Our 2025 Trip to Kangaroo Island, South Australia
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shows the ordinal number of the day of travel, and in
parentheses, the day of the cruise. Note that I number the
starting day with 0-origin indexing, whereas travel
companies use 1-origin indexing. I do this a) because I am a
computer scientist, and b) the "first" day is usually not part of
the trip.
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All times are local times, with offset from UTC (if known) in
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Sometimes this is two parts: What they said, and What we did.
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- Just to show we didn't sleep on the streets.
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Itinerary
Trip Blog
It being a Monday, we had to do our Jells Park walk first. It
was pouring with rain as we left 5 Fran Court, but the rain
slowly eased off as we got gloser to the park, and by 09:17 it
had stopped altogether, so we set off walking. And it did not
rain at all on the way around!
Then to coffee at the Waverley Sports Hub, and a cheerful chat
with 7 other Grumpy Old Men. We took our leave just after
10:30, and as we had packed the car with all our stuff, we
could leave on our road trip straight away. Except. I went
to my computer bag to get the appropriate cable to plug my
phone into the car charging port, but it was nowhere to be
found in that bag! What had I done with it?
So we had to make a detour via home to collect the cable. But
even when I got home, I could not find it. It just seemed to
have disappeared. I did have a couple of spare cables, but
they were older and shorter, and not quite as convenient. But
they would have to do.
So off we finally went, at about 11:00. The Monash Freeway
had warnings up about lengthy delays on the West Gate Bridge,
but appart from some slow (30kph) bumper-to-bumper traffic on
the inner Monash Freeway, there was no problem with the
bridge, and once we were over it, it was all freely moving
traffic up to the speed limit (100kph) on the Geelong Freeway.
We stopped at Inverleigh at about 12:30 for lunch at the local
bakery, where John had a beef and jalapena pie (very spicy!),
and Barb a curried vegetable and cheese pastie, followed up
with vanilla slices and coffees. Then back on the road, this
time with John driving.
2 hours later, we were in Port Fairy. Well, not exactly
in Port Fairy, as Barb, trying to navigate with my
iPhone with which she was not familiar, and not being familiar
with navigating anyway, missed the turning, and we ended up
about 3km on the other side of Port Fairy before we could turn
around and retrace our steps to find the Secombe House on
Sackville St., where we were staying.
We settled in, and then went for a short stroll to find the
Information Centre to get some information about Budj Bim, the
place that Barb wanted to explore tomorrow. The two ladies
behind the counter were most helpful, and gave us several maps
and brochures to give us enough information to guide ourselves
around what there is to see. Only problem is, the cafe in the
park is closed on Tuesdays, just when we thought that would be
a great spot for lunch!
Back to Seacombe House, and contemplation of what we would do
for dinner. Barb came up with The Stump, which was a bistro
in the Caledonian Inn. We made a booking for 1930, and when
we arrived there, it was just as well that we did, as the
place was packed. Barb ordered a rare porterhouse steak and a
lemon, lime and bitters, while John had salt and pepper
calamari and a schooner of beer. Barb said that the steak was
juicy and nicely rare, but was a little chewy, and John
commented that while the calamari was properly cooked and
quite tender, the overall selection was just a little boring,
and there was just a little too much of it all. It was a
pleasant enough meal, but not all that memorable!
A walk back to the Seacombe through now very quiet Port Fairy
streets, with few people, and little traffic. Bed was very
welcome after the activity of the last few days!
We awoke at 0800, having somewhat unusually slept in! But
given that we were in no hurry to get going, we allowed
ourselves the usual morning rituals of two cups of tea and a
leisurely read of the newspaper, before setting off to the
Banks St + Co cafe for breakfast. We bought two smashed
avocados and usual coffees, and once they arrived, quickly
discovered that we had to defend them against marauding
seagulls! Again, rather like last night, the dishes were
good, but overdone in the sense that there was just a little
too much of them. But the seagulls did not profit at all from
this. We ate it all, just to spite them. The people at the
next table were not so lucky, and lost a whole slice of toast
to a marauder!
Breakfast complete, back to Seacombe and packed the car for
our day trip out to see the Indigenous Protection Area known
as Bidj Bim. There are several parts to this reservation, the
southern, middle, and northern areas. We started at the
southern bit, based at Tyrendarra, which had self-guided walks
around the various ruins of a 30,000 year old Gunditjmara
Nation, who had built villages around the wetlands created by
the eruption of Mt Eccles, aka Budj Bim or "high head", which
was a volcano that erupted some 37,000 years ago. The
aborigines engineered the lava into channels that drained the
wetlands, and coralled fish and eels ("kooyang") into traps
that kept them well-provisioned. Who said the aborigines were
"hunter/gathers"? Ignoramuses!
It was a fascinating journey, although it was a little
constrained by the fact that there were no people around, even
though it had clearly been setup with lots of funding and
local peoples input. That was a little sad. I would loved to
have heard more from the indigenous peoples directly.
Next stop north to the middle section, at Tae Rak. That was a
little disappointing too, as the whole place was shut! There
was supposed to be an Aquaculture Display Centre there, but it
was 200m behind a locked gate. And as we perused the locked
gate, a ute pulled up on the other side, a bloke got out,
unlocked the gate, drove through, then re-locked the gate, all
without any commentary to us! It was not what you'd call a
welcoming place (no "kominjeka" here!)
Then on to the northern section, Budj Bim itself. We recalled
that we had been here before, some 30 years ago, with the
boys, when they were teenagers. It was memorable because of
the large number of koalas we saw in the various trees. The
volcano itself is still quite rcognizable as such, and one can
do walks around the crater rim, or the lake inside it
(Surprise Lake). We started on the crater rim walk, and
visited Von Guerard's lookout. What is notable about his
lookout is that he painted a picture of what the scene was
like in 1858, and it is remarkably similar to the scene today.
We then detoured to the Lava Cave, an entrance to an old lava
tube which I do remember entering back in 1993 (check date?).
We descended into it, but did not go too far in.
