Final Thoughts

After a week at home, I've finally gotten my pictures posted and my thoughts somewhat organized. Pictures can be viewed at http://www.kodakgallery.com/dolphoto/australia?

Money
Australians use coins for amounts up to $2. The half dollar is huge, larger than our equivalent. The $1 is larger than the $2. Bills have little plastic windows with a different shape for each denomination. Must be a great aid to the blind.

Toilets
The answer is down. Toilets flush so the water just goes down. Filling a sink showed that the water did swirl clockwise. Toilets have two buttons: half flush and full flush. I'll leave it to you to consider. Public toilets are ubiquitous. Each local council provides for some. There was no cuteness in the labels. It was almost always "female" and "male." Most were pretty clean.

Environmental Awareness
The two buttons on the toilet are part part of the environmental awareness that's common in Australia. Parks not only have trash cans and ashtrays, but they also have recycling bins. People take reusable bags with them shopping. Nothing, including empty shells and dead coral, is to be removed from the reef. It is all considered important to the ecosystem.

Smoking
Smoking is nowhere near as open as I'd been led to expect. It's almost as restricted as in the US. Prices are twice what they are here after conversion. Package warnings are more harsh. Anti-smoking ads are more common. Unlike the US, however, smokers are not treated as pariahs. Nobody, at least nobody nonindiginous, is treated that way.

Driving
Driving on the left is easier in Australia than in the UK because the roads are wider. My only real problem was that the lights and wipers were reversed on the steering column. I had the cleanest windshield in Australia. Roads are pretty good except when they're awful. I didn't see any highways like we have here. Most were two lane roads with the occasional passing lane. Speed limits seldom exceed 60 mph (100 kph) and are strictly enforced. The only dirt roads I was on were in South Australia, but that doesn't mean they aren't pretty common. Gas is expensive, about $4 a gallon after conversion. That may look cheap to us soon.

Racism
Racism is unacceptable, but that doesn't mean it is absent. One woman told me that Cairns was dangerous at night because "there are all those aborigines and they're always drunk." Sound familiar? That was the only blatant case I encountered. In South Australia, there were monuments to efforts at reconciliation. In Victor Harbor alone, I saw two such cases. One was a set of three flag poles representing England, France, and the indigenous people. The other was "Kondoli," a mosaic composition centered on a right whale.

Aboriginal Culture
After centuries of repression, aboriginal culture is now glorified. (That doesn't mean the people are.) There are many museums dedicated to aboriginal art. There is no one aboriginal people. Aborigines in different parts of the country are different in language, culture and appearance. Basic spiritual beliefs seem to be pretty common, however. What we call Dreamtime is what the aborigines consider history. The characters are mostly related to animals and each person believes they can trace their ancestry back to one of them. Dancers at Tjupakai introduced themselves as so-and-so of the (kangaroo/platypus/etc.) people. Men and women live largely separate spiritual lives and there were no female performers in the three troups I saw. There were, however, many running the businesses.

Shopping
Shopping was little different than it is here. Prices were about the same on average. Malls and strip malls were common.

The main grocery chain is Woolworths. The general merchandise area is like the ones we had here. Same old crap. The grocery section, downstairs in multistory buildings like in Europe, has everything our stores have. Brands are a mix of US, UK and Australian, with P&G using their British brands.

Whereas in California I've found one store that has sizing that treats my size as small to medium, I found two of these in Adelaide alone. One size really does fit all. Although there were certainly many stylish business people in Sydney, most people I saw were dressed relatively casually.

Wildlife
The wildlife was even more spectacular than I expected. Seeing large mobs of wild kangaroos in South Australia was a great treat. I got to see two Rosenberg Sand Goanas, the only species I know of with my name. Platypus are much smaller than I expected. Koalas are soft and wooly. Reptiles are supposed to be everywhere, but I never saw any in the wild.

The birds deserve special mention. The variety was amazing. Parrots, rosellas, lorikeets, cockatoos flying around. Kookaburras laughing. There was a downside to the bird population. They were incredibly noisy. On Heron Island it was the black noddies. In Cairns, it was the lorikeets (almost forgivable as they're so beautiful). Sleeping late was seldom possible.

People
I can't say enough about the Australian people. They are warm, honest, and funny. Not a day went by without some pleasant interaction. A simple transaction often turned into a 20 minute chat. This wasn't isolated to the tourist trade, either. It included places like the little coffee shop in the main business district. Nearly every day, an Australian probed me about how I was enjoying my trip. Those from Melbourne, escaping to warmer climates, were unhappy I had by-passed their city and made me promise to include it on my next visit.

