Day 18 - Better Than the Zoo / Happy Thanksgiving

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After an amazing breakfast, we decided to explore the far side of the Peninsula and take a beach walk. We heard that there was a chance to see a Sea Lion that lives on Allan’s Beach and we decided to visit him. We drove all along curvy dirt roads, ending up in a sheep field. You climb the fence, say hi to the sheep, walk across the field through tunnels of yellow Lupin flowers and pop out onto the beach. We walked around the bend, and we spotted two Sea Lions. We had gotten lots of warnings about the size and the speed of the Sea Lions. They are not afraid of people but they are easily irritated. They can grow up to 3 meters long and over 300 kg and move very fast on the sand. They say they can catch a dog so we knew they could catch us. We didn’t get too close to the big male. We did crawl up on a rock behind the female who was totally sacked out. We were probably about 10m away - closer than the pictures make it look. As we were standing looking at her, she woke up, lifted her head, looked right at us, seemed surprised to see us and started moving. You never saw two Markowiches scramble so fast to get off those rocks and hightail it out of there. She was probably just shifting her weight to get more comfortable on her rock but we weren’t taking any chances. Now we’ve seen fur seals, whales, dolphins, penguins and sea lions. We’re calling this a successful safari. Next we popped in at Larnach Castle. Built by some rich guy for one of his wives way back - came to a bad end but it’s a nice castle with beautiful grounds. We walked around the gardens and had a nice lunch among the flowers. Brian even met the castle dog named Fern. Then back to the B&B for some R&R. We had a “real” dinner at a nice restaurant and enjoyed the atmosphere. Tomorrow we’re onto Queenstown along the Southern Scenic Route. That will be Thanksgiving for all of you. If for some reason, we can’t check in then, Happy Turkey Day! We’re thankful for all of you, our friends and family, who are with us in spirit. We’ll try to find some turkey (or at least KFC chicken) to be there with you as well. Enjoy and stay tuned.

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