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Published: February 16th 2007
Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island
the colour of the water was just unbelievable, it made you want to jump in but I didn't as the water's freezing down here off the south coast!I arrived in Adelaide on Sun 28th Jan (I know I'm really behind at keeping this updated, I'm trying to catch up now!) after an hour and a half flight from Sydney which was pretty uneventful except that I mysteriously got upgraded to Business Class just as I was boarding must have been my stylish clothes (boardshorts & a vest top!) or maybe Qantas were finally making it up to me after the 4 or 5 phonecalls I made trying to change my flight details....think thats more likely somehow.
It was cloudy when I arrived in Adelaide & this time I couldn't blame it on my dad (me & Wendy previously blamed him for any cloudy days we got as he kept moaning about the heat!) as it was just me on my own this time. I got the shuttle bus from the airport to my hostel...& the driver gave me his phone number when he dropped me off so I'd been in Adelaide all of 30 minutes & I'd already got a phone number, weird!
Adelaide is a nice place but it really does feel more like a town than a city, you can walk from one end
of the city centre to the other in 20mins and surrounding the city centre on all 4 sides are parklands so it feels really cosy but it doesn't really take long to explore & look around. Everywhere else is just suburbs outside of the parklands, apart from North Adelaide which is just north of the city centre, they are separated by the River Torrens and more parklands which are really lovely to walk through particularly along the edge of the river unless your me & you get followed by an old perve (more about that later!)
On my first full day in Adelaide I went to the Museum (very cultured for me I know), where they had lots of displays about Aboriginal cuture which were really interesting as the only Aboriginal culture you usually see is boomerangs in souvenir shops. After that I went for a wander around the Botanic Gardens which were really gorgeous & green a nice change after driving through inland New South Wales for a week whcih was so dry from the drought that the sheep & cows in the fields were literally shuffling through dusty earth looking for food.
My hostel was really
A Kangaroo Island Kangaroo!
She was hanging around outside where we had lunch looking for some lunch for herself nice but really small & was full of a large group of German friends who pretty much took over the whole place, & that night they decided to stay up until after 2am singing karaoke (badly) at the top of their lungs in the lounge which was right outside my room. The song list included: "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, "YMCA" by the Village People & "Hero" by Mariah Carey........I couldn't get any sleep....arrggghhh!
On my second day in Adelaide I got up very tired & a wee bit grumpy after the previous nights karakoke fest so I went for some retail therapy in Rundle Mall, which is actually an outdoor shopping strip rather than an indoor mall...great shopping though although I was pretty restrained & didn't actually buy anything...must be a first since I came to Australia - my wardrobes got considerably bigger since I got here, might need to send some old clothes back home before I leave Oz!
After I'd wandered around the shops for an hour or two (or three!) I headed back to the River Torrens for a wander & to chill out for a bit. I saw some of
Wild Koala's!
This is the wee guy I watched walk between trees & then climb up...he's just sussing out the best way up in this photo! the local black swans swimming around on the river, they have the brightest red beaks it looks like they're wearing lipstick but they look really elegant on the water even if they are pretty cheeky when they're out of it coming right up to you looking for food. The local school kids were doing their rowing practice up & down the river after school which is a bit of an improvement on playing hockey in the freezing cold & pouring rain like I did! Although when I sat down to read my book for a bit in the sun I looked up & noticed that there was an old man on the other riverbank flashing his not so private parts at me & anyone else who was unlucky enough to look in that direction. I quickly moved on to find another seat away from him only to look up 15 minutes later to see him walking towards me on my side of the river, so I made another very swift exit & headed straight back to the city centre. The first & only time I've felt a bit threatened since I've been away & hopefully the last.
I had
an early night as I got up ridiculously early on the Wednesday to get picked up for my one day trip to Kangaroo Island but it was well worth it as I finally saw koala's in the wild after spending the last 2 weeks looking up hundreds of eucalyptus trees looking for one! But I'm getting ahead of myself as first we had an hour and a half coach ride South from Adelaide to Cape Jervis to catch the ferry over to the island. It was the rockiest ferry I'd been on in a while, at one point the boat was at a 45degree angle to the horizon so just as well I don't get seasick!
