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| Ferry - view from Frenchman's Rock |
Yippee! We made it to Kangaroo Island today. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog - we had to miss it last year. Although the weather forecast looked bleak today, the swells were not so bad so the ship's tenders were lowered and guests were taken ashore.
I joined my tour group in the tender and we took a ride across the water to the pier, bearing in mind that a ferry was also heading in that direction. The ferry was going quite a bit faster than us so our tender pilot gave it a wide berth. It was offloading passengers when we arrived at the pier.
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| Frenchman's Rock - photograph off the internet |
Our driver/guide, Kevin, gave us a warm welcome on board his bus before taking us on our tour. Our first stop was at Frenchman's Rock where we had a quick photograph stop. Frenchmans Rock is the location where Nicholas Baudin found freshwater when navigating the North Coast of Kangaroo Island in 1802.
Back on the bus we headed through the village of Penneshaw to the Seal Bay Conservation Park to see a protected colony of Australian sea lions. By the time we arrived at the Park's information centre it was pouring with rain, chilly and windy. Fortunately I had brought my waterproofs with me but I soon discovered that they were so waterproof that any moisture my skin gave off underneath the rain gear made my clothes damp. ☹ A Park ranger gave a brief talk about seals and sea lions but unfortunately I couldn't really hear what she was saying. I was right at the back of the group that surrounded her, and noise from other visitors at the centre drowned out our ranger's voice. After the ranger's talk it was time for our walk. Some guests wisely decided to remain at the Park's information centre rather than battling the cold and rain. Our route took us along a path and to a boardwalk where we could see the sea lions in their natural environment. From there we made our way down onto the beach to get a bit closer to the sea lines but we still remained a healthy distance from them in order not to disturb them. I tried to take some photographs but the rain was persistent and I got the lens wet. Eventually them hem of my t-shirt under my rain jacket became too damp to dry off the lens. Cold and wet we headed back up the path to the information centre to warm up and dry off before getting back in the bus.
As we headed to the south coast of Kangaroo Island to Flinders Chase National Park the bus windows steamed up so we were not really able to see the countryside as we passed through it. Kevin did his best to air the bus and get the condensation off the windows but the airconditioning couldn't keep up. One guest helped Kevin by wiping the windowscreen now and then!
Just inside the Flinders Chase National Park we stopped for lunch at the vistor centre's restaurant, "The Chase". Our timing was good but there was another tour group still eating when we arrived so we had to wait for them to finish. I think there would have been enough space for our group to sit if it had been a nice day but part of the restaurant was out in the open so we had to wait until the under cover area was vacated. There were a variety of sandwiches for lunch, tea and coffee. I ended up buying some hot chocolate to warm me up a bit after lunch. It was delicious.
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| Remarkable Rocks - from a distance |
By the time we got back on the bus Kevin had managed to clear the fogged up windows. It helped but after a while the windows started to fog up again. It wasn't as bad as it had been earlier though.
When we got to our next stop the rain had stopped so our walk, via a boardwalk, was pleasant. The stop was to see "Remarkable Rocks" - a perfect example of nature's erosional forces of wind and water over time. From a distance the rocks look like something. To some it resembles a rabbit or a dinosour. When we got up close some of the smaller rocks looked like the vertebrae of a huge mammal, others were hollowed out to form small shallow caves. Some of the rocks had a red colour from lichen growing on them. It was a really beautiful sight. I got a bit miffed because every time I wanted to take a photograph of a rock (when there was supposedly nobody around) someone would suddenly appear from behind me and go and stand by the rock for one of their pals to take a photograph - bugger the fact that they could see that someone was already trying to take an uninterrupted photo! The irritating part was that the same 2 people kept on barging in when I was trying to take photos. And no, I don't want to take a photograph of them or have them in my pictures. I wasn't the only person a bit irritated by their behaviour. As it was a public place with other visitors, there is nothing that I could do. We had about half an hour at the rocks and time went way too quickly - they were really beautiful. Unfortunately one of the guests was back late so it meant less time at the next stop.
We had a brief photographic stop at the Cap du Couedic Lighthouse and then made our way towards the cliffs. From there we were able to take a walk along a boardwalk to see Admiral's Arch and, on the rocks, seals and sea lions. The natural sea arch was a another beautiful case of nature's erosional forces. After that it was time to get back on the bus and head to the ship.
Our bus was the last back to arrive but as we drove down the hill into the harbour a group of 5 or 7 dophins were spotted, and amongst them was a youngster. The driver had to keep going but slowed down enough for people to see the dolphins and take photographs from the bus windows. It was a nice sight to the end of a day on Kangaroo Island.
