascinating bird that is a master of disguise - he catches insects in his froggy-type beak), some sealions on the beach and a chicken with a really bad hair-day. No particular reason for the chicken picture except he caught my fancy! John took lots of pictures of the New Zealand fur seals that we saw on the rocks (different from the ones on the beach), but we were quite far away and it’s hard to tell from most of the pictures which are rocks and which are seals.
We started out at a eucalyptus oil distillery (there are large number of eucalyptus trees on the island - I can’t remember how many types there are, but well over 100). It was interesting to see how they distilled the leaves into oil and of course there was a gift shop where you could buy all kinds of soaps, oils etc. The lady who gave us the tour had a huge long list of the things that eucalyptus oil can do for you - she reminded John of the old snake-oil salesmen at the Ex, and her patter definitely worked as I think we all bought something!
Next stop was a birds of prey free flight show. John and I had seen a really good show in Alice Springs, but this one was different in that we got to see the birds up really close. (That’s where we saw the hairy frog-mouth.)
Then off to Seal Bay where we went down on the beach and could get quite close to the sealions. There wasn’t much action for quite a while - if sealions aren’t out hunting, they are snoozing to regain their energy so they can go out hunting again. There were a few pups which were pretty cute, but it was very quiet. Just as we were about to leave, we saw some adults in the water - I figured they were young adult males as they were surfing in on the waves, and then swimming out again so they could ride another wave! Just having a blast! That was fun to watch. It’s amazing to compare how they move on land and how graceful and fast they are in the water.
We went to a pretty ho-hum animal park and then onto a sheep dairy, where we watched “the girls’ getting milked! It is a small cottage industry but very successful. They make the most amazing cheeses and yogurts from the milk which we sampled, but couldn’t buy as we had no way of keeping things cool.
In the evening, we went to see the fairy penguins come in from their day’s hunting. Unfortunately, about 79 other people also turned up much to the amazement of the people running the show. Se we were divided into 4 groups, but the beach is pretty small and 80 or so people clumping around probably had quite an impact on the number of penguins we saw! We did see some though, mostly chicks waiting for mom and dad to bring them their dinner. They are very small and of course, being penguins, terminally cute.
The next day, we were joined by 3 ladies (mom and 2 daughters and 2 year old grandson). Question: why would people think that a 2 year old would be likely to be happy to be dragged around in and out of buses all day, visiting places where you are supposed to be quiet and listen to a commentary? We’ve had a couple of instances (one at the Opera and two at Jenolan Caves) where it has been almost impossible to hear/concentrate because of a screaming kid. NOT the kid’s fault, but you have to wonder where the parents’ heads are to take a small person along. OK - now I’ve got that out of my system (!), on with the blog. We went to a honey farm (quite an industry on the island as the bees are a pure strain which is unlikely to be contaminated as the island is far enough from the mainland to keep foreigners out). Then on to some caves - we thought we were caved-out (or caved-in) having already seen the Capricorn and Jenolan Caves, but the screaming kid didn’t come, so we went along and it was a really good tour. The guide obviously loved his job and knew the caves extremely well, so it was a great success. The caves weren’t as spectacular as Jenolan, but impressive all the same.
After lunch we went to see the Remarkable Rocks which really are! They are a cluster of huge granite boulders right on the ocean, sculpted by the weather and the sea. Close by was Admiral’s Arch where we saw the New Zealand fur seals. The coast is very rugged at this point, and you wonder how the seals don’t get bashed to pieces on the rocks as they try to land on the rocks as the waves crash around them. The Arch was an amazing formation in the rocks which looked, remarkably enough, like an arch!
Last stop was to watch a flock of pelicans being fed - they are much larger than our birds in Saskatchewan and the same guy feeds them every day at the same time, so they know exactly what to expect. He comes along with a huge box of fish and at one point, he hoists armfuls of fish into the middle of the flock of pelicans. One bird caught the most enormous amount in his bill (I would guess about 4-5 lb) which we watched in fascination/anguish as he tried to swallow it. Bad case of indigestion later, I would imagine.
So it was a pretty full 2 days, and John swears he won’t get on another bus for the next lifetime, but it was a good trip.
Coincidence - we sat next to an English couple (who were also on the trip) for lunch one day and I asked the universal traveler’s question, “Where are you from?” The wife replied that they were from England (she obviously hadn’t picked up on my accent!) When I asked where from, she replied, “Guildford” which happens to be where I was born! When I told her that, she said that actually they were from a small town near Guildford called Godalming - where my mate Jane lives! Small world - which we also found in Edinburgh when we were sitting in a pub one night and John got chatting to the guy next to him who turned out to be a blacksmith. When he heard that we were from Canada, he said that a blacksmith from Canada had just been working with his forge in Scotland. John asked if that had happened to be Craig (a blacksmith friend of John’s) and, of course, it was!
My blog is morphing into something more than just our travels - little pieces of trivia are making their way into the story which I don’t seem to be able to do anything about. They present themselves as we are on the road, I write them down and then can’t resist adding them in! So there we are.
We are now in Adelaide with Reg and Ruby who we met about 3 years ago when we were on a tour in Greece. We spent about 10 days with them (on a bus!) and really enjoyed their company. We’ve kept in touch since then and when we told them that we were coming to Australia, they invited us to come and stay with them. When it looked like we would hit Adelaide in mid-December, they immediately invited us for Christmas. I sent them a very carefully-worded e-mail saying that we would love to drop in on them for a day or two, but they insisted that we spend our whole 2 weeks with them, which I thought was incredibly generous (and possibly insane!) They have been most wonderfully hospitable and we are having a wonderful time, living in a real house, eating real food, snoozing when we want to and generally re-charging our travel-weary batteries. This little island of calm has come at about the ½ way point for us and is very welcome.