We walked further along the crater rim track until we came to
a lookout. But it was more of a "Lookout!" than a lookout, as
there were a couple of blokes pulling up the floorboards of
the lookout, and it was all roped off. We had a brief chat
with one of the blokes, who said that he thought he saw a
koala in a nearby tree - or at least, he heard one (they do
make a very distinctive sound!) We thought we could see one,
but on closer inspection it was not, so in stark contrast to
our previous visit, we saw not a solitary koala this time.
At this point we gave up on our crater walk, and drove around
to the "Natural Bridge" formation, which was really a lava
tube which had both ends open, and which you could walk
through. There were lots of steps down to it, after surveying
the route out the other side, we decided to retrace our steps
back the way we had come, and then back to the car.
Then we headed back to Port Fairy, arriving there in time
(before 1600) to buy a couple of bread rolls for morning tea
tomorrow. Back to Seacombe House to catch up on this diary,
and book a table for the Bottega Toscana for 1900.
That dinner was indeed very nice. John had Gnocci Pescatore,
and Barb had Spirali Pesto, with a bottle of local (Basalt
Wines) tempranillo, which we did rather like. The Basalt
Wines place sounded rather interesting. We had passed it on
the way into Port Fairy, and the blurb we found on their
website said that they were just opening their (up-market)
accomodation. So we made a mental note to come back and stay
there some time in the near future.
We had room for dessert, so Barb had a tiramisu, and John a
berry pannacotta - both absolutely excellent! So it was a
great night. As we were leaving, we noticed a woman camped
outside with her possessions and a large labrador in a trolley
outside. The wait staff had brought the dog some water, and
Barb, on chatting to her, discovered she was homeless, so we
asked her what she would like, and we ordered a mushroom
gnocci for her, added to our bill. Seemed like the decent
thing to do.
Back to Seacombe and bed.
Ever so slightly earlier start today - 0740! But it was a
useful 20 minutes of extra time, as we had to be out by 1000,
and we still had time for our usual cups of tea and newspaper
readings before having to start packing.
Headed off to breakfast almost on the dot of 1000, after
having dropped off the key, and thanked the proprietors for
their hospitality. We decided not to go back to Banks St +
Co, not because we did not like the food, but rather because
we both felt a little overwhelmed with the quantities! We
found a shop called Coffee Roasters, and enquired there about
breakfast, but as their name suggested, they only served
coffee! They did helpfully offer some suggestions, on of
which was The Farmer's Wife, which we had seen in our travels,
down a little lane on Sackville St. So we headed off there.
The Farmer's Wife was much more in keeping with what we had in
mind, and we ordered smashed avocado and a bacon and egg roll,
which we divvied up into 2 havles, and shared the other half.
Both were delicious, and much more in keeping with our desired
portion control.
We hit the road at or around 1040, heading towards Robe, some
283 kms away. Barb drove until Mount Gambier, only stopping
at the Crags Beach, not far out from Port Fairy. We were
pleased that we had, as it was a delightful view out to Deen Maar
Island, the third largest fur seal colony in the world.
Not that we could see that many fur seals, it was a fair way
off the coast! There was a small war memorial plinth there
(at the lookout), dedicated to 4 RAAF crew who lost their
lives trying to land on Deen Maar (aka Princess Julia) Island
after having engine trouble on their Avro Anson bomber.
We got to Mount Gambier at 1230 (1200 SA time), where we had a
little trouble finding a suitable cafe, eventually settling on
a place called Confession (for reasons we did not discover),
where we had 2 toasties, a Reuben (John) and a Croque Monsieur
(Barb), both hitting the spot fairly nicely.
From there on, John drove. Did I mention the weather? It had
been blowing a gale all the way from Port Fairy, blowing the
car from side to side on the road. From MG onwards, it rained
as well. Not directly heavy stuff, more squally sorts of
rain, which meant that we were continually turning the
windscreen wipers on, then to intermittent, back to on, then
off, then intermittent, and so on. All while still being
tossed from side to side. Althought the speed limit increased
to 110 once we had crossed the border, I kept the speed on or
below 100, since they were not good driving conditions, and
there was a fair amount of traffic, particularly HGVs.
We got to the outskirts of Robe, where there were road works,
and we were stopped at a red light for what seemed an
intermidable time. There was no action in site, until a ute
turned up with flashing lights, and then just sat there on the
other side of the road! It was not until he turned around to
face towards Robe that we saw the sign saying "Pilot Vehicle,
Do Not Overtake"! Shortly thereafter, the light turned green,
he took off, and we were able to travel - some 200m before we
could see any "works" in action. They seemed to be digging
out the roadside verge and regrading it for some distance,
hence the lengthy turn around time for the lights.
We got to the Harbour View Inn at about 1430, and Barb went to
check in, while John stayed in the car. Again, a lengthy
wait, prompting John to going looking to see what had
happened. Apparently, just after Barb and Kate, the
receptionist, had greeted each other, the power went off!
Fortunately Kate had a laptop on which she could check us in,
but the power was off everywhere in the town!
We settled in, and debated what to do. Kate had told us that
there was a cafe still open, the Robe Store. which had solar
power and batteries, and was able to do coffee, so we headed
there, after a quick spin around the town to check out where
we had stopped to eat a lunch of fish and chips on the
foreshore on the first day of our honeymoon on 6 Dec 1970! We
could remember the Norfolk Island pines that were there on
that day, but my, had they grown somewhat!
At the Robe Store, we had a quick Zoom with Nathan, who caught
us up with the latest developments in the Far Reaches purchase
saga (things look like they might be moving ahead at last)
while we enjoyed a welcome coffee each. Then back to the
Harbour Inn, where at 1700, the power came back on!
We set off for the Robe Hotel, which had promised us a
crayfish for dinner, but they had rung earlier in the
afternoon to say that various circumstances had conspired to
mean that they could not source a crayfish, and that we would
have to make do with the regular menu. A bit of a
disappointment.
So we chose instead the seafood platter for two ($118), and
when it arrived, it did take some of that disappointment away.
We did have to ask the waitress to turn the platter around 180
degrees, as all the fish was up my end, and all the shell fish
was up Barb's end, which was not the way we had decided to
share it. So John ate the mussels, oysters, prawns, and some
of the calamari, while Barb had the whiting, garfish, and most
of the calamari. We were stonkered!
