Adelaide

Welcome to our day on Kangaroo Island! Today, we are going to do a LOT of driving, as I previously mentioned, I did not realize how LARGE this island is! It is hard balancing rest and relaxation with wanting to do things too! I was amazed as I got 6 hours straight sleep which is a record so far on this trip for me!  So quiet and peaceful!  The bed was so comfortable too – a great comforter on it plus a wonderful thick cotton blanket – the kind I like! 

The owner had provided GF corn flakes for me (she had asked if anyone had food allergies which is cool) along with GF bread and for Andrew there was an assortment of cereals to choose from along with milk, yogurt and fruit cups in the fridge.  Oh and there was coffee too!  Two kinds – instant and French press!  Such luxury!  After a good breakfast we were off on our quest today to discover Kangaroo Island.  However first, as we had already done some driving to Victor Harbour, the ferry and to the Hanson Nature Park and we were going to do more, we needed to get some gas so we did not run out in the wilderness!  As we had stopped and gotten groceries yesterday in Kingscote, we had a coupon for 4 cents off gas, so we decided to make use of it!  We drove back to Kingscote and got some gas and then back across the Island to Seal Bay to visit the Southern Fur Sea Lions who like to visit the beach there.

Again, here is the map of where we are going and what we are going to do for reference – today we are going to drive from Kingscote (middle top right) down to the bottom on the red road to where you see a little red “hook” in the middle – that is Seal Bay. Then we will continue to the left past the blue arrow where we were yesterday to where the road turns and heads south. Right where it turns and heads south is the entrance to the Flinders Chase National Park. From there, which is hard to see on this map, we will go to both Remarkable Rocks and Cape du Couedic to see the lighthouse and Admirals Arch. Then we will drive the red road heading north called West End Road and then along Playford Road back to Kingscote for dinner and then back to Beaudin Beach which is just to the right of Pennshaw where the ferry terminal is to our B&B. That will be about 350 kilometers of driving for Andrew today! I told you that KI is a BIG island!

Another point about driving on Kangaroo Island – it is quite interesting when looking at the map above or Google Maps – it shows roads like red and brown above – however not all of them are paved!  Some are hard packed dirt and some are just dirt and rocks.  It adds to the fun when driving. And then, on all the roads every kilometre or two there also would be a kangaroo at the side of the road – usually feet up on its back – dead. 

After successfully getting gas in Kingscoke and Lynda getting some beverages, we arrived at Seal Bay, which is another conservation area and it has about a ½ kilomentre  sloping ramp down to a viewing area where you can see the sea lions on the beach hanging out for the day.  These southern sea lions, like the ones near Horseshoe Bay outside of Vancouver, are fur bearing sea lions, unlike seals which do not have fur.  That is a pretty big distinction that they ranger who was at the education centre told me, after she asked where we were from (like it was not obvious from my hat!).  Andrew and I bought tickets to go down and sea the see the sun bathing sea lions! Here are our pictures of the roll down to the beach viewing area!

It was interesting to see the whale skeleton on our way down – there are Humpback and Southern Right whales that ply the waters from May to October as they make their way to breeding grounds. These types of whales are baleen whales who do not have teeth – they have bristles instead which filter food from the water. There also are sperm and killer whales in the area, with teeth that hunt other whales and sea lions as we saw on the beach.

Now we have visited the mainly female sea lions and their offspring and heard the honking of some males, it is time for us to go to the National Park and check out some Remarkable Rocks, Lighthouse and the Admirals Arch! This was going to take us about 90 minutes to drive to, however this road is going to be paved…. based on our experience yesterday! Along the way, we passed by the Hanson Conservation area and eventually arrived at the Flinders Chase National Park. We got there at about 2:45 pm and it was just before it closed! I was a bit hungry so we quickly got a map of where we needed to go and visited the restaurant which was closing at 3 pm. The ONLY snack left was guess what? A gluten free caramel nut bar! They even showed me the box before serving it to me – I was pretty excited to get such a rare treat! Now that I have power food, we were off to drive to Remarkable Rocks!

