Team Taylor Tidings: Day 5

What a fun day we had today!

We started out pretty early. Our shuttle was leaving at 6:15am so we got up at 5am to shower and get everything together. It was a little stressful getting out because the front desk staff didn’t show up until 6am and then the guy was training someone so he was kind of taking his time. We even had laundry we needed to get out of the dryer, which was in a room locked up, and he took his time getting us in there too. Oh well, we made it out and onto the shuttle okay so no worries!

Our drive was fantastic! It was about two hours and the first hour or so we actually slept a bit more. But I woke up to find Ireland-type scenery with the ocean in the background. It was also a bit drizzly so there was this very bright rainbow going all the way across the sky! Seriously, it was really cool and I was snapping pictures like a mad woman. It was so bright it looked like someone painted it up there. IF that wasn’t cool enough, we also posts a whole lot of wallabies on the way too, just hanging out in the fields. Haha, welcome to Australia, yeah!

We got to the ferry and hopped on. Nick bought us a very expensive breakfast – was not too happy about that – on the ferry and we tried to warm up a bit. It was pretty chilly and windy. You could actually see Kangaroo Island on the other side – it is a very big island – and it looked pretty dreary over there too. Oh well, I thought. I knew it was more likely to be cold than warm.

The ferry ride was a little more excited than I would have liked. The water was choppy and we were rocking back and forth pretty heavily. I thought it was kind of cool at first and then started feeling dizzy. I had to look out the window onto the ocean. If I looked anywhere else even for a second, I would that feeling. It didn’t last the whole time though and I was even able to lay my head down and take a tiny nap.

Before we docked, I walked out to the back where you were out in the open. I was getting pretty excited at that point and was happy to see the weather clearing up!

We exited and there was a guy standing off the dock with a Budget Car Rental sign in his hand. Well, I had reserved a rental but I wasn’t expecting a pick up at the dock! And we had even come on an earlier ferry than I had planned! So that was neat that he was there ready for us.

He took us up the road to the office and we got this mega speech from the lady there all about driving on Kangaroo Island. We had a good laugh about her afterward because she was on a roll with her speech . You could tell she pretty much had it memorized. She marked for us on a map where not to drive – unkempt roads and such – and said we couldn’t drive on the beach about five times and kept shaking this glass bottle of rocks saying the roads on Kangaroo Island are dangerous. We were both waiting for her to explain the significance of the rocks in the bottle and she never did but we got plenty of laughs out of making fun of her and her rocks anyway.

Our car is a Nissan Micra and I had to laugh. I’d been tipped off it was small by the name itself – Micra, hmm – but it was funny to think of Nick driving it. Somehow he fit in and I took video of him embarking on his first drive on the left side of the road.

Well, we were just having a lovely time. I popped in a CD and we had the road pretty much to ourselves and were free to enjoy the scenery of what ended up being a sunny day. We stopped a few times for pictures. In fact, we saw a turn off for a quick hike up a hill to a look out over the island. It was fun to be able to do that – nothing planned about it, we just saw it and did it and I love that.

Now, I had come to Kangaroo Island because it is a great place to see wildlife in the wild! But we were driving and seeing nothing but dead wallabies on the roads. I felt really bad for them – what a crummy way to die! So, I stayed alert all through the drive to look out for wildlife, hoping we would see one but not hit one.

We got lost after a little while. The roads are marked but still a bit confusing. We ended up in the exact spot the woman told us not to go so we turned around to avoid driving on the forbidden road. Then we went a bit further and turned onto a road leading to a place called Murray Lagoon. Well, it turned out that we’d turned too early and ended up on that forbidden road anyway! We had to laugh at this road she had specifically asked us not to drive on and somehow it was pulling us in like a magnet!

Anyway, we finally found the road we were looking for, which was incredibly bumpy, especially in our Micra. We parked off the road and hiked down a path to an overlook of Murray Lagoon. I had heard it was a good place to see a lot of birds and maybe it would have been but there wasn’t really access very close to the water, at least not where we were at, and we had forgotten our binoculars in the car. Still, we really enjoyed the majestic scenery with its multicolored lagoon on one side and grottos on the other. There were grasshoppers all over the place which also added to the enchantment with them flitting about and plenty of bird calls too.

We walked around for about an hour there and headed back to the car. We had to shoo a swarm of mosquitoes out of our car and did not escape without a few bites!

On our way back to the main road, we passed a whole bunch of sheep and Nick slowed down and bleated at them. I thought it was funny because all the sheep stopped and looked at him and some even started walking toward him, haha! I told Nick he should have been a shepherd apparently and got a few pictures of them at full attention.

Just a bit down the road was a place called Seal Bay. I bet you can guess what we saw there! They had a cool set up in the little shop there with seal skulls and seal pelts and stuff. But I was not happy with the show they were running. You could pay $12.50 just to have access to a boardwalk overlooking the beach where the seals hang out or you could pay about $26 for a guided tour on the beach itself. Something about people charging you just to go see animals in the wild, as if they have a right to them, really irks me. I’m all for supporting the conservation or whatever, but I don’t see where they need to charge that much. How about $5 or $10.

Anyway, I could not justify paying $50 for the both of us to get to the beach so we settled for $25. Luckily, it was money well spent! The boardwalk overlooked some dunes and we saw a few seals sleeping there and the bones of a humpback whale. Just off one corner of the walk there was a mom and pup together which was super cute. When we came to the corner, the pup looked up with his big black eyes kind of curious about us. The pup was funny because he kept going from nipple to nipple checking for more milk. There’s nothing there, buddy, you dried her out!

