09/30 - On the Road to Port Fairy

We continued along the road through flat country and noticed a mountain jutting out of the fields to the right. This was Mount RIchmond, an extinct volcano. We didn't know what to expect, and we were a bit tight on time, so we never did get to the overlook. Still, we spotted our first wild koala perched in a tree which was a real treat.

09/29 - Penola and the Naracoorte Caves - 2

Back in Penola, we visited the Katnook WInery which had excellent wines which we doubt we will ever find in the United States. We explored the town, particularly Petticoat Lane, an old, partly restored, Victorian section of town. There were a lot of charming old houses and charming old fashioned gardens, including an herb garden, open to the public. For a small donation, one could even grab a few fresh herbs for one's dinner.

To be honest, we hadn't planned on seeing this area, but we did have to get from Adelaide to Melbourne, and an article in our in flight magazine made us curious. We aren't big improvisors when we travel, but this improvisation definitely paid off.

09/28 - Penola and the Naracoorte Caves - 1

This whole area of South Australia is known as the Limestone Coast, so the wonderful limestone formations of the Naracoorte Caves were irresistible. We signed up for three tours in a row, preceded by and followed by some exploring on our own. The guided tours were wonderful, so we saw speleothems galore. Speleothems are sometimes stalactites, hanging from the ceiling, sometimes stalagmites, rising from the floor, and sometimes columns, connecting the floor and ceiling.

We also took a remote camera guided tour of the bat cave. There's a huge colony of bats in a cave that is closed to the public, but monitored by a number of remote controlled cameras. We zoomed in on juveniles hanging on street corners, mothers huddling with others and otherwise virtually entered the life of the cave.

To be continued.

09/27 - Kelly Caves to the Sea

We made our way slowly, sighting two echidnas by the trail side. We made our way to a large flat lake and had a black swan experience. This was Australia, so there was a flock of black swans on the glassy surface.

Then, we climbed a sand dune, now fully vegetated and well inland. It was over a 100 meter climb, quite a challenge on soft sand. It looked like any other hill, but the soft footing reminded us that this, like many others on Kangaroo Island, was a stabilized sand dune.

Eventually, the trail opened out to a large green field, almost like a golf course. Here was a great field of kangaroos. This was the far side of the great green field we had visited earlier for our sundown Kangaroos and Canapes excursion. There were no canapes on this side of the river, but plenty of kangaroos.

We left the green field, and from here the trail followed the river, and the river led us to the sea. For a while we were in brush land, but then we saw the line of coastal dunes ahead. Soon we were looking down from the dunes at a gorgeous crescent of beach by the sea.

09/26 - Seal Point Sea Lions

The reserve has slowly accustomed the sea lions to people. If we don't hassle them, they don't mind us. This means we can wander around in clusters and get a close look at these wonderful sea mammals. We saw females nursing and males engaging in pushing matches, so we felt right at home.

It doesn't really show up in the photos, but male sea lions have a pale area around their necks and on their heads that look a bit like lions' manes, hence the name sea lion. There were other land mammals waiting for their turn visiting theses sea mammals, or we would have spent the day on the beach with them.

09/25 - Rocky River to Maupertuis Bay

It was spring, so the flowers were in bloom, but few were familiar. We saw lizards, the blue sky and the blue river as it flowed in broad channels and through rapids. There was some climbing up and down rocks, but it was easy going.

Then we saw our first glimpse of the sea. The river flowed over rocks in channels with little rushing waterfalls and emptied out onto a sandy beach. It was a smuggler's paradise, a lovely beach in the middle of nowhere, perfect to bringing in a small boat loaded with contraband koala skins. Above us in the canyon were the smuggler hideouts, shelters naturally carved from the rock walls.

Maybe we let our imagination get ahead of us, but the mouth of the Rocky River was a wonderful, evocative place to be.

09/24 - Admiralty Arch and Remarkable Rocks

09/23 - Welcome to Kangaroo Island

FIrst thing, we took the cliff side hikes east and west of the hotel. The scenery is exotic. The shrubs are gum trees of various sizes. The flowers are in wild bloom.

We took the Kangaroo and Canapes tour. It's less formally known as Booze and Roos. We took a shuttle bus to a field not far from the hotel. It was once a farm, cleared from the brush, but now home to enough kangaroos to launch a Volkswagen to the moon by sheer hopping power. The grass is cut as short as a golf green's, and the ground is covered with kangaroo by-product, but the kangaroos are calm even as we approach them.

That was just our first day.

09/21 - The Taronga Zoo

09/20 - Bondi Beach

We've already been to the Sydney Aquarium and taken a long walk from Bondi Beach south to Coogee. Bondi is Sydney's famous surfing beach. The water was wild, and the waves were high, but, no, we didn't do any surfing. We left that to others who have some slight clue about the surfer's art. We did follow the trail along the beach, up along the bluffs, then down to another beach, then up, then down and so on. Parts of the route reminded us of West Seattle, some Honolulu, some Santa Monica, and some the Monterey waterfront trail.

It was a beautiful walk. We didn't have to get wet to enjoy it, though in some places the water was tempting. Especially tempting were the wild, sea water swimming pools along the way. These are swimming pools built low, so they are flooded by the surf at high tide, so one gets the benefits of fresh salt water, but one is protected from the surf.

09/19 - Where Are We?

09/15 - To The Lighthouse

We've been watching the tides at Dungeness Spit. There is usually a period from mid-autumn into mid-winter when the tides are just too high during the day to hike all the way out to the lighthouse without pulling oneself across soft sand and clambering over driftwood. Worse, during the winter, the sand washes away leaving a rocky beach behind. We decided to take advantage of this prime hiking time for our hike.

As you can see in the photos, we made it to the light. We did the full ten mile round trip in excellent time, well under four hours, thanks to a sandy beach and beautiful weather. We kept an eye on the sea and saw seals, seagulls, plovers, and sea ducks. The sky really was as blue as in the photos. Our next chance is not until February, and then only if the spit has some sand. Otherwise, it might not be until next summer.

09/12 - Fall Colors at Obstruction Point

09/10 - Elderberries

09/08 - Fall Colors

This trip we spotted our first blue grouse of the season. Is the plural of "grouse" "grouses" or "grice"? Walt Kelley, the cartoonist who drew Pogo, once said that the mongoose is a singular animal, because no one can say two of them. The blue grouse seems to be a singular animal as well. If we saw more than one of them, we couldn't tell you.

09/06 - Another Quick Trip to Seattle

09/04 - Rotisserie Duck