Adelaide and Kangaroo Island

Tuesday, September 22. Adelaide was not quite the urban mecca that Melbourne was, but was still an interesting mixture of old and new. When we finally got to Adelaide it was cold and drizzling. We checked into our second hostel which, other than for the two large and very loud high school groups from the UK, seemed nice. Keith and I spent the remainder of the day exploring Adelaide. Rundle Street was a neat area with lots of shopping and restaurants. Keith finally was able to purchase a cooler from Woolworths to carry beverages around – something he had been searching for since shortly after we landed here. After dinner on Rundle Street, we headed back to the hostel to call it an early night. Though Keith and I were quite apprehensive about how we were going to sleep with the amount of noise being generated from the two school groups, with some ambient and earplugs, we were quickly on our way to dreamland.

Wednesday, September 23. Wednesday proved to be a great day in many respects and a not so great day in others. On the downside, Keith arose early with a bad case of the flu which plagued him throughout the day. We had decided to head out to Kangaroo Island (known as KI). My Let's Go book describes KI as “[o]ne of the most spectacular destinations in Australia, Kangaroo Islands has everything a nature lover could want...” Back in the car we went to drive yet another 110 km to Cape Jarvis where we took the ferry over to KI (about a 45 min. ride). KI was spectacular. There is only one paved road that circles the island (KI is about 180 km long and 80 km wide) and the remainder of the roads are all dirt. There are only 4,500 people living on the island and pretty much the entire island is a nature preserve (there are 21 conservation parks there). Our first stop was Kingscote, the main town, where we picked up some cold medicine for Keith. Next stop was Seal Bay where we were able to walk down to the beach and get within 20 feet of a large colony of Australian sea lions (Rachel you would have loved it!). It was truly awesome. At the visitor's center, they had a display that questioned whether all animals were from a common ancestor and showed pictures of a sea lion skeleton next to a dog skeleton. After watching the sea lions, Keith and I could definitely see the resemblance between them and our dog Apple! From there we meandered over to a place called Little Sahara where you could surf/board/sled down the huge sand dunes. Next was Vivonne Bay - said to be one of the best beaches in Australia. We continued our drive along the south coast of KI, heading toward our night's accommodations at the KI Wilderness Retreat (so far my favorite place we've stayed). Along the way we saw our first kangaroos! They were quite large and grazing in a field along side the road. We arrived at the KI Wilderness Retreat a little on the early side and after spending much time in the car, we decided to go for a short hike along one of their walking trails in hopes of seeing some more kangaroos. On the trail map it listed the animals we might see which included the black tiger snake. I asked BJ, one of the friendly staff at the Retreat, whether we were likely to see any snakes (as I absolutely hate them). He said probably not as it was too early in the season. Off we went hiking. Approximately 10 minutes into our walk (I was leading the way), I screamed as I almost stepped right on a black tiger snake that was laying right in the middle of the trail. Fortunately we were able to very cautiously walk our way around the snake (though it had opened up its hood) and continued on our hike. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to get back to the Retreat. We (or at least I) didn't realized how truly lucky I was until I got back to the Retreat and told BJ what we had encountered. He said that had I gotten bitten and not gotten help within1/2 hour (where we were on KI was an hour away from help), I would have died. Apparently black tiger snakes are five times more poisonous than rattle snakes. Having been so close to stepping on the snake, both Keith and I couldn't help but run through all of the “what ifs.” I guess someone must have been looking out for us. On a happier note, when we got back from the hike, since the Retreat is in the middle of nowhere, many creatures wander around and just sort of hang out, waiting for people to feed them. We were able to pet and feed a small kangaroo and a couple of marsupials. We had a delicious dinner at the restaurant at the Retreat and called it a night. Keith was still feeling crummy from having the flu and I was just happy to be alive.....

Thursday, September 24. We tried to sleep in a bit so Keith could work on trying to fight the flu and me to prevent catching it but we were up and checked out of the Retreat by 8:30 am. Our first stop was a spot where you could wander around and see koala bears. We only saw two up in the trees, but it was exciting nonetheless. We also saw more kangaroos. Next stop was Flinders Chase National Park – the largest park on KI. There we saw the Remarkable Rocks – huge rock formations on the side of a cliff and Admirals Arch – a cave carved into the side of the island. At Admirals Arch we saw probably 100 or so New Zealand fur seals laying on the rocks and playing in the water – again another awesome sight. From there we meandered along the north side of the island, stopping at Stokes Bay – another beautiful beach that you could access only by walking through a narrow path through the rocks. We stopped in Kingscote again so Keith could buy some different cold medicine and then we headed back to Penneshaw to catch the 7:30 pm ferry home. By the time we got off the ferry and drove back to Adelaide, it was around 11:00 pm. We had a 6:25 am flight out to Perth and needed to be at the airport by 5:00 am. The VW Jetta we had rented provided our evenings accommodations.

Friday, September 25. After catching just a few winks in the Jetta, we checked in and were headed to Perth (about a 3 hour plane ride from Adelaide). More on Perth later....

So a few observations/thoughts about Australia so far. As expected the people are incredibly friendly and they don't have much of a filter in terms of what they say (as a result they can be quite entertaining). It is incredibly clean especially given the fact that trash cans are hard to come by (for example many of the parks and tourist spots we stopped at had no trash cans). I, of course, have had to use many many public bathrooms and all of them have been very clean. Speaking of bathrooms they have a two flush system designed to conserve water. On each toilet there are two buttons, one with a line halfway through it and one without. You use the “half flush” for #1 and the “full flush” for #2. They also try to conserve electricity. You have turn on a switch to turn the power on to each outlet you use. Another thing about Australia that is hard to imagine until you are actually here, is its vastness (and we've haven't even ventured into the interior of the country yet). Neither Keith nor I could have imagined how far things were from one another despite having read about the distances. In the three days that we rented a car, we traveled more than 1700 km (well over 1,000 miles). You can literally go miles and miles with seeing another car or even a building (though you are likely to see lots of sheep and cows).