We went down to the end of the walk which was right near the beach. There were a few seals nearby but most of them were a little farther down the beach where, of course, the guided tour goes. Well, I decided to try a trick with the binoculars which I didn’t think would really work but it did! I took pictures through the binoculars so I could get a little closer to the seals, haha! I don’t think the pictures were real clear that way but it was a fun trick anyway.

We hung out there for quite a while and saw a younger seal go in the water and then come back out and start whining, probably looking for his mom. He came waddling up the beach and I got video of that. It was really fun to watch.

My ears were getting pretty cold – it was very chilly and windy – and another couple, French I think, we waiting to use my corner of the walk, so we headed back up. When we were back at the mom and pup, who had since given up on the milk and fallen asleep, we saw the French guy signal to his wife to come down the walk so we came too and saw a mom and pup come out of the water and waddle up to the dunes. I got a few shots of that and was very bummed to see my camera battery die. I had more batteries but had left in the car, much to my regret.

We headed back up and went out to another lookout which gave us a wider view of the beach and also view of another beach on the other side of a cliff. We saw seals playing together in the water and I thought how fun it would be to be a seal and be able to maneuver so easily in the water like that. It also made me think why I don’t want to swim in Kangaroo Island – it is Great White Shark country here, and no wonder with all the seals.

From our lookout, we saw the French lady do this funny dance to signal to her husband to come back down the boardwalk and see something on the beach. She raised her arms, like you do when someone scores a goal in soccer, and turned in a circle excitedly. Haha! I thought it was such an odd dance, more like a victory dance than a “wow, look at this cool thing!” dance. She did it twice too and I wondered what we were missing both times. I could have spent another hour on the boardwalk waiting to see cool things but we were running out of light, the park was closing, and I was annoyed I had no camera life left.

We left the very cool Seal Bay – I wish I could go back already – and on our drive back we saw a wallaby just off the road! Wow, cool! We stopped and took a few shots of him. He was very handsome, a darker color, and a little curious about us. I was thrilled to see him but it also made me nervous about driving and hitting one, especially considering all we’d seen on the roads!

We drove just a little ways to our camp spot at Vivonne Bay. It’s more like a gravel parking lot except each space is for a tent instead a car and each space is about two car widths. Not what I was expecting but I suppose I would prefer it over actually camping in the bush.

We got our tent set up quick enough and had a little bit of light to spare for a walk down to the beach, which is only about a one minute walk! It was funny because on the way to the beach I said, “Maybe we will see…” and then a wallaby hopped by! Haha, I didn’t even get the sentence out, though I was planning to mention a nocturnal animal. Still, a wallaby will do.

On the beach, I kept seeing these oval shaped white things that kind of looked like shells. Upon closer inspection, I recognized what they were – cuttlebones from the cuttlefish! Having had a fair share of pet birds, I know the bone because you can buy them in the store for your birds to chew at. I am guessing the seals eat them and the bones wash up on shore. Interesting.

We didn’t linger on the beach because the tide was coming in and Nick was having visions of my Normany Beach experience wading through jellyfish waters that had suddenly come in. It was also pretty chilly. Luckily, our campsite is well-protected though! We have no winds and are quite cozy in our tent! And there are not too many people either and the ones we have seen have also said hello and smiled and waved and given us a thumbs up. I think I like this country.

We were going to play cards but Nick was tired – even though it was only 8pm, the old man – so he has gone to bed and I am keeping up on my blog! I thought this was an awesome day, with rainbows, hillsides, beaches, seals, wallabies, and camping with the sounds of the beach in the background! I am loving this vacation!!

Pictures:

We saw a beautiful rainbow on our drive from Adelaide to Cape Jervis.

We couldn't get enough of that rainbow!

The rainbow followed us all through our drive so it was neat to see it in different settings.

Here is our ferry to Kangaroo Island!

We had a little snack on the ferry. There is a Kangaroo Island map on the table there.

Here is the inside of the ferry, which was a lot more swank than I expected.

I saw this moth by my window in ferry and thought he looked pretty unique.

Nick embarks the ferry and begins his adventure on Kangaroo Island!

Here we our with our tiny car - the Nissan Micra.

Look out! There may be fairy penguins around, haha! So cute!

We stopped to look at this area. How nice to be in a car and be able to pull over if you want.

This is taken from Prospect Point and gave us a good look at the island, or part of it at least. It's really very big, much bigger than Oahu.

Nick descends from the look-out.

We begin our hike to Murray Lagoon and keep an eye open for wildlife. I saw my first wild wallaby here.

You can't be a spider in Australia unless you look wild and scary like this guy! Nick almost ran right into him!

A look at Murray Lagoon. It was a little windy and chilly but only when the sun was covered.

A look at the other side of Murray Lagoon. It would have been good if we had our binoculars with us.

Another shot of Murray Lagoon!

We thought this grove of trees was kind of enchanting.

A closer look at the grove.

All the sheep look at us while Nick makes his sheep sounds.

And some of them start to approach! Follow Nick, the sheep man!

Aw, look at the little seal pup! He looked up at us when we came by.

The mom was asleep the whole time except for this short moment.

The humpback whale bones on the dunes!

This is the seal colony as seen from the binoculars!

Here is the seal colony at Seal Bay. If we had paid for the tour, we could have gotten down there to the beach. Oh well, too pricey.

Another shot of the seal colony from the binoculars. I'm so skilled!

This little guy popped out of the ocean right in front of us and started calling for his mom!

Here he comes waddling up the beach and into the dunes!

This is a look down onto the boardwalk. We stayed down there near the shore for quite a while. You can see the French husband taking pictures down there.