Blogs from American River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, Australia, Oceania

Hi Guy's It's Friday afternoon and Deb and l have just enjoyed a magnificent day at Peddington Beach. We were kept entertained by a large pod of dolphins surfing up and down the beach. We have been here a week now and have experienced both ends of the spectrum as far as the weather goes. Two days ago blowing a gale and 20 degrees and today 35. We have just about done all of the island and taken in some great scenery. There has been some light hearted criticism that my wife does not figure in many photo's so l have tried to rectify the situation. Must go as l am on a promise to cook Deb calamari for tea. Fifteen minutes in the boat should be enough time to catch a feed. Being Friday night ... read more

Hey Now! Crossed over from the mainland to spend a couple of days on Kangaroo Island, in South Australia. It's a fairly primitive island, with relatively few amenities to speak of, and has a really remote feel even though it's only a 45 minute ferry ride off the coast. Once here though, you're in another world altogether. Typically, there's an abundance of wildlife, including kangaroos, penguins, and koalas. However, due to the severe weather we ran into, all we got to see plenty of were Australian Sea Lions and New Zealand Fur Seals. The terrain and coastline are spectacular, and with the hurricane like winds, we got to witness the wrath of the Indian Ocean up close. The main scenic and wildlife areas are about a 150 km drive from the island's docking point, so there ... read more

Remember how yesterday I said that we didn’t normally join big tour groups as we liked to do things at our own pace and we could be as late as we liked? Well today was no exception to that rule. We had a full day tour of the Island planned for the day. Originally we were meant to start at 9:30. Any guesses to the time we actually started? 10am? Nope. 10:30? Nope. 11am? Yes. We kept our guide waiting for almost 2hrs. It meant we couldn’t do all the things that had been originally planned for us, but hey never mind, we still had a great day. Our guide for the day was called Mary. She was nice, very blunt and very orange. Maybe it is because we beat them in the Ashes again (for ... read more

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 ... read more

One of the rituals when visiting KI is to feed the local pelicans with the leftovers after filletting the day's catch of fish. In these images, Opa shows Dan how it is done. It takes surprisingly little to get the attention of the pelicans. The squawk of a seagull is usually enough. They then start to fly in, usually quite low over the water and often in formation and from several kilometres away. It is am impressive sight seeing such big birds in the air. As they get close to the feeding site they often do a water landing. Their legs go out in front and with feet flexed, they basically ski into shore. Then they waddle up the beach and start indicating that they are should be favoured with fish (opening their enormous beaks, making ... read more