The dream becomes real

Tickets have been purchased and reservations made. A few surprises, pleasant and otherwise, along the way. Frequent flyer seats are long-gone (and I thought I was reserving early), but Qantas's Airpass worked out to be a terrific deal. Covered all my flights within Australia with one cheap exception. Means I'll be flying coach instead of business, but c'est la vie. The miles I would have spent are worth far more than what I'm paying and will certainly be put to good use.

One of the joys of planning this trip has been connecting with Karen Kokoschke, the Marketing Director of Banksia Adventures. First she offered to take me free of charge to see the Urimbirra Zoo at night. Now she has offered to drive/tour me to Cape Jervis where I catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island at the same reasonable rate. The tour is supposed to be very special, including a chance to see 100's of kangaroos in the wild. That's something I thought my itinerary would make me give up. The only hitch is dealing with the rental car, but Karen thinks that can be worked out. She says there's a new office of Eurocar in Victor Harbor, but the folks at Eurocar don't seem to know about it. Will give it a couple of weeks and try again.

No whale trip this week. Not enough sign-ups and the weather was iffy. Last week was excellent with some very cooperative whales and more risso's dolphins. Nice warm weather didn't hurt either.