The Remarkable Rocks are a rock formation that was formed by molten rock over 500 million years ago that pushed up as the upper layer cracked and peeled away forming a type of granite. The exposed red granite is made up of quartz, feldspar and mica where it has had thousands of years of surface weathering and erosion to make the rocks look like they do today. These are known as domed inselbergs or “islands of rocks”.

Back in the car, we were then off to the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse and then Andrew went and did the Admiral’s Arch walk – which was not accessible for me. The Cape du Couedic Lighthouse, which I was able to visit, is named after the French Naval Officer Charles Louis du Couedic. As the Southern Ocean was a nasty place for sailors due to extreme weather and poor visibility, many shipwrecks happened. This lighthouse, built in 1907, had lamps fueled by oil and kerosene and its lights could be seen up to 40 km away at sea. The lighthouse now uses solar powered LED lights to fuel the light source.

Then Andrew walked down to the Admirals Arch to check it out while I waited in the car. The arch has been carved by sea erosion over thousands of years and is known for its distinctive stalactites and a colony of long-nosed fur seals that frequent the area on their way to Seal Bay.

Now, we are getting hungry! We decided to take the “northern route” back to Kingscote for a change of scenery and go for dinner. As data coverage on Kangaroo Island is a bit LACKING (thus is why these posts got backlogged) I was able to find a restaurant that served gluten free pizza when we got close to the small town called Bella and boy it was GOOD! Andrew had the meat lovers pizza as normal and I had a chicken and spinach pizza – the crust was so light, thin and easy to eat that I ate the whole thing! Wow! Now with full stomachs, we checked out the local “swimming beach” which is actually a guarded pool with salt water with a breakwater so the tide comes in and out, with sand and picnic shelters! Pretty nice! As the sun was starting to set though and we still had about 45 minutes to drive, we decided to get going back to the B&B for the nigh!

Tomorrow we are going to visit the lighthouse that is on the north east point of Kangaroo Island – not far from where we are staying and then back to Pennshaw to catch the ferry at 1 pm. We have a 7 pm flight to Melbourne tomorrow from Adelaide for the next part of our journey! See you tomorrow!

We were up early this morning to begin our drive to Cape Jervis to catch the 9 am ferry to Kangaroo Island. Victor Harbor is an hour away from the ferry terminal and we have to be checked in by 8:30 am so we departed just before 7:30 am. It was a beautiful morning drive – past windmills, cows, a Christmas Tree farm (photo did not work out) and up and down over the hills and through Eucalyptus tree lined roads. Finally we started our descent into Cape Jervis and saw the ferry arriving to meet us on the horizon.

The mind plays games on you – based on my dealings with Sealink, the ferry service, I thought the terminal and ferry would be bigger than it actually was! I have no idea what gave me that idea as I knew that Andrew was going to have to drive the car onto the ferry and I was going to have to walk on as the ferry did not have any elevator from the passenger deck. We parked in line and I went in to check us in for the ferry (there was not a booth like BC Ferries – you had to go into the Terminal to check in and get tickets for each adult along one for the car. I then went back to the car to get my bag as I planned to use my laptop on the ferry and give Andrew the instructions I had been told about how to get onto the ferry and to tell the ferry workers that he had to pick me up on the other side – so he had to be directed to the passenger pick up area. As we had gotten to the ferry line up about 8:15 am, Andrew was one of the first onto the ferry. I was taken up the ramp onto the ferry with another lady in a wheelchair early and then the let all the bus passengers onto the ferry – so I was able to get a really great seat at the front of the ferry! Andrew popped up from the car deck stairs fairly fast after I had found our seats. Very soon though he was in the line to get some coffee as he had done that drive this morning without any caffeine to start the day!

