Today, Saturday 30th April, is a 'not doing very much day'. We pottered around a huge shopping mall in the morning and during the afternoon Tom went to the library 'to use a proper computer' leaving me to catch up on 2 weeks blog.
Since arriving in Australia a week ago we have been on the go the whole time, seeing as much as we can in the short time available. All the trips we have done, or are doing next week, were pre-booked in the UK before I left.
On Friday 29th April we had a really long day. We were collected at 6.20am for a day trip to Kangaroo Island, the 3rd largest of the Australian islands. It was a 2 hour coach ride to Cape Jervis, south east of Adelaide, then 45 minutes on the ferry. We were met by yet another coach for a tiki tour of the south part of the island which is 155km long and 55km wide.
Kangaroo Island was not given that name for nothing - there is a large population of these native creatures and, sadly, we saw numerous dead ones alongside the road. If a kangaroo jumps out of the bush in front of you there is very little you can do about it Although with a driver like our coach driver who thought he was a recycled F1 racer, it's not surprising there is so much roadkill!
The first stop was Seal Bay, the home of the Australian sealion. There were many cubs, so cute
It was a great experience seeing these wonderful creatures close up, not too close though as the wardens made sure we stayed at least 6 meters distance so as not to disturb them.
After lunch we were treated to an Australian bird of prey presentation then we drove to the eastern end of the island to the Remarkable Rocks
and Cape Du Couedic to view 100's of yet more New Zealand fur seals and lovely coastline views
The day finished with a visit to the Hanson Bay Sanctuary where we saw kangaroos, wallabies and koalas in the wild together with beautiful coloured native birds such as galahs and crimson rosellas
We did not get back to Adelaide until gone 10.30pm, somewhat tired!
Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th April were taken up travelling by the Indian Pacific train from Sydney to Adelaide, a journey of 24 hours. I had booked the Gold Service which meant we had a compartment to ourselves which converted to bunk bed accommodation at night. Full en suite facilities made it somewhat cosy! http://www.gsr.com.au/site/indian_pacific/services/gold_service.jsp. We departed Sydney at 3pm on the 27th and arrived Adelaide at 3pm on the 28th. The scenery varied along the route starting with the Blue Mountains where we saw quite a lot of scenery we missed due to the bad weather during our day out there, then ranging from red desert outback to cultivated farmland. We had just over an hour at a mining town called Broken Hill. We took a 'city tour' by coach. I am still wondering why .....!
24th to 26th April were spent in and around Sydney
The 24th was taken up with a full day's city sightseeing tour by coach. Morning coffee was at Bondi Beach and lunch was on a harbour cruise. Fabulous. That was our only fine day in Sydney.
On Monday 25th (which was ANZAC Day) we were booked for an early morning backstage tour of the iconic Sydney Opera House followed by breakfast. Because everything seemed to close down that day we were unsure as to whether the trip would actually take place or not. We could not get in touch with the Opera House to find out nor to arrange our coach pick up. So we took a chance, got up really early and made our own way there to find that all was OK for the planned 7am start. It was a most interesting tour and you will note that the Sydney Opera Orchestra has booked a new conductor:
For our pre-booked 4WD day in the Blue Mountains on 26th April the weather could not have been worse.
We suffered a complete fog white-out for most of the day so the anticipated wonderful views did not materialise. The day ended with a visit to a wildlife park where I just had to have the obligatory photo with a koala bear.
and a kangaroo
I learned yesterday from our recycled boy racer coach driver on Kangaroo Island that koalas are not completely spaced out all the time (as I thought) due to the narcotic content of eucalyptus shoots (there is none), but because they have no carbohydrate intake whatsoever they have absolutely no energy and sleep for 20 hours a day.
Maybe I should try that diet...
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