Australians spend a lot of time seeing their own country, in large part due to the cost of getting anywhere else. The reasons for the explorations go beyond financial issues, however, as evidenced by the many people I met who were on very long treks. There is a lot of pride in their own country that manages to fall short of chauvinism. This pride does not extend to the government. Australians are very good about separating a people from their government. They are also very vocal in their complaints about the current federal government. The states maintain a good deal of autonomy.

Only once did I feel any discrimination from traveling alone. That was at a restaurant where the maitre d' wanted to save his only outside (smoking area) tables for larger parties. As soon as I used the d word, a table was found. Elsewhere, I was just another person. There were many solo Australian travelers.

Lessons Learned
The biggest lesson I learned was that I could very happily live in Australia. The thought of retirement there is very appealing.

On photography, I discovered that I could copy my memory cards to CDs everywhere. That included low-tech Heron Island. It gave me a great sense of security to have that backup. Unfortunately, I did lose some pictures. Those were of the dugongs, not great shots, but the only documentation I had. The underwater casing I got for my little point-and-shoot camera was great. The slow reaction time of the camera was a bit of a problem, but I got many great shots.

My packing was pretty dead-on. I took more dressy clothes and long pants than I needed. This would have been different if I had gone out at night more. Laundry facilities on Heron Island and in Cairns took care of any short-falls. Shipping the warm stuff home from Hervey Bay was expensive, but it gave me enough room for souvenirs and gifts.

The shoes I brought for walking on the reef were absolutely wrong. They let in all the broken coral which made walking painful. They were perfect, however, for every place else I went.

The only time where I did anything I really regret was when I found I couldn't go to Kangaroo Island. Instead of rushing off to Adelaide, I should have checked the whale sightings. If I had, I probably would have seen a right whale.

My blue folder turned out to be very valuable. Not only did it make sure I was where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there, but it helped with other situations. For example, there was a question on the car rental rate in Adelaide. All I had to do was whip out the email and it was immediately resolved.

Three weeks can go amazingly fast.

Last Waltz

Today was my last day in Australia so I got the last of my shopping done and got in some final animal fixes.

The day started at the Rainforest Dome at the Cairns Casino Hotel. Mostly birds, including a couple of very friendly cockatoos. I also got another chance to pet a koala.

After a filling bacon and eggs breakfast and saying bon giorno to the same Italian family I've seen every day since I've been here, it was off to the bus for Palm Cove. This was my one shot at public transport and the experience was a good one. The bus was clean and comfortable and I was let off right at my destination.

The destination in this case was the Cairns Tropical Zoo. When I thought about what I wanted to do on my last day in Australia, the animal stuff really came to the surface. It didn't hurt that it was a lousy day for almost anything else due to wind and occasional light rain. Once at the zoo, I ran into some other people I'd met before. Guess the zoo was the thing to do on a rainy day in Cairns.

The zoo is a fairly small one, focusing on Aussie animals with a couple of exceptions. They've joined a breeding program for red or lesser pandas. I fell in love with these little comedians when I went to China. The animals here are a little different in that they're Himilayan rather than Chinese, meaning that they're a bit bigger. The other foreigner was an American alligator. Every animal place seems to have at least one, probably for comparison to the crocs. There were a couple of nice aviaries, some cooperative cassowaries, a couple of disinterested dingos, and some kangaroos and wallabies that were so well fed that they didn't want any of the food I had bought. Of course there were koalas. I chose to go to the zoo because they let you hold one for your picture. Compared to what I got at Kuranda, this was a great deal. The price was cheaper, included getting the pictures on CD, and they offered to take some shots with my camera as well. There was no rushing because there weren't any crowds. It was such a pleasure that I went back for the next session and got some video that time.

There were other photos taken as well. I finally got to get up close and personal with a wombat, in this case a southern hairy-nosed wombat named Piggy. She was surprisingly soft, even after getting a bit wet in the rain. I also had a picture taken with a tiny croc. You can imagine my mixed feelings about the fact that his mouth was taped shut. I just hope he got untaped soon after I left.

From the zoo, it was a short walk to a good opal store where I also found the sapphire earrings I'd been looking for. Being completely parched, I was very grateful for the complimentary iced tea they provided. Then it was across the street to the bus stop where the bus and I arrived at the same time. Now I'm back in Cairns for some final Australian retail therapy, a good meal and packing.