Now on the ferry, that is my view from the front of the ferry as we departed Cape Jervis – the ferry slip is in a protected area and then it was open sea between the Fleurieu Peninsula, where Cape Jervis is located, and Kangaroo Island. The ferry ride takes 45 minutes and as we found out when we were in Fiji, the ferries are due to be replaced, however the replacement ferries are late being delivered. However I am not sure if the ferries being delivered late is that big a deal or not as BOTH ferry terminals – Cape Jervis and Pennshaw on Kangaroo Island are still under construction and are not ready for the arrival of the new ferries – specifically the boarding of walk on passengers. I am not sure what the design of the new ferries are going to be however the two ferries that go back and forth every 45 minutes are back end load. When Andrew got on in Cape Jervis, he drove onto the ferry and was against the hull of the ship and then to get off, he had to drive around the bow and down the other side of the ship. It also means that the ferry goes out of the Cape Jervis terminal straight forward, however backs into the Pennshaw ferry terminal – very interesting experience! You would think having a ferry like the BC Ferries which can sail in either direction would be preferable!

Anyway, we now arrived in Pennshaw and Andrew went down to the car deck and I got off the passenger exit and met him in the passenger pick up area. I had read about Kangaroo Island before I had booked us to go there however I guess I was pretty excited to go there and I neglected to realize just how BIG Kangaroo Island is! Holy cow is in LARGE! On top of that, the plans that I had made were upended by the change in the ferry schedule so we ended up doing some extra driving on this trip! The first thing we did, which was at about 10:30 am was drive to where our B&B was located, which was about 15 minutes from the ferry terminal. I was hoping we could store our luggage there instead of driving around the island with it – as we had a SUV it was in view if we parked the car. We arrived at the Fig Tree B&B and it was exactly as they said it would be which I was pleased to see! The owner was actually just finishing cleaning our room and was more than happy to let us leave our luggage there and then give us the key – despite check in not being until 3 pm! The family was going to be away in the afternoon for check-in time so it was great to meet her and see the cute 3 unit building plus a kitchen that comprises the Fig Tree B&B. After dropping off our luggage Andrew and I were off to explore Kangaroo Island – the first stop? Grocery store! Next stop – the Wilderness Koala and Kangaroo walk that I had booked for us in the afternoon!

Let’s get oriented to where we have come from and where we are going – upper right – the ferry is shown going from Cape Jervis to Pennshaw, which is the 2nd largest town on Kangaroo Island. The Fig Tree B&B that we stayed at is at Beaudin Beach which is just to the right of Pennshaw with Beaudin written in green. We then drove to Kingscote, which is the largest town on Kangaroo Island to go to the grocery store and get some picnic/dinner supplies. It is across the bay to the left of Pennshaw. Then from Kingscote we made our way to the Kangaroo Island Wool and then down to where the arrow is at the bottom of the picture which is the Hanson Bay Conservation Area, with a stop just outside of Kingscote at the Kangaroo Island Wool company! The drive from the Kangaroo Island Wool company to the Hanson Bay Conservation area took just over an hour – so it was a bit of a distance traveling at about 100 km/hr. We saw LOTS of dead kangaroos along the side of the road as apparently they like to jump in front of cars!

As I mentioned, we made a QUICK stop at Kangaroo Wool Mill which is a company of 23 sheep farmers on Kangaroo Island who have their wool spun at the wool mill and fine garments made – they were VERY expensive pieces of clothing! We got there and I saw 2 skeins of black, blue and 1 of earth green on a table and 6 skeins of bright pink! I was in LOVE with the feel of the wool. The lady who was helping me obviously saw I was a knitter as I could not stop talking about the wool so she went and got another lady as I was having issues figuring out what to purchase. Having either 2 skeins of black or blue and 1 skein of the earth green was not going to be enough for a short sleeved sweater! The lady who is in charge of the knitting machines and obviously a knitter herself came out and told me that she thinks she has enough of the earth green in the back if I do not mind a few bumps in the wool – I was like heck no! That adds interest to the knitting! So she then wound another skein for me and gave me her personal Instagram address so I could show her what I knitted! They do not have a big market for people who buy wool it seems – only the people who buy the expensive garments and blankets which were very beautiful!

Next we drove to the Hanson Bay Conservation area. I had read some online reviews that this was a great walk to do on Kangaroo Island to see some Koala’s and Kangaroos in their native habitat. Basically we ended up in a parking lot in a huge conservation area and a guide met us there to go for a walk and then a drive. First the walk! The guide took us to see her “favourite” koalas who, along with the other wildlife, are actually living free to come and go on the acreage. First we stopped at a tree where there was a male Koala hanging out down low waiting for the female Koala, who was higher up, to come down. It is currently mating season and the male Koala’s are very frustrated and can be very loud in trying to attract a female partner. While this dude was sleeping at this point in time, he did start bellowing after we left.