Fortunately, because of the rain, we had decided to drive to
the hotel, and that was just as well, because it had started
to rain before we returned to the Harbour Inn. Then we
collapsed.
We had another slow start this morning, but it was not a worry
- we had a late check out anyway! We said farewell to Kate
the manager, and headed off to the Union Cafe for breakfast at
1000. Barb had smashed avocado, and I had chilli scramble.
The only problem was that they seemed to have left the chilli
out!
We left Robe at 1042 and headed off to Kingston SE, some 45kms
away. It was only a 30min trip, but we still decided to stop
there at 1115 for a coffee, in what turned out to be a
refurbished court house! And very tastefully done, it was
too.
Suitably refurbished, we left Kingston at 1140 for the VERY
LOOONG drive to Meningie, along a very boring and bumpy road.
Well, I suppose the bumps made it less boring, but is was
still very tedious. We broke the monotony with a side trip to
Parnka Point, the narrowest point of the Coorong. We saw
three emus and two stumpy tail lizards on the way in, and
managed to get a couple of photos of the same emus on the way
out. It was quite interesting, and picturesque. I can
understand why it is popular as a local boating spot.
We got to Meningie on the dot of 1400, and stopped for lunch
at the local bakery, where we had a pie (John) and a pasty
(Barb), and two Farmers' Union coffee milks. John bought an
out-of-date coffee scroll, because it was cheap, but we did
not feel like eating it just yet!
We barrelled further along the road, expecting the next stop
to be Tailem Bend. But Mr Google suggested that we take the
Wellington Punt, and as we had never done that, we decided to
follow his advice. The punt was on the other side of the
river as we arrived, but as we were only the second car in the
queue, we stopped and sat patiently, taking one or two photos
to show that we had indeed been here.
By the time the punt got back to our side of the river, there
were only 3 cars in our queue, and we took no time at all to
load and head off across the Mighty Murray, and were soon on
our way on the west bank, getting to Milang at 1555 in time
for a much needed toilet break, ha!
There was a bit of a preserved railway display at Milang at
the remains of the small station building, and a few yards of
track. Barb took the opportunity to ring Elwayn to say that
we were nearly at Goolwa, while John poked around the railway
scene. Then on to the last leg to Goolwa.
We found Elwyn's house by 1645 after a few missteps, and with
hugs all round, Barb and Elwyn started catching up on all
their gossip, while John brought in all the luggage. A cup of
tea helped the conversations along, and before long it was
time for dinner. Beth Hancock from next door joined us.
Beth and Elwyn have been housemates for some years, including
the time they were both in Glen Waverley. While they shared a
house in GW, the new arrangement is that they have separate
but adjacent villas in a snazzy new development on the banks
of the Murray, with wonderful views out across the river
flats. Elwyn says that it works well - close enough for
companionship, but independent enough that they can go their
separate ways during the day.
Much conversation ensued over dinner, and Beth took her leave
after we had finished dessert. But the conversation
continued! Barb and I collapsed into bed around 10pm, but
apparently Elwyn stayed up until after midnight doing word
puzzles!
I woke up at 0600, just in time to see the sunrise - so I got
out of bed, tiptoed out the door and took a picture of the
sunrise. Barb took a lot longer to wake up, and then we made
the tea, and enjoyed it sitting out on the patio in the bright
frehly risen sun. At some stage, the rising was too much, and
we had to retreat from the heat of the morning!
We read the paper until quite late, about 0930, when Barb went
upstairs to find Elwyn already up, and bustling around getting
breakfast organized. John then joined them, and we had muesli
and toast and marmalade with coffee for breakfast. Elwyn was
pleased to discover that I knew how to make a cappuccino with
her coffee machine, so I made cappuccinos for both her and
Barb to have with their breakkies.
There followed more coffees, more talking, and John eating
yesterday's coffee scroll from Meningie. Elwyn booked a table
for us at the Finniss General Store for 1300, but before we
headed off for that, she took us on a walk around the
residential development. It is not a retirement home, or aged
care place, but rather just a slighly up-market housing
development, with quite swish apartments ("villas") arrayed
around a big reception centre, which included an indoor
swimming pool, gym, library, games room, indoor bowls and pool
room, as well as several outdoor facilities such as outdoor
bowls, BBQs, golf practice greens, etc.. Clearly a delightful
and enjoyable environment!
Then off to Finniss. The General Store was right beside the
SteamRanger Preserved Railway line (although that was not
running today), and was quite unprepossessing. On the other
side was a farmers' feed and fodder store, so it was not out
of place to be running a cafe as well! It was a delightful
spot, unprepossessing as I say, and I had a "Finniss Dog" (hot
dog with the works), Barb had a vegie burger, and Elwyn had
fish and chips. We all enjoyed our respective choices, and
almost finished off the plates (but not quite)!
Elwyn then took us on a mini-tour of the southern part of the
Fleurieu Peninsula, visiting Clayton Bay, Milang, Currency
Creek, and Hindmarsh Island. We stopped a few times for
photographs, and I walked across the sandhills to view the
Murray Mouth, which is (continuously) being dredged to keep
the mouth open, and stop it from silting up with sand.
Then back to Goolwa for a well-earned cup of tea, and you
guessed it, more talking!
Since our timetable was very relaxed, we had a late breakfast,
and continued catching up with Elwyn. I showed her how to
make cappuccinos with her coffee machine, and she was very
excited about being able to do that, since she had never had
the full instructions on what to do.
We got going finally at around 1100, waving farewell to both
Beth and Elwyn, and promising to catch up again in the
not-too-distant future. Our first stop was at Middleton,
where we visited the Middleton Beach where Barb's Mum's ashes
were scattered. That brought back a few memories, especially
after Barb found a Kauri shell, something MIL always looked
for at beaches!
Then next to Port Elliot, and the promontory overlooking
Horseshoe Bay. This was memorable in John's past, as he swum
across the bay when he was about 12 or 13, much to the anxiety
of his mother. Then we walked down the path to the beach
itself, where we scattered Dad's ashes in 2012. Again,
memories. I took a photo and sent it to my siblings, and
David and Nathan. Nathan somewhat politically incorrectly
replied, "my, hasn't the algae grown since then".
