Australia '06 The Final Saga 4/3/06

                             Australia
                                  The Final Saga '06



It's Tuesday the 4th here......................Monday the 3rd there and we are in our final countdown and on the way home. When last we spoke, Susan and I were on our way to a small town on the southern coast called Robe. Thanks Cole's for the heads-up as we did stay at the Robe Heritage B&B. It was there that we began to think the final week of our trip. We had intended to loop around to the southwest and meander down to the ferry and the ride across to Kangaroo Island. However, we found ourselves in an area about as exciting as the geography between Bakersfield and Fresno..................no offense anyone. But it was flat and devoid of anything interesting so we adjusted and decided to head straight for Adelaide.....
A couple of days there and then down to the ferry and returning to the north and the Clare Valley and Barosa (two wine districts to the north of Adelaide)after Kangaroo Island (KI).....................that plan lasted until we arrived in Adelaide. We got off to a bit of a bad start arriving in town just prior to the rush hour.......thought we had a little bit of time until the Tourist Information office shut down......not realizing that we had just crossed thru a 1/2 hour time zone change..................that's getting a bit picky.
Did manage to get settled in to a great spot that was in the center of town. Began to explore before dinner and as "luck" would have it Susan located her biggest casino yet. It was located in part of the historic train station and even I couldn't resist throwing a few bucks at the "Aussies". We both had good luck and left with more than enough for dinner and our next day's travels.

We had thought of Adelaide for another day but weren't sure about the drive to the ferry early the next morning so after a quick tour of the city (to include the Adelaide Museum with virtually all of Adelaide's sixth grade students there.......................I thought museums were places of whispers and contemplation)........the circle bus around the city an finally to an Aborigine Expo.............................love it how every country has there own particular indigenous group to pick on. They really do need to give them their own collection of Casinos and be done with it.
Left Adelaide for the southern Fleurieu peninsula in our anticipated assault on Kangaroo Island and all the Kangaroos that awaited us..............Still no actual "out in the wild" animal sightings.........oh I take that back, I did sight a group/herd/collection/whatever of Emu...................and here I thought they only existed in cross word puzzles. Saw them off to the side and were able to sneak up on them..................sorry no photo record as they would have come out as 3-4 big rocks in the distant.

Located and wonderful wine district to the south of Adelaide called McClaren Vale and decided on a place close by for our 9am ferry crossing the next day.......dinner at the pub down the street where we consumed our 100th order of chips (fries) to date........Dr Atkins would not have been pleased with my diet.....Judy Hinch might......I start each day with cereal, milk, sugar, OJ.....maybe a banana......then it's on to toast and baked beans.....a cooked tomato or two and bacon and eggs.......chips for lunch.....chips for dinner.......then to bed on a full stomach.


The ferry ride across to KI is about an hour. Sloppy seas but the "Sealink" handled it just fine......we had cars trucks, campers......all helped to stabilize the ride over. Once there, it was off the Ferry and on to the tour buses and let the wild animal sightings begin. We left our car on the other side as we had booked two days of touring/one free day and two nites lodging all over the internet for quite a good price.

We hadn't however, bargained for the intensity of these tours. Arriving there at 10am we were not to return to the Lodge we were staying at until 7pm that evening. KI is a long 100+ km island with all the sights at one end and all of the hotels and lodging at the other or in the middle..................roads vary from paved to washboard with everything in between. The first day we took in the Bee Farm...........Eucalyptus Oil factory..........the wildlife park........then down to the beach and a visit with the Australian Sealion Colony......a walk along the beach with a guide amongst the seals...............they are out in the water feeding for three days.....then back to the beach for three days of rest. Just imagine how exciting sleeping sealions can be? The day did end on a high-note as Jeff and Jill will attest as we made it back for the 5pm pelican feeding. Quite a spectacular event but none the less a bit contrived.
The next day we were the first ones picked up for the day's touring and got the primo front seats......watch out Turkey Travelers as we jostle for position on the bus each morning. Took about an hour to pick everyone up then started the days events. Today turned out much better as we toured the Kelly Hills Caves......then to the "Remarkable Rocks" which really were.....then on to the "Admiral's Arch......all quite spectacular.

Ended the day at the Pure Sheep Dairy.........well if you've never seen sheep being milked your life has a big void. That evening we took the Ferry back and spent the next day touring the wine district to the South of Adelaide.

As I write this we are in Glenelg, a "lovely" beach town just a few miles from the airport. Tomorrow we flyback to Melbourne 7am then Melbourne on home arriving back in LA about the same time and day we took off from here.

Hope I haven't bored you all, but it gives me a record to look at when I get home.......it's a big country and we really did cover so little of it.........If you haven't been this direction, I'd warm up with a few trips to New Zealand then if you have the time and energies you can tackle Australia. I think we've got another Australian trip in us,

but I need a vacation first..................................gary