This is the day we flew to Adelaide. I had set my travel alarm clock, but must have missed the am/pm indicator, because I didn’t wake up till 6:45 a.m. We were to have our luggage ready by 7:00; somehow, I made it by 7:05! The downside is I missed the hotel breakfast, but I still had some snacks from the overseas flight.
We landed in Adelaide about 10 a.m., and immediately went on a drive into the Adelaide hills to the Cleland Wildlife Park. We each got to be up close and personal with a koala. There was a line for that, and in the mean-time I got some pictures of little critters in the leaves. I’ll have to find out
At any rate, after posing with the koala, I roamed around the park. It has several enclosures for the various types of animals, with gates so you can move from one to the other. Though excited to see the kangaroos for the first time, it was a bit disappointing because they were all just laying around in the sun. They would get up if you approached them, especially if you had your hand out with some Kangaroo Chow (my name for the pellets of feed we were given) for them. I quickly learned to hold my hand higher so the animal would have to stand taller to get the treats.
In the afternoon we had a coach tour of the city with commentary by the driver. There was a long discussion of cricket, but I still don’t understand it. We also discussed rugby and Aussie Rules Football, and I keep getting them mixed up.
Checked in to the Chifley Hotel and had the rest of the late afternoon and evening free. Paul convinced the hotel people to open the bar an hour early, so we could watch a rugby game on TV and he explained it as it went along. (I still don’t get it.)
Sunday, August 20
We met the coach bright and early, 610 a.m. to go on the optional excursion to Kangaroo Island. After all the stops in town to pick up all the other day-trippers, it took about 2 hours driving on winding roads through small towns. Then the passenger ferry was just under another hour. Pour Glenda got sea-sick and didn’t feel well all day. On the ferry we met a lady from New Zealand, Elizabeth Marshall. She’s a Chinese language student doing post-graduate work. Her husband is a doctor and a judge in stamp collecting. They were in Oz because of a stamp collecting event. So while her husband was tied up with that, she was seeing the sights. We ended up spending the day with her.
K.I. is the 3rd larges island off Australia. One third of it is conserved. People who live on K.I. engage in wool, cereal crops, fishing production of eucalyptus oil, honey and cheese.
For me, the best part of Kangaroo Island was watching the seals and looking at the strange rock formations. At Seal Bay, a park ranger led us to a beach where a colony of Australian sea-lions live. It’s the second largest colony is Australia. During the days of whaling and sea exploration, sailors would kill the seals for the food and fur. However at seal bay, there’s a limestone reef that kept the sailors from coming in. At every other point of the island there are no seals, but they were preserved at that one bay. They really give the area to the animals. They had parts of the walk-way roped off because some sea-lions had crawled up there to be in the sun.
The tour included a BBQ lunch. After we ate and were waiting to board the coach, we had a chance to wander among the gum tress and visit some of the kangaroos that lived there. Josh Lithgow got boxed, he said, but I didn’t get to see it. Apparently that ‘roo just took a dislike to him.
Remarkable Rocks is a formation of granite that is truly strange. It was sculpted by the weather and it’s right on the edge of a large rock dome above the sea. In one part, it looks like a maw of some primordial animal.
There were a few old lighthouses on the island, but we didn’t go into them. The scenery was outstanding on K.I.
At Admiral’s Arch, we saw the New Zealand fur seals frolicking in the waters. I got a shot of one of them diving into the breaking wave. The arch is naturally formed by erosion from the pounding ocean. We walked down a wooden walk-way the equivalent of several flights down. At the bottom we were standing on one side of the rock arch and could look through it to the sea and rocks on the other side.
After returning to Adelaide I got to spend some time with our tour guide, Paul Kenneday. He lives in Cairns with his wife, Jen, and his 2 sons. He’s really entertaining to talk with. He writes plays, does community theater, and is very passionate about Australia. He’s 7th generation Aussie. He explained the rules of Rugby and Australian Rules Football, but I kept getting them confused. They’re both only a little more understandable than cricket.
Hi! I currently live in W. Des Moines, Iowa, and love to travel. I think the main reason I have a job is to fund my travel habit. My goal is to have visited all 7 continents at least once. So far, I've been to North America (natch), Europe and Africa, and, just recently, Australia. I'm starting this blog with notes from my Australia trip. ... full info