Incorrigible.
We stopped at a cafe just near the PE railway station for a
coffee and a bun, and a bit of time killing, as we had no need
to dash off. Both were very welcome. Then on to Victor
Harbour, where we had a great deal of difficulty finding a
park. There were plenty of pay parks, but one had to use a
phone app to do the paying, and Barb said "stuff that", or
words to that effect, and drove off looking for a free one,
while John went and sat in the outdoor area of the Crown
Hotel, MIL's favourite VH pub.
We ordered arancini balls (to share), and Caesar Salad (Barb)
and Nachos (John), and then had to fight to keep the agressive
seagulls away once the food came. It was all very stonkering,
and we had to get a doggy box for the unfinished nachos,
simply so that the seagulls did not eat them. Maybe we might
eat them later, maybe not.
We had a little nostalgic walk around the entrance to the
Granite Island causeway, and the "improvments" to the
horse-drawn tramway setup. The tramway was not running,
because the weather forecast was not conducive to the horses
being out in what was forecast to be a storm, and indeed, it
did start raining as we headed back to the car.
Then on the last leg. As stated, it started raining a bit at VH
before we set off, and we had not gone faar out from VH before
the heavens opened. It was just like on the road between Port
Fairy and Robe! Even the wipers got turned up to full speed,
and not just intermittent or normal. Visibility was down to
100m or so, and we had to slow down to 60kph because of the
heaviness of the rain. Hope all this goes away before
tomorrow!
We got to Cape Jervis in time to see the afternoon ferry
departing. We had a little trouble finding our accommodation
at the Cape Jervis Holiday Units, and once we managed to raise
someone at the reception, we had a key to unit 1 and settled
in.
Dinner was always going to be a hit-or-miss affair.
Fortunately, we did have a supply of spare nachos (both within
and without our stomachs), so there was no panic about going
hungry. But there was also some toing-and-froing with Geoff,
one of the other fellow travellors, whome we invited to join
us for dinner. But such were the idiosyncracies of the
telecommunications technology, that that did not happen, and
we just mooched over the road to the Cape Jervis Tavern. In
the pouring rain.
It was a typical country pub. What was not typical was that
they had a Thai chef/cook in the kitchen, and offered a range
of Thai dishes. Barb wussed out a bit and had a pizza, but
John being slightly more adventurous, went for a Red Thai
Curry. Boy, was it hot! Not sure if the country yokels like
it hot, but it was the hottest Thai curry I've had since I was
in India. I did not quite finish it, that was how hot it was.
The rain had stopped when we left, and we settled in to some
usual Saturday night TV (Paradise Regained, Return to
Paradise) and then to bed. New adventure tomorrow.
What they said - getting there
Those spending the night, October 25, at Majestic Minima, 146
Melbourne Street, North Adelaide will meet out the front
October 26 at 7.00am, packed and ready to depart at 7.30am on
our Coach to Jervis Bay. At Jervis Bay our luggage goes into
the Coach Tour hold and we board the Ferry.
Those making their own way will meet us at Jervis Bay at 9.15
for the 10.00 Ferry. Load luggage into the Coach Tour hold and
join the group. The trip over is about 45 minutes. At this
time, or once we are on the KI Coach, I will hand out name
tags and we can introduce ourselves a bit. You will need to
hand me your Medical Emergency envelopes.
What they said - itinerary
Arrive at Penneshaw and board Hamish’s coach (10.00am) for our
first stop at the KI Sculpture Trail where we will meander the
1.5 km trail.
Lunch at the Penneshaw Hotel followed by Prospect Hill Climb
and walk on to Pennington Bay Beach for one of the best
panoramas of the Island. We then drive to American River,
possibly through Muston for the Cannery Walk. Riverwren
Garden for a tour and afternoon tea, via the Wharf precinct.
Arrive at accommodation 5.30pm
What we did
We were up early and packed, so that we got away at 0800, and
drove down to the ferry terminal. The place seemed very
chaotic, until we discovered that there was a 0900 departure,
and the crowds were all people waiting to depart on that.
Once they had gone, the place was very quiet.
During this melee, we were able to find out about the car and
get it parked, then dropped off our suitcase in the "group
baggage vehicle", then sat back and waited. John managed to
get a long black out of the coffee vending machine, but Barb
did not dare. Slowly the number of people built up, until
Wendy, our tour manager came over to introduce herself,
collect our medical forms, and generally make sure that things
were in order and that we were happy with the state of play
(which we were).
The trip across Backstairs Passage was very bumpy, but no one
seemed to get upset. There was a cafeteria on board, and at
this Barb was prepared to risk a capuccino. She started a
conversation with Helen, who was one of our fellow travellors,
and swapped garden stories. What I did not realize before
this, and only slowly grasped the idea on the fly, was that as
this trip was organized by the Friends of the Cranbourne
Botanic Gardens, they were all mainly very keen gardeners, and
they knew their cerepettalums from their xanthoreas. My
feeling was that I was not going to find many like-minded
souls to me.
The ferry arrived at Penneshaw without any great dramas, and
we soon found our bus, with Hamish, who was to be our driver
for the week. He was a likeable chap, and explained things as
we went along, pointing out the various points of interest,
and generally making the drive interesting and enjoyable.
He took us on a short tour of Penneshaw, stopping at the
Sculpture Park for 45 minutes so that we could walk around it.
Neither of us could remember it being here from the last time
we visited Penneshaw 10 years ago, and it was well worth a
visit, although it was clear that it was still under
development. There were some interesting scultures, including
one that seemed to take inspiration from the marching war
machines in Star Wars.
Then at 1230 to the Penneshaw Pub for lunch. John had chick
pea curry, Barb had fish and chips, both followed by
pannacotta. After lunch, back onto the bus for the trip to
Kingscote, stopping at Pennington Bay for a stroll and some
photographs. Here we started to see the flower nerds at work,
rushing around taking photos of every -folia and -flora,
whether mega-, abunda-, or meli-.
On to American River, for a look around, and a visit to the
Independence, an attempt by local boat builders to create a
replica of the first boat built by the american sealers who
first settled the area. The first boat was built in a hurry
to facilitate seal hunting, but fortunately, since that is no
longer legal, the builders here can afford to be more
leisurely about their recreation.