We learned lots about Koalas from the guide – such that there are dozens of different eucalyptus trees in Australia however certain koalas only eat certain eucalyptus trees! In fact the eucalyptus tree leaf is poisonous, however their guts can handle it as long as it is the right leaves they are eating as they have the bacteria in their system to break down the leaves – which take about 48 hours. Koala’s do not drink very much – almost all their liquid supply comes from the eucalyptus leaves they eat – however you do not want to stand under trees when they pee as their pee has a VERY strong smell! The other neat fact that we learned is about their butts. Koalas have a fat pad on their rears which allow them to sit on branches without pain – such as in the picture of the Male Koala below – who is basically sitting on a branch and will sit there for hours on end! Koalas are known to sleep for up to 20 hours in a day – sometimes in the same position! I think Andrew thought it would be good to be a Koala!

As we were walking along and talking and looking up at the trees to see the females, which are up higher with their young at this point, the guide was pointing out some fascinating things like the burn bark that is falling off the trees as it is pushed out as new bark is being re-generated. We all heard of the Forest Fires in Australia in 1999 however the same year, Kangaroo Island also had a fire of its own that was man made – a farmer had been burning off some wood and he thought the fire was out. However it has gotten into the ground and a week later it emerged and someone driving by saw it and reported it. It caused a HUGE fire on Kangaroo Island which was unrelated to the fires that happened on the East Coast. It was funny, as while we were talking as a group about these burnt tree trunks, a set of 4 kangaroos bounded by past us! I was not fast enough on the draw of my camera to catch them though! The kangaroos here are about 3-4 feet high compared to the ones we saw south of Perth on the west side of Australia in 2020 in the park where we were eating lunch – they were at least 5 feet tall – my height!

We walked through trails in the bush a bunch more and looked at a tree that is heavily scarred by koalas climbing and the guide showed us pictures of a koala’s feet/paws which are pretty interesting! I have pictures in a couple of days that outline them – basically they have 2 thumbs and 3 fingers so they can grip better on the back of their body with very strong nails! At that time the guide showed us a bench that the kangaroos now use to chew on to sharpen their teeth and then we got into a van to drive around the property to see the wallaby’s, kangaroos and the Southern geese, which I might add are MUCH better behaved than Canadian geese! I really enjoyed this walk along roads and paths in the bush and drive seeing wildlife in their environment instead of in a zoo!

After that outing, we drove the 90 minutes back to our Bed and Breakfast which was by Beaudin Beach. On our way to the house, we drove by the beach – here are the views of the beach that was nearby!

Now we have arrived back at our B&B! Such a cozy little place! It looks out onto a garden in front, has flat access (good and has a nice kitchenette in the room along with a full kitchen outside on the right side of the house for all 3 suites to share.

Tomorrow we are going to be exploring Kangaroo Island some more – our original plans – which include more driving back to where we were today and past to see the State Park and also Seal Beach! See you tomorrow!

It is a BRILLIANT day for a sail into the Sydney Harbour! I am up early (quietly starting to pack) and ready to go downstairs to Deck 4 and access the Bow of the Noordam for viewing of the Sydney Harbour! Lets GO!

Here is a panorama picture that I took from the very tip of the bow where I was located as we sailed into Sydney –

Now that we have arrived and I have packed my suitcases – time to get off the ship and wait for our pickup that I booked to take us to the Sydney Airport! First, the things we left behind….

Here we are waiting for our ride….

The airport transportation that I had booked was a bit delayed in picking us up – I later found out that there are 2 areas – for drop off upstairs and one for pickup where we were and for some reason the driver was upstairs at the drop off area. SO GLAD my phone works in Australia so that we could sort that little issue out! Off to the Sydney Airport we went! We only had one LITTLE issue – I had bought a bag on the ship (for $10) and when I was packing it as I was planning on carrying it onto the plane, it seam burst! Yup, you get what you pay for Lynda! Not an issue – just put it into one of the nice canvas Holland America bags that they gave us! However I am not quite sure what happened to our luggage when we were on the ship – Andrew bought one t-shirt and I bought some things but not enough for our luggage to have babies!

