South Australia

An early morning flight to Adelaide took me to my first experience driving in Australia. My car was a Hyundai which is much more popular here than in the US. Cars here are US-sized, not the supercompacts of Europe. It works well as the roads are nowhere near as narrow. Getting back to driving on the left was a bit of a challenge off the highways, but not too bad.

From Adelaide, I drove to Finiss, a town barely on the map. Here, without a wrong turn despite going through some very small towns, I found the home of Diane Bell, mother of my friend Genevieve. What a gorgeous place to live! Acres of land just above a river that flows into the Murray. All kinds of plants, including fruit trees. Birds galore, especially in her little walled garden. Saw my first gallahs, cockatoo-type birds with rosy chests. Also saw parakeets.

Diane is wonderful and we hit it off right away. Her home is a small log cabin with a small detached studio where she writes. A new house is about to be built that will give her incredible views. Diane made me my first Aussie barbecue, hamburger and wonderful chicken sausage made by the local butcher. Sides were tabbuleh (sp?), great local multi-grain bread, and a mix of white and sweet potatoes. For dessert there was a cookie made with oatmeal and golden syrup. It was all wonderful.

After lunch, Diane set me off in the direction of Victor Harbor where I arrived just on schedule. The Whaler's Inn is in a great location, on a bluff overlooking Encounter Bay (where English and French explorers encountered each other). The property itself is so-so. The room is a large studio with views of the bay. The bed, however, is soft and saggy. There are stairs everywhere, so many that I decided to put what I needed in my small suitcase and check my large one at the office.

Then the real fun began. Karen of Banksia Adventures picked me up right on time. Rather than joining another group, I was getting a private tour. Our first stop was Urumbirra Wildlife Park, a small, family run park which has native animals and does rescue work as well. Nearly everything is open, except for a few enclosures. The first animals I saw were the free-ranging guinea pigs. Some had been brought in to feed to other animals and they reproduced faster than expected. Every year kids come in and get to take one for about 50 cents.

Several types of macropods and micropods were also roaming free. Macropods (big feet) are kangaroos. Micropods (little feet) are wallabies. Karen and I both had bags of feed pellets and the animals knew it. They'd hop right up to us for a snack, some of them being a bit pushy. All of them liked a rub on the chest which I was all to happy to provide. Several had joeys (babies) and I got a good look inside the pouch of one mama.

The visit with the koalas provided what I expected to be the highlight of the tour. I got to pet one of the cuties. So soft! The fur is almost like wool, but not as course. Karen took a picture of me touching it.

The real highlight was the dingos. I got puppy kisses from some 9 week old sweeties and one of their parents. The whole pack, puppies first, came right up to the fence to see us. The puppies were such fun to watch, romping, playing, exploring. Then a wallaby came into view and the whole pack went off to look at it through the fence. The puppies didn't seem to know what the fuss was about, but the adult male jumped up against the fence and howled.

Another treat was that I saw my lizard. It wasn't labeled as such, but Karen told me when I was looking at a pair of Rosenberg sand monitors. This is the only animal I know of with my name. None of the lizard research folks I found knew the derivation of the name.

For our whole visit, Karen and I had the place to ourselves as it was after hours. Such a special experience! Karen knew all the animals individually and told me the histories of some like the kangaroo some people had tried to keep as a pet.

Next it was off to Granite Island which is connected to the mainland by a long causeway. Karen has a special permit that let her drive right out to the island. The penguin interpretive center is very funny. First, there's a talking penguin that welcomes you. Then there's a room with a touch table and a kid's dress-up area. The costumes took some time to figure out. What looked at first like a reindeer turned out to be the famous local leafy sea dragon, a kind of sea horse. The shark had a pink trim with white triangles that went around the face. Guess they would look like teeth to a kid. After a while, doors opened and we went to see the audio/visual presentation. Although very educational, this was just too funny. Two life-sized penguins stood by eggs. Then a tiny holographic ranger showed up and talked. The best part was when she ran her hand a couple of inches from one of the penguins and a holographic feather fell out.

The main event was the tour to see the penguins. These are little blue penguins, also called fairy penguins. They come ashore at night to their burrows. About a foot tall, they're very cute. The trip from the shore to the burrows is pretty long and a lot of it is vertical. Very tough for a little penguin. The sounds when they get to the burrow are amazing. Whistles, chirps, clicks all very loud. We also saw a ring-tail possum like I had met at Taronga Zoo.

After Karen dropped me back at the Inn, I went down for dinner. After a tough choice between beef filet with bernaise sauce (I'm a sucker for bernaise) and a local lamb dish, I decided on a breast of chicken stuffed with a local brie. Very yummy. Dessert was an incredible chocolate pudding with macadamias. This was the English style pudding, really a steamed cake. So good!

This morning, I've been out trying to spot the right whale people have said hangs out in the harbor. No luck. I went as far as Port Elliot, the next town over, which gave me a chance to get a close look at an aboriginal whale sculpture given by the local people to the town in thanks for a reconciliation. I've returned the rental car and now have a few hours before meeting Diane for a whale watch trip. Other than enjoying this internet cafe, I will poke around town and visit the South Australia Whale Museum.

It may be a couple of times before I blog again. Karen is picking me up early tomorrow to give me a lift to the ferry to Kangaroo Island. She has some places she wants to show me on the way. It will be late by time I get to Adelaide and I fly out early the next day. Then we reach the slow, leisurely part of the trip!