Hamish did take a short distance away to the start of the
Cannery Walk, and encouraged us to walk to the remains of the
cannery. But it was a somewhat abortive walk along the shores
of the inlet (not actually a river, the tidal flows confused
the early settlers), and we had to abandon the plan or we
would have run out of time.
But the time saved was not (in my opinion) well spent, as we
then went to a rather boring garden tour of Riverwren Garden,
followed by afternoon tea (not so boring). The reason the
garden tour was boring was that the women leading it did not
keep a coherent group, and her voice was not strong enough to
reach all the members of the group. So hearing only snippets
of what she was saying, and unable to see to what plant she
was referring, made it all seem a little pointless.
But the afternoon tea was not pointless by any means, and a
welcome cup of tea allow flagging spirits to lift. I was
particularly taken by their solar battery and invertor setup,
as it was a larger version of ours at home (and better
installed by the look of it). Howerver, it may well be
suffering the same underpowered fate as ours, as the invertor
was still only 5kW, but the battery claimed a capacity of what
appeared to be 80 MWH! That I cannot really believe, so I
spent some time trying to understand exactly what was going on
(80kWH I could believe), but then the call came to get back on
the bus.
(That last paragraph was inserted to provide some nerd balance
between botanists and engineers.)
In a routine which came to characterize the entire tour, we
were by now running a bit late, and we did not get to the
motel until 1830, which in fact the time we were supposed to
have dinner. Dinner was put back to 1845, to give us time to
unpack our bags and get settled into our rooms, which were
indeed quite up-to-date, even though they still had the old
fashioned breakfast door hatches!
Dinner for me was a Lamb Ragout, followed by pannacotta,
coincidentally just what we had for dessert at lunch time!
However, I would never be one to complain about 2 desserts in
a day, let alone both being pannacotta!
I think we were all rather tired after a busy day (even though
there are more to come), and few hung around after dinner
talking, even about flowers.
What they said
After enjoying our first breakfast we depart at 8.30 for
Flinders Chase National Park, travelling through the natural
rugged beauty of the park to spectacular Remarkable Rocks. We
continue our drive to Cape du Couedic Lighthouse built in 1906
and the natural land bridge that is Admirals Arch where we may
see Longnose Fur Seals.
Picnic lunch provided by our Motel, enjoyed at the Rocky River BBQ shelter.
We then proceed to the Flinders Chase National Park for the
Platypus Waterholes Walk. Afterwards, heading for Kingscote
via the Flinders Chase Visitors Centre on our return to our
Motel.
What we did
Breakfast was at 0730, so we had a quick cup of tea (only
one!), and then an equally quick shower, before heading off to
the dining room for breakfast. We had Helen and Prue for
company, and the breakfast was fine, with cereal and yoghurt,
and a cooked breakfast of egg, bacon and hash brown on toast.
John tried the coffee, but it was brewed, and perhaps
over-brewed at that, so Barb stuck with tea.
Then almost straight into the bus for an 0830 start. First
stop was at the Flinders Chase Visitor Centre, a very swish
new place built to replace the old buildings destroyed in the
disastrous fires of 2019-20. Had a very welcome coffee there,
and admired the 6 huge rainwater tanks, installed to give the
centre some protection if ever a fire might approach it.
Directly then on to Remarkable Rocks, a very intriguing
weathered formation of granite sitting atop a much hard dome
of granite. It was very photogenic, and it did not matter
much that people were wandering everywhere and getting in each
other's photos. I did not bite anyone's head off.
Then to the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse, which we admired (but
could not go in) before wandering down a long ramp and then a
flight of very windswept steps. The wind was blowing
an absolute gale, to the point where we had to be very careful
of our footing, as one false step could see you being blown
off balance, not with any fatal consequences fortunately, but
certainly with some unpleasant consequences.
At the bottom of the steps was an impressive natural arch,
called Admirals Arch, with lots of stactites hanging from the
roof. Underneath were some fur seals, and as we looked
around, there were plenty more fur seals all scattered about,
nesting in warm nooks and crannys sheltered from the wind, but
making the most of what sun there was.
Back to the bus, where we headed down a narrow dirt side road
to the old lighthouse keepers stores building, significant
because it was at the summit of a sheer cliff-side funicular
tramway, used to haul provisions up from a ship moored in the
sea at the base of the cliff. I don't know what the gradient
was, but it must have been in the range of 70-80 degrees from
horizontal! And they used to ferry people up and down in it
too!
It was getting past lunchtime, so we returned to the Rocky
River picnic and BBQ area, where we all had a picnic lunch of
a chicken wrap, an orange juice, and a muffin. Hamish our
driver inveigled me as I walked past the bus as he was
unloading said packed lunches, and asked me if I would carry
one of the boxes. "Sure", I said, :but that box is labelled
'heavy'" "Feel the weight of it" he said, and sure enough, it
was not at all heavy. That just happened to be the labelled
applied to the previous contents of the box, whatever they
were!
Lunch over, we then set off on a 2 hour walk round trip to the
Platypus Waterholes. It was a ring route of about 30
minutes duration, with a 45min connecting path from the picnic
area to the ring route. There were lots of xanthoreas on the
connecting path, but otherwise the scenery was mainly
regenerated fire damaged bush, interesting enough, but hardly
45 mins worth!
I got to the Platypus Waterholes, and took up a position at
one of the lookouts over one of the waterholes. I followed
all the instructions: 1) Stay silent; 2) Watch for bubbles; 3)
Be patient. I did all three, but there was not one shed of
platypus life. I waited for 10 unfullfilled minutes, then
moved to another lookout at a different waterhole. Same
result.
After that frustrating interlude, I found Barb (who had
wandered off somewhere) and she reported much the same story.
Indeed, nobody we spoke to had anything different to report.
So we wearily trudged our way back to the picnic spot, boarded
the bus, and when all passengers had rejoined, set off again.
Bah!
We were all so exhausted that there was little enthusiasm for
much else. Which was probably just as well, as there was
nothing else planned.
