It is Easter break, and in a Commonwealth state that means that you will automatically get Good Friday off of work (no matter what religion you are)…and since Easter is on a Sunday, you also get Monday off of work. But alas! This year the Monday you are supposed to have as a public holiday for Easter is ANZAC Day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps Remembrance Day). Since ANZAC Day is also a public holiday, and no one wants to feel like they are getting the short end of the stick, we got Tuesday off as well. That’s right a nice five day weekend in the middle of April.
So Helen and I packed up the Gulf and drove south to Cape Jervis, jumped on the ferry and headed to Kangaroo Island (KI as the locals call it, although I haven’t met many locals who have actual been to KI). Kangaroo Island is the second largest island in Australia (behind Tasmania). I’m told it is full of Kangaroos, but to be honest the only Kangaroos that Helen and I saw were dead on the side of the road…luckily we didn’t put any there.
Also when I say we jumped on the ferry, I mean I jumped on the ferry. Helen was in charge of getting the car onto the ferry. There were a lot of cars getting onto the ferry and there wasn’t much space to get the cars into. As I stood on the first level looking down into the car holding area I see multiple people reversing in…hmmm I’m pretty sure that Helen is not going to like this. And then it is her turn. She starts reversing in, doing really well and the guy tells her to stop. Takes a look at the Gulf and then to the tiny little spot right underneath where I was standing. He asks another guys opinion – “Do you think we could fit her in there?” “Yeah that should work.” confirmed the other guy. Well, it was a hard right turn swinging the car backwards into the space. A quick straightening of the wheel (not the car and this was important) then a quick left to straighten her up. Whalaa – the car was successfully parked in one of the tightest spots I had seen. Helen had done a magnificent job.
We started the trip with a tour of Seal Bay. A bay which is host to the largest seal colony in Australia. We walked towards the beach with our tour guide and there were seals everywhere. Literally everywhere. It was a colder day so most of them were up in the sand dunes, but there were a few on the beach and even some frisky ones playing in the water. We walked closer to the water and one of the seals was excited to meet our group. He came right up to our guide to get a closer look. We quietly stood there and did not say a thing. As the guide was explaining it was important to be very boring so that the seals would not start attacking the groups of people. Right, definitely didn’t want it to attack as it was only 3 feet away, so boring we were…
After Seal Bay we headed to Vivonne Bay (or as I like to say it Vivonne – with an Italian accent and hand gesture). Took a few wrong turns in the route and made one stop at the general store for directions, but finally made it to Vivonne Bay.
Helen was a rock start at setting up the tent. I felt that it was important for her to take a stab a setting it up 1) so that we could get pictures and proof that Helen can do this, 2) because the tent was huge and much more of an effort than what I’m use to and 3) because I was really lazy.
Helen was a rock start at setting up the tent. I felt that it was important for her to take a stab a setting it up 1) so that we could get pictures and proof that Helen can do this, 2) because the tent was huge and much more of an effort than what I’m use to and 3) because I was really lazy.
Great the tent was up and we were ready for whatever was going to come…which turned out to be rain…unfortunate. We had to get into the nicely built tent and hold out for awhile.
Then we were out and ready to go to Little Sahara. The gigantic sand dunes in the south of KI with a horrible sign that was not easy to spot from the road and a road that was so badly maintained we wondered if the Gulf was going to make it or if we would be stuck there forever.
Now many places will rent you some sand boards to have some fun on the hills, but Helen and I were smarter than that…remember it had just rained and rain and sand do not really mix (and not only do they not mix, they make people trying to sand board down wet sand look ridiculous and go really, really slowly). So instead of sand boarding, we did some exercise. Did some running up the hills and soaring down like gazelles – very gracefully, until you kick sand up in the air and run straight into it and get sand all in your mouth.
This is also the place that we decided that we needed to embrace the kangarooness of the island and take as many jumping (or hopping) photos as possible.
Little Sahara – check. The sun would soon be setting, so we headed back to camp and cooked up some good food before it got to dark. 8:00 pm and we were in bed ready to sleep (well okay we did a bit of reading).
8:00am Saturday morning I wake up to Helen hitting me telling me it was time to get up…really, already?? But it’s only been about 12 hours… I ended up conceding to her demands and decided she was probably right. We broke down camp and headed out.
First stop, Kelly Hill Caves – where there are intricate underground caves running through the conservation park. Well we got there kind of early…9:30 with the first tour at 10:00. So we did a bit of a hike and looked at some pictures of the caves before heading out. I don’t think that the tour of the caves would really have added much value to our trip so we were okay with this.
Next up was Flinders Chase National Park – where you must remember your car registration when going into the information centre to get a daily pass (and it is not 123 ABC or maybe it was ABC 123…dang it I think I forgot). Luckily we did remember our car registration, but the lady didn’t put it into the computer correctly…so we came to the conclusion that getting the correct registration number isn’t really important.
Well with the daily park pass purchased, we drove down to the Remarkable Rocks. Now I do enjoy rocks, looking at rocks, walking on rocks, and just being around rocks in general (I can’t even begin to tell you how many pet rocks I had while growing up…and named all of them) so my opinion probably doesn’t hold as much clout, but Helen…Even Helen thought the rocks were pretty remarkable.