Our first stop once we got to the island was Seal Bay which is home to a large Australian Sea Lion colony complete with some rather large seal pups still nursing from their mums. We got to walk down onto the beach only a few metres away from them (not too close though as the males are pretty huge & can get quite grumpy & aggressive) & we were told that only 5 days or so after giving birth female sea-lions are in
Remarkable Rocks
I think this one looks like an elephant going to push that ball season again & pregant all over again....I'm glad I'm not a female sea-lion.
The next stop was for lunch, and after our delicious BBQ lunch we could wander around the Koala Walk (my main reason for coming if I'm honest!) & I that's where I finally saw koala's in the wild! I actually got really lucky, the coach driver took me round to the koala walk & straight away we saw a koala on the ground right in front of me looking for a new tree to climb up to have lunch in, I couldn't believe how lucky I was as it's pretty rare to catch them on the ground as they spend almost all of their time up trees sleeping. It came less than 2 feet away from me & then surveyed it's chosen tree to decide on the best way up & then up it leapt & started climbing. I was actually really surprised at how well they climb as they don't look all that speedy or agile but he got up there pretty quickly & even jumped between branches at one point until he found a branch he liked with lots of eucalyptus leaves within easy
Remarkable Rocks 2
I think this one looks like Miss Piggy from the Muppets! reach for his lunch!
We also had a visit from one of the local Kangaroo Island Kangaroos, which are a separate species that can only be found on Kangaroo Island, as we were eating lunch. She was really quite tame so she must get fed by lunching tourists alot.
After my lunch & my wild koala encounter we moved on to see the Remarkable Rocks, which sit on top of a round cliff and have been pounded & shaped by the elements for hundreds maybe thousands of years, which has given them all these weird and wonderful shapes & holes in them. My two favourites are below, the Miss Piggy look-a-like & the elephant. The waves against the cliff were phenomenally strong & we were well warned to keep away from the edge as only two years ago a tourist went too close to the edge after being told not to & he slipped & fell in. He was actually lucky enough to survive the crashing waves but unfortunately the two guides who went in to rescue him both died.
We moved on to see Admiral's Arch next which is similar to Natural Bridge I went to
Admiral's Arch
there were actually two New Zealand fur seals mucking around in the pool at the bottom left of the photo see in New South Wales as it has been naturally shaped out of the rocks although this time the incredibly strong winds in the area & the crashing waves have played the major role in carving the arch out of the rock. It also makes up part of the home to the local New Zealand Fur Seal colony & there were two young seals messing around & play fighting in the water just below the arch when I was there. It was unbelievably windy though, I almost got blown over walking back up to the bus.
We made a quick stop at the visitor centre on the drive back to get the ferry back to mainland Australia where there was a damily of Kangaroo Island Kangaroos hanging around in the car park! There was a really small Joey among them who got a bit spooked when this girl kept chasing it trying to get too close. I kept my distance from the poor wee thing but still managed to get a photo.
We headed back to Penneshaw, where fairy penguins come ashore at night & just wander around the town apparently before going to bed for the night
in their burrows along the sandy shore theres even signs on the road warning of penguins ahead....never seen that before!
We had just enoigh time to get some chips before catching the ferry (a gang of seagulls slowly closing in on us as we ate them!) back to the mainland & then a bus back to Adelaide....there was a great sunset for the first half an hour of the journey & then a long drive through the suburbs in the dark & then bed it was straight to bed....thankfully there was no German Karaoke night this time!
For the rest of my time in Adeliade & just relaxed & sorted out my Greyhound bus ticket to get me to Melbourne.
On the Friday night (2nd Feb) I got the Greyhound Bus at 8pm & I had 2 seats to myself, I was relieved about that as it was an overnight bus & I didn't fancy being crammed in next to some stranger trying to get sleep!
It was actually a really nice coach (much better than the horror stories I've heard about Greyhound Buses in the States!) and we even got a movie when we set
off it was What Women Want, & it was surprisingly good just to sit & relax & watch a movie something I'd not done since the flight over at the beginning of January. I also had a great chat with the girl sitting in front of me but everyone else was trying to sleep so we had to shut up pretty quickly before the rest of the bus turned on us!
It was a long journey but not too bad although I just couldn't get to sleep so I was pretty exhausted when I arrived in Melbourne where I hung around for another 3 or 4 hours before I got the train out to Geelong nearer the coast & where after some confusion about where & when we were meeting I met up with my dad & Wendy & the big blue beast of a hire car to head for the Great Ocean Road for the week.
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Wendy
non-member comment
Kangaroo island looks good
The koala's gorgeous. He's quite a big guy isn't he!