Except a stop at the Kingscote supermarket on the way back to
the motel, where John did a dash for some emergency supplies
of fruit bread to have with our morning tea tomorrow! Other
people bought healthy things like fruit, but leaving out the
bread.
We had dinner with David, Mandy, Bev, and Neil. Barb and I
had a very nice lasagne, followed by a dessert of berry pie
and ice cream. I had an interesting chat with David, who
turned out to be a civil engineer. We talked about teaching
and learning, and what makes students tick. We found
ourselves agreeing on many points!
Then to bed, after typing up this mammoth and busy day!
What they said
8.30 departure to Cygnet River and a visit to the Lily Rose
Garden then on to the KI Wool Mill for a tour and a shop. We
then experience an amazing, interactive, educational, and
highly entertaining display of In-Flight Birds of Prey at
Raptor Domain. After the amazing show we head to Vivonne Bay
with Lunch at the Vivonne Bay Lodge. After lunch we head to
Point Ellen for a photo stop before continuing to famous Seal
Bay Conservation Park where we join our guide for a walk
through a wild seal colony that is home to around 600 rare
Australian sea lions. Heading back to the Motel we check out
the Kingscote Silo art and Reeves point historic drive.
What we did
Early morning this morning with a 0630 alarm, and quick
everything before a 0700 breakfast and a 0800 bus departure.
First stop was at the Lily Rose Garden, which was notable not
only for the extensive garden, but also for the very
imaginative house, which we were invited to stroll through as
well. It was particularly relevant for Nathan, as the walls
were all "rammed earth", lent a distinctive character to the
house. I don't know whether it has been on grand designs, but
if not, it should have been, as it was very spacious, and
satisfied the landscaping tenet of always engaging the eye
around ever corner. People kept coming out and saying "Have
you seen the shower?", so we went to look at that. it was a
glass pimple on the side of the house, such that one had a
view of the garden on 3 sides of the shower, and it almost put
one in the garden! Of course, people in the garden could also
view the 3 naked sides of you, but that did not seem a great
problem, as the house was miles from the road and other
neighbours!
Next stop was the KI Wool mill, which is a unique venture on
the part of a collective group of KI farmers to do all the wool
processing on the island. They take greasy wool, scour it,
card it, spin it, and knit it into a range of apparel, all
done by machinery. We bought a pair of socks and a beanie for
John, but Barb wasn't moved by any of the items on show.
By this stage we were as usual running a little late, and we
missed the start of the Birds of Prey by 5 minutes. But we
did not miss very much of the actual action. We saw 2 tawny
frogmouths, and they got passed along the front row of
spectators, and very tamely allowed each person to pat them as
they had their turn to hold them. While they were being shown
around, a bush stone curlew strutted his stuff up and down in
front of the crowd.
Next was a barn owl "Shoosh", again very tame, and people who
wanted to go out the front and hold her were invited to do so.
She was followed by an Australian hobby, a type type of
falcon, who specialised in grabbing bits of food (prey) from a
fast moving sling shot. Then a Pacific Baza, or crested hawk,
which again was passed around for people to hold.
Then the highlight - 3 black cockatoos (2 yellow tails, one
white), together with a blue and yellow macaw. The cockatoos
delighted in swooping around just above peoples' heads, which
caused loud gasps.
Then the real highlight - a large female wedge tailed eagle.
She was most impressive, in spite of not doing much flying.
People could go and pay money ($20) to hold one of these after
the show.
Back to the bus after an hour's worth of such displays. The
next destination was lunch, at the Vivonne Bay Lodge. We had
a very nice chicken salad lunch, followed by a piece of
cheesecake. We had some time to kill before we needed to set
off again, so Barb joined many others in doing a short walk
around the surrounding bush, looking at wildflowers, while
John bought himself a glass of shiraz and drank it while
talking to Peter and Walt.
Back on the bus, and headed to Point Ellen where we had an
opportunity to walk around. There was a Rosenberg's goanna mooching
about, so that was a fairly obvious target for all the
photographers. It was a place with some history, as it had a
jetty which was used for unloading fish, and at one stage
before the war was about twice its current length. But
someone in the war department thought it might have been used
by an invading Japanese army, and blew the outer half up! So
Point Ellen may well have had a more active future if that
idiot in the war departmment had not destroyed a valuable
piece of marine infrastructure!
It also had an unfortunate double fatality when two Indian
nationals were visiting, and ventured too far out on the
rocks. A big wave came and washed them off the rock, and they
drowned as they could not swim. A small cross still marks the
spot.
Next came the Seal Bay Conservation Park, where we had a
guided tour from a local park ranger called Mitch. He was
very enthusiastic and engaged us all with his stories of seal
life in Seal Bay. These seals would not even be here but for
the fact that there is a reef protecting the entrance to the
bay, and that stopped the sealers' boats from entering the
bay, and slaughtering all the seals they could find. Since
the sea lions are not migratory, they come back to their
birthplace, and if they were unprotected, they would have all
been slaughtered. The authorities have tried to repopulate
other areas with no sea lions, but they just swim back to Seal
Bay, and do not stay in the designated migration areas. So
Seal Bay is now the largest sea lion colony in Australia.
From Seal Bay, we (or at least, half the bus) armed with
Golden North ice creams, we made our way back to the motel.
The management made an executive decision to omit the visit to
the silo and the historic drive, so that we did had a bit of
spare time on getting back to the motel before dinner at 1830.
We dined with Peter, Rosemary, Sandi and ?, and had a lively
conversation for most of the meal. We finished about 2035 and
retired to catching up this diary, and sorting out photos.
What they said
8.45 pick-up and we head to the Parndarna Community
Garden. Then we’re off to see Snelling Beach via Turkey Lane,
Johncock Road and Constitution Hill Lookout
We continue along the North Coast Road to discover the rugged
beauty of Stokes Bay. Here we visit ‘secret beach’ which is
protected from the pounding surf by a natural giant pool
surrounded by rocks and then enjoy our delicious lunch at the
Rock Pool Café.
We then enjoy a guided walk and talk at Stokes Bay Bush Garden
followed by the Cockatoo Cottage Garden.
