Day 27: Kangaroo Island Weekend, Part One

I mentioned that when we reached Adelaide last night, those in our group who were travelling onward to Kangaroo Island were booked into the YHA hostel. I had not stayed at a youth hostel since the 80s; they now have groovy Ikea furniture and wifi, or at least this one did, and no more chores, or at least this one didn't! But what I didn't like then and I still don't like now was sharing a bunk bed filled room with people who turn in at 8:00 pm; the early sleeper also had very stinky socks. The room was ultra stuffy too as the window only opened a couple of inches. Needless to say I did not sleep very well and I needed to get up at the crack of dawn, too.

We had to be at the bus station, luckily only a few minutes away, at 6:30 am. We then were taken by coach to the ferry, and when we landed on the island, we boarded and minivan and met our leader for the next two days, Dani.

If you ever embark on a tour on Kangaroo Island, I highly recommend that you try to book one led by Dani. She has lived on the island most of her life and knows everything about everything. She rarely stopped talking even as she was driving but was never boring; she had some quite funny stories too! We were amazed to learn that this was only the second tour she had ever led! (Her daughter, who we met at our lunch stop, Emu Ridge (an emu farm and eucalyptus oil emporium) told us.)

However, our first stop was Rob's Shearing. I think many visitors to Australia end up experiencing a sheep dog and shearing demonstration and as this is the only one I have ever experienced, I can't compare it but found it also interesting and entertaining. Plus the dogs were very sweet and happy!

The sheep might look a bit annoyed here but she was definitely very happy when it was over; that wool weighs a lot, and summer was coming!

Before lunch we went for a walk on some cliffs:

From the shop at Emu Ridge:

Next, a visit to Seal Bay. It really should be called Sea Lion Bay, as these are all Australian Sea Lions.

At first I did not realize that we could go down on the beach with them...

Yes, I have a lot of sea lion photos! I have posted fewer than half of them...

There was some drama...

A real poseur...

After that, we went sandboarding. It was hard work trudging up those dunes - one step forward two slides back. Thankfully no one videoed my pathetic attempts... Either I wasn't moving anywhere or I was tumbling off the board. Here are a couple people from our group who had the knack.

In the late afternoon we arrived at our lodgings for the night at Vivonne Bay, where we later had a BBQ dinner and sat around a bonfire, roasting marshmellows after dark. Before dinner we had a couple hours in which to hike the various trails. I don't seem to have any photographs; I think I was just enjoying the birdsong and the occasional glimpse of a wallaby hopping through the woods.

However I'll close this day by posting photos of some of my favorite signs viewed this week:

Day 26: Hiking in the Grampians and onward to Adelaide

 
There were wallabies all around the cabin. Most are active at night but this guy was still up.

Another early morning and a quick breakfast, then back on the minibus.We were driven further up into the mountains and given a choice of a long slightly downhill hike, a fairly short hike or no hike at all. I chose the first, partly in preparation for trekking in Malaysia.

 

It was already pretty hot so I was glad there was not much climbing up. People had told me that Australian cities and suburbs looked very much like southern California, but in the Grampians I felt as if I could be in almost any Californian National Park; it brought to mind especially the Pinnacles. Judge for yourself in the following photos, although this one looks like it could be an alpine lake almost anywhere in the world.

At some points the water looked almost like a murder scene, but this was a natural occurrence!

 I was taking so many photos (a lot more than I am posting here) and one by one the other members of our party passed me by. As I tried to catch up one person, it turned out, was behind me, another photographer, Julie from New Orleans. For a while we truly thought we must have taken a wrong turn as the trail seemed so much longer than what we had expected, and there were no signs.

But we finally reached the end of the trail and were greeted by this pair:

No more photos for today, although it was not even noon. We knew we would be traveling on to Adelaide and would arrive there this evening, but what we had not been told was that we would be dumped at a bus station, and our comfortable minivan would be going back to Melbourne without us! It was an hours' wait for the first bus and at one point we had to transfer; eight hours in all! None of us were expecting this. Most of the drive was inland not very scenic; we didn't even see a kangaroo!

It was a Wednesday, so Tuesday in the States, and election day. As I did not have a smart phone I had no idea what was going on until I began receiving disturbing texts from California and London. A Canadian couple in our group who were sitting behind me did their best to console me, and after checking into the youth hostel in Adelaide, Julie and I needed to find a bar. We did find a nice gastropub with no televisions. I hoped that Kangaroo Island tomorrow would cheer me up!