Then it was off to Cape Du Couedic Lighthouse. Now I’m not too into lighthouses, but my good friend Helen is – so we go and see the lighthouse and respect it for all the light that it has provided in the past.
Next up the Admirals Arch - where a nice arch as been carved into the rocks by the waves of the ocean. A hub for all the New Zealand fur seals come to hang out. Before you even see them you can smell them from miles away (okay maybe not miles but boy do they smell).
Flinders Chase National Park – check. Now out of the south and heading north, across the island to Kingscote. On our drive over we had some very in depth discussions. One of which we compared oursleves to our favourite tourist sites (Helen's the lighthouse, mine the cemetery) this is what we came up with...
Helen is like a Lighthouse because
1. They are both tall
2. Helping others is important to both
3. They are both bright (one with a light one with a brain)
4. The come in this seasons fashion colors (orange for this fall)
5. Both are white
Hillary is like a cemetery because
1. They both have old souls
2. Family is important and are always close
3. There is something dark and mysterious about them
4. Both are full of random information
Okay back to KI: Kingscote is the largest town in KI with a population of 1,400 people. It even has a few banks, a Foodland and some nice cafes. Of course most of them were not open over the Easter weekend. So we did a quick self tour of the town and headed up to Emu bay. What is known as one of the good swimming beaches in KI. Emu bay was alright, with the amount of people fishing I’m not sure I would want to get into the water – so we didn’t – but we did take some more good pics.
Helen is like a Lighthouse because
1. They are both tall
2. Helping others is important to both
3. They are both bright (one with a light one with a brain)
4. The come in this seasons fashion colors (orange for this fall)
5. Both are white
Hillary is like a cemetery because
1. They both have old souls
2. Family is important and are always close
3. There is something dark and mysterious about them
4. Both are full of random information
Okay back to KI: Kingscote is the largest town in KI with a population of 1,400 people. It even has a few banks, a Foodland and some nice cafes. Of course most of them were not open over the Easter weekend. So we did a quick self tour of the town and headed up to Emu bay. What is known as one of the good swimming beaches in KI. Emu bay was alright, with the amount of people fishing I’m not sure I would want to get into the water – so we didn’t – but we did take some more good pics.
Now back to the campsite for dinner and some good sleep. This campsite had some killer ants. The were HUGE – like an inch in length and were relentless. One crawled up Helen’s leg and started biting her. One was on my shoe crawling closer to my skin. We threw them off and pounced on them…and they would not die. We couldn’t do anything to make them die. I had my whole body weight on top of one and twisting my foot around and around and still it would not die. Finally, an idea. Beer! They won’t be able to survive the beer. So I poured it on them – and they had no hope. Finally some dead ants. Needless to say we ate quickly, and got back in the tent as soon as possible. Time – 8:30pm (whoa so much later than the night before).
Woke up again around 8:00am (man do I love camping) and headed to American River for our big kayak tour. This was the one thing that we had booked before coming to make sure that we were able to do the tour. Made it to the wharf and called our tour guide to see where exactly we could meet him.
Scott: “Hi this is Scott.”
Hillary: “Hi Scott this is Hillary, I had a kayak tour booked for 10:00 this morning and was wondering where we could meet you.”
Scott: “Oh really 10:00 this morning?”
Hillary: “Yeah.”
Scott: “Oh, well I’m not there.”
Hillary: “Okay.”
Scott: “Can you make the 3:00 tour.”
Hillary: “Umm no we won’t be able to make that. We are getting the 2:30 ferry back to Cape Jervis.”
Scott: “Oh, well I would be happy to get you on the 3:00 tour, but it doesn’t sound like you will be able to make it. I am sorry about the mix up and will refund your money.”
Hillary: “Okay. While we're are at American River is there anywhere in particular that we should check out?”
Scott: “Yeah the Red Banks – not too many people know about it and there are some good walks around there.”
Okay so, no kayak tour but we had local knowledge, insider information…a great new tip that would sure to change our day around. We put Red Banks into the iPhone and headed out.
When we got to where Red Banks was, it didn’t look as though there were any walks around. There were some nice fields with run down trucks and farming equipment and no sign of any good walks…so we just turned around and headed back.
Plan B – head back to Penneshaw and maybe grab a nice lunch at the winery, Chapman’s. Great idea, glad we could turn a closed door into an open one…Chapman’s even made an appearing on the local travel show Postcards (which is how we heard about the place). On our drive there we could picture us sitting out on the patio, in the sunshine sharing a nice cheese plate and sipping on some great local wine. And then we get there…and it is closed, for a private party – bummer.
We did get to see some cool things on the way, including Brown Beach and Progress Point.
We did get to see some cool things on the way, including Brown Beach and Progress Point.
Plan C – Well there is a lighthouse at the end of the road…we could go look at that. So we did.
Now that we have driven a few extra kilometers and burned through a few hours – it was actually time to get back to Penneshaw. Had a quick lunch at the beach and headed to the ferry terminal.
Back in Adelaide in time for a good night sleep (as we had been going to bed so early I felt it was about my bed time around 8:30 again that night – but pushed through to 9:30).
All in all a great start to the weekend – and still two more days off of work for Karlie and Michael’s wedding!