What we did
A slightly later start to the bus today: 0845, a fact in which
most people seemed to find some delight! We headed off to
Parndana, said to be the town at the centre of Kangaraoo
Island, but in practice, very much a dying town. It once was
the thriving centre of the western part of KI, but the fires
ripped the heart out of it, and it has never really recovered.
We did a quick tour of the place, and then stopped at the
Community Garden, a place setup to encourage resilience from
the fires, but rather as a reflection on the dying spirit of
the place, the woman who was supposed to come and shown us
around did not turn up, so we were left to own own devices.
After 30 minutes, Hamish called time, and we then setoff to
see Snelling Beach. It was "snell" by name, and "schnell" by
nature. We had time for a quick walk on the beach, and then
back to the bus. John did find a few stones that would have
suited the gut of a sea lion, but there were no sea lions to
give them to, and I suspect that they would very much look
such a gift horse in the mouth!
Then on to Stokes Bay. Along the way, there were several
calls to look at things on the right hand side of the bus,
such as kangaroos, koalas, houses, desalination plants,
whatever - but nothing on the left hand side of the bus. John
complained about this, and was told in no uncertain terms that
he did not pay the premium fare that entitled him to see such
additional attractions. But he got his own back. He called
out in a loud voice "Look, there's an echidna", and everyone
in the bus rushed so much across to the left side of the bus
that the bus nearly capsized! Ha ha! Gotcha! There was no
echidna.
Stokes Bay was not nearly as nice a beach as Snelling Beach.
But we had been warned that by following a path across the
pebbles on the beach, along a sandy track through some rocks,
and then playing at speleologists through some narrow
cave-like rock formations, we would emerge onto a beautiful
beach. Which we did.
Due to the cladestine approach to the beach it was called
appropriately "Secret Beach". It had a lovely natural rook
pool at one end, which afforded a very protected and shallow
basin of water just right for the kiddies to play in. No one
had brought their bathers, so some just contented themselves
to take their shoes and socks off, and just paddle in the
shallows. It was a delight just to experience the atmosphere.
Back through the secret passage to the car park was the Rock
Pool Cafe, where we were to have lunch. Most of us had fish
and chips (except for those with dietary constraints), and
they were excellent! I seemed to have got an extra large
serve of chips, which did not go astray, and it was all helped
along by a stubbie of Coopers Pale Ale. After the meal we
ordered two coffees, as we had not had our coffee fix this
morning. But before they arrived, John went off to see
several koalas up a tree just 60 metres away, and of course
that took a bit of time, so much so, that when he came back,
his coffee was waiting, but everyone else was not, and were
making moves to get back on the bus. So the coffee was
gulped, and we just had time to buy 2 Golden North ice creams
before jumping back on the bus.
The highlight of the day for many people would have been the
Stokes Bay Bush Garden. This was a fantastic native garden,
that was wiped out in the fires of 2019/20, but has amazingly
recovered. And one of the things about native recovery from
bush fires is that the plants respond in quite amazing ways.
Some plants recover well where there are; some don't. A lot
of new plants appear because of wind-blown seed from plants
that germinate only after fire. The owner had gone to a lot
of trouble to identify all the plants, and had to do a fair
bit or re-organizing after the fire! We each had a book which
listed over 700 different plants, each with its own number,
with a corresponding number tag be each plant.
As it so happens, we were each asked to find and identify a
particular plant. Mine was a Stackhousia aspericocca,
a plant which I had never heard of, let alone seen, and yet
here it was, listed as plant number 415 in the book. So all
we had to do was walk around the garden until we found plant
labelled 415, and there it was! So we took a photo or two of
it for posterity.
The next stop was at Cockatoo Cottage, located only about
1500m south of our motel. The first point of interest in
the garden was a koala sitting in a eucalypt in the front
garden, which distracted a lot of photographers for a moment
or two (including yours truly). The garden had had a varied
history as the owners children grew up - in the early days
the focus was more on children's outdoor experiences, such
as the intriguingly named "broken maze", which originally
had such things as sailing ships but now were slowly being
reverted to more normal garden activities, etc..
The owner (Anne Morrison) also had two other interests: glass
making, and cockatoos. From the glass making, we did actually
check out her workshop and bought two cute little glass
chickens, which we thought our grand-daughters might like, and
from the cockatoos, some beautiful specimens of red-tailed
black cockatoos. We were invited into the aviary, and the
owner did warn us that the cockatoos (particularly the male)
preferred to perch on men. I got to be a perch, so did Neil,
so did Walter (see right). I think we all enjoyed being the
centre of attention in the cockatoo world!
Then back to the motel and dinner and a well earned bed.
What they said
8.45 pick-up and head to Cape Gantheaume Conservation Park,
Murrays Lagoon, Timber Creek Walk, and Bald Hill Walk to view
the vegetation and scenery.
Today’s lunch is at the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery with a
tour. You also might like to try their Honey Mead or Drunken
Drone Beer.
Next stop is Beyeria Conservation Park for a meander and
return to the motel for our last dinner on the Island.
What we did
The timetable said 0845, but the actuality was 0905, because
Linda, one of our party tripped and fell after breakfast, and
was a little discombobulated. She didn't want to go on the
bus, but was eventually persuaded to come.
But it didn't matter too much, as the timetable was indeed very
flexible, and Hamish on the fly dropped one of the walks we
were going to do. The first walk was the Timber Creek walk,
which was an 800m path out to a loop, round the loop, then
back along the the connecting path. That path was along a bit
of a levee through the wetlands, and it was lined on both
sides by melaleucas. Once into the loop, it was much more
wooded, and ended at the edge of that wood. As we broke
cover, we startled two kangaroos who hopped past us, thus
getting into the sweep of my panoramic photo that I was taking
at the time!
We pressed on, stopping at the Murray Lagoon campsite for a
toilet break. Then on to a roadside stop where there was a
very impressive display of pimelias, so many of us got off the
bus to take more photos.
Then we set off, with Hamish quite keen to find somewhere else
to stop. Someone in the bus yelled "What about lunch?", to
which Hamish replied that he was focussed on plants, and only
one person wanted food. To which the whole bus struck up a
chant of "food! food! food!". "OK" said Hamish and we changed
course to the Emu Ridge Distillery, arriving at 1240. We then
had a tour of the actual distillery equipment built by the
original owner of the place, including do-it-yourself stills
for extracting the eucalyptus oils. Then to lunch: steak and
salad, followed by a slice of carrot and pineapple cake.
