Too much waiting

Just about everything is set. The rental car company finally recognized that they have an agent in Victor Harbor which means I can drop my car there and take advantage of the kind offer of a tour to the ferry to Kangaroo Island. My new travel agent card arrived so I can get all the discounts I was hoping for. In Cairns, I found a great boat to the outer reef that's giving me a 50% discount. The one unfortunate thing is that I'll only be able to do one whale watch in Victor Harbor. Not such a big deal as most whale watching there is done from shore. On the other hand, it looks like I'll be able to go whale watching from Sydney. I've also decided to take a tour to the Blue Mountains and a koala park where I'm supposed to be able to pet a dingo and maybe even a wombat (hope it's the hairy nosed variety). That takes care of the one day for which I couldn't figure out what I'd do.

Now all there is to do is wait. With a little over four months to go, all there is left is booking a couple of tours. This is going to be a long four months.

On the local scene, there was no boat this weekend because of rain. Last week, we had three whales, two of which gave us good looks. There was also one very calm otter. The passengers, on the other hand, were not so calm. There was a big birthday group that drank an awful lot. Luckily, they were happy drunks.

Visa by Visa

My visa has come through and it's now legal for me to visit Australia. Getting the visa was easy since I got it using my Visa card over the web. Working the web has found me a trip to look for dugong in Hervey Bay. All my must species are now covered. The rental car business for the Adelaide area still has to be worked out, but there is a reasonable plan B. With five months to go, I'm running out of things to do in advance.

The whales have started heading north. We found just one this Saturday and it wasn't very cooperative. A small juvenile pod of Risso's dolphins was lots of fun and gave everyone a treat by staying near to surface so we could track them. The sea lions were humorous and photogenic as usual and we had one very calm otter mom and pup. A few overly-fed murres added laughter as they tried to take off with a too-full belly.