The Best Laid Plans...

The last two days haven't gone exactly as planned. No real problems, but a couple disappointments.

After yesterday's blogging session, I poked around Victor Harbor. It's a pretty typical summer town, sweet shops every half block. There are also a couple of casinos (slots only) and I actually netted a bit over Au$20. A stop at the South Australia Whale Center revealed that at least one whale had been spotted the day before and another two days before that. Thus, my hopes were high for my own sighting. Shortly after 11, I called my hotel to check for messages because the person from the whale watch company said he'd call before 11 to let me know if he was going out. Finding no message, I called the company and was told their boat was out of commission. This was not a bad thing. Karen had told me that the boat I was supposed to go on was noisy and unpleasant. One more call and Diane and I were booked on another boat leaving just half an hour after the one for which I had originally planned. Diane showed up exactly on time and we took the horse-drawn tram across the causeway to Granite Island. All the way over, we talked about how bad we felt for the poor Clydesdale pulling the tram. I found out today that they only do three trips a day, one day a week. Not as bad as I had feared.

The whale watch started out well enough. Our first stop was at Seal Island which lived up to its name with a large contingent of Australian Fur Seals. That was the only wildlife of the trip. Soon after we left the seals, the wind picked up. Everyone ended up fairly wet. Diane and I were the only ones properly dressed, but we still ended up with wet butts. The scenery was fascinating with lots of steep cliffs, but it wasn't really what I was hoping for. Apparently, the whales left a bit early this year.

Back on shore, Diane took me to a real pub dinner. We both had the roast (the most traditional pub meal), which this night was pork served with white and sweet potatoes and steamed veggies. Then the real fun began. Diane had to buy groceries and we headed to Woolworth's. There is nothing like exploring a grocery store in a foreign country accompanied by an anthropologist. We talked about brands (P&G uses their British brands), local specialties (good feta and lots of pasties because the Cornish miners came in right after the New England whalers), and the universality of young, low-energy cashiers.

Back at the hotel, I was awakened a couple of times by the howling wind. There was no way an additional day in Victor Harbor would have brought a chance of whales. Karen picked me up to go to the ferry to Kangaroo Island and took me through a wonderful nature reserve. Lots of cool birds (including my first rosellas). Best of all, mobs and mobs of wild kangaroos. I didn't think I'd get to see them hopping at full speed, but I saw plenty of that today. A couple were even boxing, but they stopped before I could get the camera up.

When we got to the ferry dock in Jervis Bay, we were told that the weather conditions were expected to worsen. I could take the ferry over, but there was no guarantee I could get back. There wasn't going to be a bus to Adelaide until that night and it would get cancelled if the ferry didn't run. This sent Karen and me back to Victor Harbor where I rerented the same car I'd had and drove to Adelaide. Karen's directions were perfect and the car rental office was right across the street from my hotel. I was so early that my room wasn't ready yet, so I checked my bags and went for a walk. Adelaide is a pretty city, but not quite as clean as Sydney. One interesting thing is that it's ringed with parks. Karen explained that the military man who was in charge of the original settlement set things up in a grid system for easy deployment of his forces. Then he shot off cannons from the outside edge and left open space between the cannons and where the cannon balls fell. That way nobody could fire into the city. Apparently, there was a fear the Russians would attack. In any case, the city has maintained the parkland and it makes a nice buffer.

Now that I'm settled in at the Hyatt in Adelaide, I hope all will be back to normal. My flight to Brisbane is very early tomorrow and then it's off to Australia Zoo enroute to Hervey Bay where there had better be whales.