Somewhere in there Barb and I managed to fit in a cup of
coffee, the first for the day!
Back on the road, we reached Haines' Honey Farm, and had a
very interesting talk on the life cycle of bees, preceeded I
might add, with a free local honey ice cream! Then an
explanation of all the equipment used to extract and purify
the honey from the honeycomb frames. We then went into a shop
where we could buy honey (of course), but also locally brewed
beers. Along with that we also bought a chilli and honey
sauce which was ultra hot. Thought David might like that.
It now being 1600, it was time to move right along. The next
stop was at the Beyeria Conservation Park for a meander around
another path through native forest, this time with Broom Bush
(Melaleuca Uncilata, used for constructing the brush fences
very popular in Adelaide.
As we were getting back on the bus, I asked Hamish if I could
tell a little story to entertain the troups on the way back.
He said "sure". so as we took off, I told my (fictional!)
story, which I won't elaborate on in this place, as it is has
been written up
elsewhere.
Back to the motel at 1737, and it was not long before dinner
at 1830. We dined with Jenny and Erin, and spent a fair bit
time explaining about Nathan's plans to return to Oz, and how
his farm at Far Reaches was to work.
The retired to our room, writing blogs, and packing for the morrow.
What they said
8.45 After breakfast, we checkout today from our Hotel and
depart American River with a scenic drive to Kingscote, and a
little free time in the shops and galleries. And a visit to KI
Artworks Gallery.
A delicious platter lunch and wine tasting awaits us at False
Cape Wines Cellar Door.
Return to Penneshaw ferry terminal for the 3.30 Ferry (TBC)
Those spending the night will board the Coach for Adelaide and
head back to the Minima Hotel.
What we did
The timetable said 0845, but it was well after 0900 before we
were away. This time without the excuse of unfortunate
accidents. Hamish had to do a bit of a 3D luggage jigsaw, so
that the luggage for those driving from Cape Jervis was
unloaded first, and was kept separate from the luggage to be
checked through on the group bus from Cape Jervis to Adelaide.
Then a bit of a scenic drive around the east end of KI.
Hamish toured the back streets of Kingscote to show us the
wealth range of home owners (much as you'd expect for a
holiday destination, from shanties to palaces), and then to
the KI Artworks Gallery. Some nice paintings, but I did not
buy anything. Some did.
The long-promised wine tasting was next. If anything, I would
have planned the wine cellar visit a lot earlier in the tour,
as we were pressed for time, and the tasting turned into a bit
of a nosh-up, as the wines we lingered over at the start (the
white wine section of the tasting) could be enjoyed with the
beautiful, tasty cheese platters that we had, but as we got to
what I thought was the more interesting selection of reds, the
"hurry-up, let's move on", got more and more urgent, as we had
a ferry to catch. The upshot was that there was really little
time to dwell on whether to buy anything, or indeed, how much
to buy. I may well have been tempted to buy a case of one of
the reds (strangely, the most expensive one!) but there just
wasn't time.
So back on the bus everyone, and a hurried trip to the
Penneshaw ferry terminal and a 1330 departure time. We did
make it with enough time to spare, and even had time for a
liesurely and friendly farewell to Hamish and his mim, Helen
(who staying on with Hamish for a few days) before having to
board.
It was a more pleasant return crossing, as the wind had much
abated, and there were no white caps and little rocking. We
disembarked about 1430 and while Barb went and retrieve the
car, I minded not only our luggage, but also Prue's, as she
went to find her car. Then we hit the road.
Barb had booked an up-market room at the Keith Motor Hotel,
and we got to Keith abou 1915. Barb drove to the Wellington
punt, where we swapped drivers, and I drove the rest of the
way to Keith. There was relatively little traffic.
We settled in to the very nice motel room, and then went in
search of food. We chose the Keith Hotel (no connection with
the motel), which had clearly been done up recently, and Barb
had gnocci, while I had fish and chips. Then return to the
motel and bed.
We got ourselves packed and ready to by 0820, and drove around
to the Henry and Rose Cafe (which used to be the
PennyFarthing). There we had the smashed avo each, and most
delightful it was too. We both declared it to be the best
ever smashed avo - it had smashed avocado on sourdough toast,
topped with a poached egg, feta cheese, lots of pepitas, and
la piece de resistance: chilli jam! All washed down of course
with our regular coffees.
I ordered large coffees for both of us, which came in very
large cups (3 shots), and mine being long black of course, I
did not finish it by the time we were ready to go. The
waitress very kindly offered to transfer the remaining coffee
(about half) to a take-away cup, an offer which I did not
refuse. So we headed off with Barb driving, and me finishing
my coffee!
We swapped drivers at Horsham, and filled up the petrol at the
cheap petrol place in Ararat ($1.629), which was a self
service pay-by-card place now, and one had to pre-pay by
entering a fixed amount - that required a certain amount of
guessing about how much one needed! I elected to go $60, out
of the choices of ($20,$30,$40,$50,$60,$100), and the amount
actually came to $52.49, so I got the amount right. We shall
see if the balance of $7.51 does indeed turn up in my bank
account!
We also checked out the bakery in Ararat. At least, it was a
bakery last time we went through Ararat, but now it had turned
into a Mountains of Chocolate! It still had a coffee
machine, and various item of sweet-tooth delectables, but no
pies and pasties, which was what we used to expect. Still, a
long black and a hedgehog does get you a long way!
All the way home in fact. It was such a nice day, and the
driving was easier, especially as after Ararat the road was
now a 4-lane divided freeway, with a 110 kph limit, so we just
zoomed along. Most of the traffic was travelling the other
way (out of Melbourne) presumably taking a four day long
weekend, so we did not mind that at all. We cruised into home
at 1600, and boy! did the cats and dog welcome us like long
lost friends. (That might also have something to do with the
fact that we normally feed them just after 1600.)
We settled down, unpacked, and otherwise just relaxed. John
did have to walk over to the shops to buy something for
dinner, as the kids had left on their camping trip by this
time. That suited us just fine.