Needless to say, in Australia they are a little pedantic about carry on luggage (size AND weight) so I thought, like I could do at YVR, I would buy a tote bag to check our extra things that seem to have exploded onto the scene. We walked from the Qantas Domestic Terminal to the Virgin Airlines Domestic Terminal (across a parking lot) to where I was told there might be a store that sells luggage. Yes, there was a store that sells luggage but at quite a high price and it was carry on luggage – not a checked bag – duffle bag size that I was looking for. We then moved to plan B while in the Arrivals area of Virgin Airlines – while Andrew partook in some caffeine consumption, I took my medicine and other stuff out of my roll aboard suitcase and put it into our carry on bag and put some stuff from my carry on bag like travel printouts and notebooks etc that could be checked and are heavier and then walked back to the Qantas check in area and checked our luggage and then with our two small backpacks and Holland America bag proceeded through Security.

I must admit security screening in Australia is awesome! While the YVR airport has put in faster bins in the C security area for Domestic travel and new x ray machines so that you do not have to take out laptops, which are similar to what is done in Australia now, it is the body scanning which is really cool! No longer walking through a door type thing or into a cage and holding your arms up – you walk between two panels, put your feet apart and hold your arms out at an angle and then they tell you to proceed or not. It does not affect people with pacemakers or other medical devices either. Also I can just push my walker through and then walk between the two walls and be scanned without creating any noise! There are two people watching the people walking through the scanning walls just to make sure nothing is missed. SOMEONE left a coin in their pocket and that was caught (I did not know I had a small coin in my pocket) and they were very nice about it! Onward to the lounge now where I had bought passes as I knew we were going to be in the airport for about 4 hours.

At the Qantas lounge we got seats looking out at the gates below and at the hangars across from us. Beautiful view! However for me, who did not have breakfast or caffeine, this was going to be an experience! Andrew had pre-scoped out the food section for me and brought me some apple juice as my blood sugar was low, however the report back was not good, so then I took my tired body and went and checked it out myself! Oh my, what a surprise! I saw on the sign that they had chocolate chip cookies (which Andrew had returned with too) however below that there was a little note saying they had gluten free blueberry cake if you asked! So guess what I did? I asked for some blueberry cake! The lady showed me the box and then gave me a piece and then asked if I wanted some gluten free bread to make a sandwich. In front of me were some pannini like bread toasters so I guess I looked a bit confused and she said – here is the gluten free bread and some baking paper (parchment) for you to use in the machine! Oh was I happy as a duck! I then proceeded to get some cheese, put the cheese between the slices of bread, wrap the paper around the bread and into the pannini type maker it went for toasting! No crumbs to be found on my food! At the same time, the beets were labeled gluten free so I got some of those and some much needed Coke Zero and off I went with my now browned sandwich to have lunch while watching the planes below!

I was not able to take a good picture of it as the corner of the building was in the way, however we saw the Singapore Airlines 380 plane which we will be taking in a few weeks to Singapore depart and also there were some Qantas 380’s at the international terminal. As I was sitting there all of a sudden I realized there was a tail on a plane in the freighter area that did not fit – it was CargoJet! Now CargoJet is a Canadian cargo company – what was that 767 doing way down here? Well, I went online and traced its route and saw that it is on a journey and obviously doing some charter service to Australia as it was scheduled to depart to Darwin later today. Thus I think is why we see the stairs leading up to the plane for the pilots….

We then realized our flight to Adelaide is going to depart from right below us as that was OUR luggage right on the cart sitting in front of our window! Really cool! So here is a picture of our luggage on the far side of the cart that is full (the blue and maroon bag) and our plane!

