The Vacation Day 10 - Kangaroo Island
The next morning we got up, checked out and checked in our big luggage at the hotel lobby, puddle jumpers don't take a lot of weight. Next it was on to the airport. Thankfully this was our last flight in-country before our final flight home. After flying from BWI to Charlotte to LAX to Sydney to Alice Springs to Adelaide to Kangaroo Island within the span of 2 weeks, to say we were tired of flying was a bit of an understatement.
Getting to the airport was no problem. Once at the airport, checking in was a little more hectic. We were wrangling with our itinerary up until the morning that we left, between a combination of last minute changes, and the Easter holidays in Australia so that all the offices were closed both Friday and the Monday before we left, some kinks stayed kinks. The travel agent assured me we were booked on the flight, the counter guy assured me there were seats on the flight. The problem between the two was that we had pre-paid and I was not willing to pay again for seats that were already booked for us. In the last-minuteness of it all, the travel agent in Adelaide had booked the seats for us, but hadn't put our names on them. After about 20 minutes of waiting and id checking and a lot of phone calling we got checked in and went through security.
We checked our departure time on the tickets and saw plenty of time prior to leaving so no worries there, we stopped and got some breakfast. After looking at the tickets again I noticed that the depature time in Adelaide was after the time we were scheduled to be picked up on Kangaroo Island. Double checking at the counter at the gate, he assured us the flight was on time and that it was just a mis-type from the front counter. Calling up to double check he found out that no actually the flight was late, and we would be arriving almost an hour after our scheduled pick up. 'Shoot' doesn't begin describe the word that wanted to come out of my mouth. On the pay phone next to the travel agent on Kangaroo Island to explain that our flight was now delayed and to find out if we could still be picked up at the airport in time for our tour. No worries, he'd just let the driver know and we should still be fine for the tour.
Boarding the plane was fun. We got to wait in line to be escorted out onto the tarmac onto one of the tiniest planes I've ever seen. There were a total of 24 seats, 12 on each side. When I say puddle jumper I wasn't kidding. The flight took all of 25 minutes to get up in the air, fly across the bay, and land on the island. We never got up so high I couldn't see the ground and the scenery getting there was beautiful.
Once we landed we waited for the luggage to unload and be brought over on a cart. Then we had to wait for the driver to take us into town. He also ran the rental car business in the airport and some of the people on our plane had rented vehicles. I forget the population of Kangaroo Island, you can look it up, but it was reasonably small. Everyone knew almost everyone else. There were only 3 policemen on the entire island, and most problems got dealt with by speaking to so-and-so's parents if the troublemaker was a youngster, and maybe if they weren't so young as well!
We got dropped off at our hotel, a cute old place overlooking the sea and had exactly 10 minutes to set down the bags, put on some warmer clothes, grab the cameras and get back down to the bus. Mike was our guide for the day and we were the last on the bus full of tourists. I don't know where most came from but I do know three women were from China, we had some experiences with them later in the day.
Mike was a terrific guide, he went along with us everywhere we went and first stop was a nice beach that you had to know was there to find. We got out of the bus on a rocky shore and Mike pointed us towards a pile of rocks with a passage between them. You walked the path and came out onto a beautiful sandy beach with the bluest water and waves that crashed nicely just offshore.
Next on to an animal park where Mike tormented the tour guide who was apparently very used to him. The park was home to the original Babe the pig, who is now enourmous and not so cuddly cute anymore. As we stared at Babe one of our fellow tourists leaned over the railing for a shot and managed to drop her sunglasses directly in the water trough. She just stood there looking bewildered saying "Oh no" over and over getting slightly louder each time. Mike our hero said "Ah, no worries!" and reached over the railing and stuck his entire arm in the trough and handed the glasses back to her. She somehow didn't seem inclined to put them back on immediately.
Lunch was at a farm on the island where we had our first and only taste of kangaroo. Yes I mean ate some. It was smoked and not too bad actually. It's what I imagine venison would taste like, had I ever tasted venison before.
Next was Seal Bay to see the Sea Lions. The Sea Lions were terrific. They had just gotten back from 3 days at sea fishing, and were spending their first day sleeping. They don't sleep while they're out in the water, the sharks will eat them, so after 3 days they get pretty tired. Mike spent some time talking to our nature guide and some more time kicking sand into girls shoes. Andy got him back though.
On to the Kelly Hill Caves. Caves all pretty much look like caves. There were beautiful formations, and these caves had the distinction of being one of the few in Australia that were dry.
We rode around from the caves towards Clifford's Honey Farm. Isn't funny that falling asleep on a bus is universal. It was about a 45 minute drive to see the bees and each and every tourist on that bus fell asleep. I suppose it helped that Mike put music on and didn't keep up his previous steady stream of jokes. The honey farm was cute, we actually got to watch them melting off the wax from the trays and then on to the shop for honey ice cream!
That night we got to see what I had come here to see. The Little Penguins. Tiny little things that were incredibly squawky. They nest on the shores of the island and come in from the sea at night. They were everything I expected and quite a bit noiser.
