Kangaroo Island

We accessed Kangaroo Island by catamaran via The Backstairs Passage. This strait is known for the high winds and rough waters. So Irene again donned her trusty motion bracelets and all went well.  Sailing from the mainland just an hour south of Adelaide the wind/waves threw us around for 45 minutes without mercy.

 The expense of taking a long vehicle is a bit high. The cost was $342 return for the van and $88 each return for us. This is not including the camp site at $35/day.

As this is their summer, things are very dry and we saw very little greenery except for vineyards. Spring time is said to be prime time to visit and there are always more animals sightings then.

Having said that, we were not at all disappointed. We only visited one of their Nat'l Parks but it was fantastic. The majority of roads are not sealed so we did not break the rules again by driving the camper van on them. The island is 155 km long and approx 40 km wide

The Sealink Catamaran

Dave backing into the ferry catamaran

Flinders Chase Nat'l Park and the Amazing Rocks from a distance

Many different awesome rock formations. No one seems to know the origin.

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Dave found himself an easy chair!

And a leaning post! (or rock in this case)

Now what does this look like?

The orange/red colors are magnificent at sunset but we were on the other side of the island by that time

Cape du Couedic light house

These New Zealand fur seals were everywhere on the rocks

If you look carefully you will see the side entrance to Admirals Arch

Admirals Arch

Seal suckling her calf

Found this to be of interest (clink on it to enlarge for reading)

This was the storage building. Here all the food and hardware items were kept for the light house keepers

And the stairs where they winched or walked up from the supply boats

And our photo moment of the day, an echidnea (anteater) crossing the road at dusk. It and the platypus are the only two animals in the monotreme family. They lay elongated soft eggs and suckle their young.

But although we walked to the platypus watering hole in the Park, we did not see this elusive creature. Tasmania maybe

The Grampians National Park

This park is approximately 100 km north of Warrnambool which is the west end of the Great Ocean Road. The Grampians stretch north to south for nearly 90 km. The ranges are mainly sandstone although we thought some appeared to be of volcanic origin. A major bush fire destroyed fifty percent of the park in 2006 and a year ago it was devastated with heavy flooding. Many trails are closed and accommodation had just reopened. Dave was intrigued by a picture of a cave in Hollow Mountain so off we went to check it out.
(Attn: feel free to click on the pics to enlarge)

Many long billed corella cockatoos in the trees above our camper

And of course the kookaburras

One of the many views in the park.

And what a collection of lizards! This is the Shingleback or Stumpy Tail Lizard. It was off the side of the road and about 12" long.
As a defence mechanism, if attacked they can drop their tail and grow another. The tail is often mistaken for the head.

The head of the Stumpy Tail

Entrance to the cave in Hollow Mountain. A 11/2 hour trek in 34C temperatures. Dave's gig not mine!!

And this is the shot he was looking for. Amazing!
I enjoyed his video in the car park afterwards. The 2-3 mile drive on unsealed roads at a very slow pace was worth it all.

Another shot from the hike.

Britz, the company that rents campers like ours has a strict rule about travel on unsealed roads. Oops, broke that one so Dave could get the shots and do the hike.

Black Rock Skink This one was thought to be 11" long by Hiker Man.

And he also came upon the Common Bronzwing Pigeon.

Same pigeon with the feathers reflecting the sunlight!!

Now this 24" Gould's Monitor was also spotted on the road. Even stayed still for this great picture.

Sign on the bathroom doors in our caravan park.
Now wouldn't I just want to take my kids camping there? But after all, when you are an Aussie, you are somewhat immune to these discoveries as this country has the most types of venomous creatures in the world.

And finally an emu sighting. Life is good, sigh.

The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road lives up to the name. It is approximately 150 miles of winding,ocean coast road along the south eastern coast of Australia between Tourquay and Warrambool. This road was built by soldiers returning home between 1919-1932. It's the world's largest memorial dedicated to casualties of WW1. It includes several prominent landmarks, one of which is nationally significant, The Twelve Apostles. Enjoy these limestone stack formations! 

And we were excited to see so many koalas in the wild. We stopped counting after seeing 50 of them.

Notice our camper van in the background

There were only 9 stacks to begin with and now 6 as the waves have played havoc. They were named apparently for tourism promotion.

 


These two amazing stacks were directly on the other side of the observation deck from the Apostles.






It was difficult to get all 6 of them in one single picture. The best view would have been from the air. The wind was gusting at 45 km/hr that day and although the helicopters were still flying, we chose not to go by air this time!

Other stacks and limestone formations were just as breathtaking, well worth the walk to see them .

The Gorge

The Grotto

The Grotto

London Bridge.  The entire bridge once gave access to the tip of this outcropping. It washed away Jan 15/90

And The Arch

For the bird lovers. A male and female Splendid Fairy Wren

And a Pied Cormorant taken at full zoom on the video camera!