Now that we have boarded – which again I found to be an interesting process – rows 1-15 board through the front door – we were in row 7 and then rows 16-29 go down some stairs and board up a set of stairs going up into the rear of the plane! That is how they get their planes boarded so fast! Very interesting. Unfortunately, Andrew and I pulled the short straw on this 90 minute flight (plus a 30 minute time zone change) as a family of 4 boarded and sat in the 3 seats behind us. Behind me was a woman plus her baby which would have just been under 2 years old and in the middle seat, behind Andrew the other youngster, about 3 or 4 and then on the aisle, the dad. Needless to saw, for 90 minutes I had a constant pounding of my seat by the baby – along with the seat tray I think too and screaming! I asked the father to please reduce the banging on my seat and he said “it is a baby – not much we can do”. Great – my poor back is getting sorer now and we have a car ride ahead of us! Andrew I could tell was not happy either as he was abnormally quiet….

However I must admit, I did have a short period of excitement on the flight – beautiful views flying out of Sydney and then they handed out the snacks for everyone on the flight and not only were they Dairy Free but they were Gluten Free too! Wow! A whole plane getting gluten free snacks! That would NEVER happen in Canada! Now, I do not like mustard so I did not partake in the dip portion however the nuts and crackers were really good! We flew over a lot of farmland, that could have been mistaken for Ireland and then started getting lower as we approached Adelaide. Great views of a dam, the train station we will visit in about a week and the sports stadium! The Adelaide Airport is fairly small – it has swing gates like there are at YVR – which means some gates that have doors that trap (lack of a better word) people in the gate area for International flights. There seems to be about 16 gates in total to the terminal. Right in the middle when we arrived was a flight from Doha, UAE with the glass doors closed which showed it was an international flight. For most of the other gates there were no doors or the glass doors were open. It was interesting to see the ads that United is starting to fly to Adelaide from LAX in December!

We quickly found our luggage – due to the delay getting off the plane last – my walker did not show up at the gate so they took me off in a wheelchair as there were lots of ramps to go up to get to the gate area and then my walker met me there – our luggage was luckily the last rounding the carousel belt when we got downstairs, after I had to visit the ladies room!

We found our shuttle to the car rental agency and and soon were on our way – it was Andrew’s re-introduction to driving on the left side of the road again too! We managed just fine and while avoiding the toll road, drove to the M2 highway that we were going to take to Victor Harbour where we were going to stay for the night. This drive took us about an hour. It is a GOOD thing that we did re-organize our travels when in Fiji as there was no way we would have made that 7 pm ferry from Cape Jarvis – we got to Victor Harbour just at 7 pm which means we would have arrived at Cape Jarvis about the same time which would have been a bit too close to call!

It was a lovely drive once we got off the M2 highway through vineyards and over hills covered in Mulberry trees – there was a lovely rest stop where we had a view south with the sun shining through the clouds which made for a great picture! And of course, the road sign watching for kangaroos caught me by surprise and cemented the country that we are actually now in!

We very soon arrived at our hotel in Victor Harbour – Nightcap at Victor Harbour. Here are some pictures of it – it was night when we arrived so I grabbed these from their website. The bar manager checked us in and the menu for the bar/restaurant was sitting at the front desk and I commented on how wonderful that it was they had gluten free fish and chips on the menu and that we would be done for some shortly! We soon got downstairs and found that the restaurant and bar, which was supposed to close at 8:30 pm decided to close early at 8 pm and it was currently 8 pm! So they suggested once I told them I had Celiac Disease, that we go to the restaurant at the end of the block and sure enough – they had decided to close early too! So we came back to the Victor Hotel and let the lady at the bar know (the bar was still open and we had coupons for drink and I think Andrew at that point deserved a beer) and she suggested we order from Dominos as they have GF pizza. As I was hungry that was our only option on a Sunday night so that is what we did! We sat in the bar and enjoyed our drinks and waiting for the pizza to arrive! Once the driver figured out where the hotel was and where we were located in the bar (there was some confusion on that part) we got our pizzas and retired to our room where we had pizza in bed and then went to sleep as we had to leave at 7:30 am to get to the Jarvis Bay Ferry Terminal for 8:30 am to board the Kangaroo Island ferry!

I have only one comment to make now – the bed was LOVELY and firm! So tired of the SOFT bed on the Noordam! My back is going to be happy tonight! Sweet dreams all!