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| Boardwalk and steps lead down to and under Admiral's Arch |
Time was pressing on so guests were ushered onto one of the last tenders to the ship. Unfortunately there was one guest who took ages to get off the bus after it arrived. I kept popping my head around the bus door, as did the tour's organiser, but the chap still sat there. After a good 5 to 8 minutes he emerged. It turns out he was looking for change to give Kevin a tip. Even when we were walking along the pier to the tender the guest kept holding staff up, trying to chat with those not going to the ship! It took a lot of persuading - the fact that staff had packed up their gear on the landing, the last tender was ready to go, and we really couldn't wait much longer - to get him to take the final steps along the pier to the tender. As Liz (from shore excursions) and I walked along the pier a group of dolphins were out in the small bay and swam in front of an outgoing ferry. We hope they didn't get hurt and we hope that the captain of the ferry was aware of the dolphins.
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| Our route from Kangaroo Island to Melbourne |
Home sweet home/ship. I was glad to get out of my damp clothes and have a nice warm shower.
After the ship lifted anchor we started our journey towards Melbourne. Tomorrow is a sea day so I can relax a bit. 😊
PHOTOGRAPHS
Views from Frenchman's Rock
Pennington Bay
Seal Bay Conservation Park
Remarkable Rocks
Cap du Couedic & Admiral's Arch
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| View from fur seal lookout |
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| View from fur seal lookout |
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| View from fur seal lookout - looking towards Admiral's Arch |
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| View from fur seal lookout - steps lead down and under Admiral's Arch |
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| Cap du Couedic Lighthouse |
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| Boardwalk to Admiral's Arch |
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| Sea lions relaxing on the rocks |
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| Admiral's Arch |
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| View from under the arch |
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Wood steps going up/down to the arch. The wood is very soggy
and starting to erode. |
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| View from the top of the steps |
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| View of the other side of the arch |
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| One last look before leaving the boardwalk and Flinders Chase National Park |
Back on the bus we headed through the village of Penneshaw to the Seal Bay Conservation Park to see a protected colony of Australian sea lions. By the time we arrived at the Park's information centre it was pouring with rain, chilly and windy. Fortunately I had brought my waterproofs with me but I soon discovered that they were so waterproof that any moisture my skin gave off underneath the rain gear made my clothes damp. ☹ A Park ranger gave a brief talk about seals and sea lions but unfortunately I couldn't really hear what she was saying. I was right at the back of the group that surrounded her, and noise from other visitors at the centre drowned out our ranger's voice. After the ranger's talk it was time for our walk. Some guests wisely decided to remain at the Park's information centre rather than battling the cold and rain. Our route took us along a path and to a boardwalk where we could see the sea lions in their natural environment. From there we made our way down onto the beach to get a bit closer to the sea lines but we still remained a healthy distance from them in order not to disturb them. I tried to take some photographs but the rain was persistent and I got the lens wet. Eventually them hem of my t-shirt under my rain jacket became too damp to dry off the lens. Cold and wet we headed back up the path to the information centre to warm up and dry off before getting back in the bus. 
When we got to our next stop the rain had stopped so our walk, via a boardwalk, was pleasant. The stop was to see "Remarkable Rocks" - a perfect example of nature's erosional forces of wind and water over time. From a distance the rocks look like something. To some it resembles a rabbit or a dinosour. When we got up close some of the smaller rocks looked like the vertebrae of a huge mammal, others were hollowed out to form small shallow caves. Some of the rocks had a red colour from lichen growing on them. It was a really beautiful sight. I got a bit miffed because every time I wanted to take a photograph of a rock (when there was supposedly nobody around) someone would suddenly appear from behind me and go and stand by the rock for one of their pals to take a photograph - bugger the fact that they could see that someone was already trying to take an uninterrupted photo! The irritating part was that the same 2 people kept on barging in when I was trying to take photos. And no, I don't want to take a photograph of them or have them in my pictures. I wasn't the only person a bit irritated by their behaviour. As it was a public place with other visitors, there is nothing that I could do. We had about half an hour at the rocks and time went way too quickly - they were really beautiful. Unfortunately one of the guests was back late so it meant less time at the next stop.
We had a brief photographic stop at the Cap du Couedic Lighthouse and then made our way towards the cliffs. From there we were able to take a walk along a boardwalk to see Admiral's Arch and, on the rocks, seals and sea lions. The natural sea arch was a another beautiful case of nature's erosional forces. After that it was time to get back on the bus and head to the ship. 
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