An island of Kangaroos

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Ugh there were two problems with the flight to Australia:
a) It was too short; it was only just over 7 hours so not enough time to have a good nights sleep.
b) It was very very bumpy, so when I did fall asleep I was woken up by the plane bouncing around.

Other than that it was a brilliant flight, the Air Hostesses were lovely as usual and they even moved HB, F and myself into First Class for the last 10 minutes of the flight so that we could all get off together. Immigration was a hoot, we had a lady shouting at everyone that if the person in front of you is being too slow to go round them. I’ve never been told that before while waiting to get through immigration. Other than that, it was all very straight forward and over with very quickly. This wasn’t our only flight of the day; we had 2 internal ones so we needed to move from International to Domestic. Of course it wasn’t straight forward at all, nothing ever is. To get to the Domestic departure area we had to go up an escalator… with the luggage trolleys. I find it unnatural to take luggage trolleys up escalators; to me it seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Well, F was at the head of our procession with his trolley piled high with the bags (just to point out that this escalator was not made up of stairs, it was going up just straight). When you put your trolley on you are meant to let go of the handle bars and then press down again when you reach the top. I have no idea what happened, I was bring up the rear. I was probably off in some sleep deprived day dream about how nice it would to be asleep when I heard a yell. F couldn’t get his trolley to move and he had hit the end, he then got hit by Mr G’s trolley, and then by Mrs G trolley. There was lots of screaming going on, and I was fast approaching this big pile up trying desperately to get mine out of the way. Thankfully some clever person further behind hit the emergency stop button. With everything stopped we were able to get off, with only our egos bruised. That was really the only interesting thing that happened for us. After we had checked in with Qantas and dropped off our ridiculous amount of luggage, we were free to go through security.

We had a fair wait for our flight so everyone dumped bags with me and headed off in different directions to find food. At this point I turned my phone on and got the lovely message that my lovely skiing instructor had had her baby! Awwww that made my day. Once everyone was back, I took off in search of some much needed chocolate. I don’t think I have had any proper chocolate since I left Germany, so I got myself a nice BIG pack of Dove. Mmmmm that lasted me at least a week! Which thinking about it is really impressive for me.

The next flight took us to Adelaide, I have no idea why we didn’t just fly to Adelaide, it would have saved us a trip. Never mind, I am sure there was a reason. This time we were met by the director of the tour company that had organised this part of the trip and who helped us take our luggage across the road to the private airport. Our last flight of the day was a 20 minute flight to Kangaroo Island. Now, when I say Island, I do not mean a tiny one like Moyo Island. This place is 4 times as big as Singapore! It was a pretty big Island. Unlike Moyo Island the water is not 30C, it is freezing. The next stop after Kangaroo Island (KI) is Antarctica at only 4000 miles away. We landed at the other end of the KI so had over an hours drive to our new hotel. HB and I were in the back of the car and after a few tears from being uncomfortable she fell asleep, as did I. Got to grab that sleep when you can.

Our hotel was called Southern Ocean Lodge, and it was beautiful. Probably the best hotel we stayed in. It really was something. It was a very small hotel, with maybe only 30 rooms max. The staff were so friendly and nothing was too much trouble for them at all. The best part about the place was the view. That was breath taking, a view of the beach with the ocean rolling up onto it and the sun setting. Really lovely. HB and I crashed after some dinner while everyone else went out on an evening/night walk to see some kangaroos. F came back with a brilliant story about how one of the kangaroos had been cared for by humans after her mother had been killed by a car. Annie (the kangaroo) was a wild animal but used to humans and didn’t mind being patted gently by people. On this walk there was a family that had 2 small boys, one of which was pulling this kangaroo by the ears! Well Annie did what all wild animals do so slapped the boy round the face twice. The guide (according to F) had to hold Annie back so that she wouldn’t kick the boy, because that could kick could kill. When F told me this story it did bring a smile to my face. I was glad that Annie had taught that boy a lesson, and that is a lesson he will probably not forget.

So that was our first day in Australia, lots more adventures to come.

As always the story is

to be continued

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Photos

The view
Wow! All that needs to be said really.