It's going to be very hard to leave. I certainly want to return to some of the places I've been and visit others I couldn't include in this trip. In all my travels, I've never been anywhere outside the US west coast that I felt I could live so happily. More than the language (which is somewhat close to English), more than the animals, more than the scenery, it's the people that make this place so special. Speaking to Australians on their own vacations, I've found they take great pride in their country and really want visitors to enjoy it. Other than they guy in Sydney who was selling ivory, everyone has been beyond pleasant. I've never experienced such thoughtfulness and willingness to do whatever it takes to make a visitor happy. From the guides and marine mammal staff at Taronga Zoo to Diane Bell and Karen Karochke in Victor Harbor to the crew of Whalesong in Hervey Bay to the entire staff on Heron Island to meter maid who gave me directions in Cairns, I've been overwhelmed with warmth and kindness. The meter maid case is a perfect example. Her job is called "public liaison officer" and she said it's really meant to educate people and try to keep visitors from getting tickets. What a difference from the quota attitude in the US.

Home to the girls and PhotoShop tomorrow. Will let you know when and where pictures are available. Advance Australia Fair!

Two For the Price of One

Tonight's posting will cover the last two days. They were full, exciting days.

Yesterday was my aboriginal culture day. The daytime was spent at Kuranda, a small community in the rainforest. An old train takes you up, stopping at a pretty waterfall on the way. The village is full of tourist trap stores. It does have a cool butterfly sanctuary where I got some good shots. That and some macadamia nut ice cream cone were the highlights of that part of the tour. From the village, a bus took us to Rainforest Station where we spent most of our time. It started with a good buffet lunch with a very special dessert. I got to hold a koala! I had to pay to have my picture taken to do it, but it was well worth the cost. Such a sweetie!

After lunch, we were taken on an amphibious tour into the rainforest. The highlight was seeing a rat kangaroo (not to be confused with a kangaroo rat). Most of the time was spent learning about the flora rather than the fauna.

Next, we finally got to the aboriginal stuff. There was a dance performance that was truly impressive. The culture has a lot to do with connection to the planet and its animals and the dances reflect that. My favorite dance, which I've now seen twice, is about kangaroos. After the show, we were taken by an aboriginal guide for digeridoo and spear throwing demonstrations and boomerang lessons. I passed on participating in the last.

The tour ended with a walk through an animal park. Not very exciting after my other experiences. Touching a wallabie? Been there, done that. The return trip was via Skyrail, an arial cable system that takes you up above the rain forest. The highlight of that for me was seeing cockatoos.

After a quick change of clothes, I was off on the second tour of the day: Tjapukai. This is a great operation, owned and managed by aboriginal people. First there was a sound and light show on dreamtime. Then we were led outside for a fire lighting ceremony in which we all participated by using rhythm sticks and dancing. After a buffet with an amazing array of choices, there was a dance program (hence my second kangaroo dance). The whole program was very well done.

Today was my second trip to the reef. This was a more traditional reef trip where a boat takes you to a permanent platform. The conditions were pretty rough and lots of people were sick. The snorkeling was tough because of the chop, but there were some very cool fish. Several of the species I wanted to see were checked off the list. A short glass-bottom boat tour showed me that what I had thought were giant clams were mere shrimps. The clams out there were about three feet across! I hooked up with a lovely older couple from Perth. The husband was originally from Liverpool and, yes, he knew the Fab Four before they were Fab. His insights were really interesting and he promised to send me something I'll post about if it actually arrives.

I'll miss the reef, but I won't miss the wetsuits. I did finally find ones my size, but they're still a pain.

Dinner tonight was an amazing seafood feast at a place recommended by a guy from my hotel. Lobster, crab. yabbies, Moreton Bay bugs, prawns, and mussels accompanied with nicely done veggies. The meal, which cost under $50 included lobster bisque, ice cream, and coffee. The last came with the best biscotti I've ever had.

One more day here. Can't believe how fast the time has gone. Tomorrow will be a low key day to finish shopping and try for one more koala cuddle.

A Killer Day

This was a great day. An early start got me on my bus to Port Douglas to go out on Wavelength, a boat that one of the travel guides recommended highly for snorkelers. It's a great boat, very comfortable, taking only 30 snorkelers and no divers. One of the naturalists is a whale person.  The captain and I had actually sailed together before because he's friends with some of the folks I used to work with in Santa Cruz.
The first dive spot was my personal favorite in that it had a huge variety of fish, including many I wanted to see. The clarity was amazing and the temperature good in the well-fitting wetsuit they provided. I got some really good pics. The end of that stop was amazing. Unfortunately, I was the only one to see it and I didn't get a picture, but a large (non-dangerous) white-tip reef shark swam right under me.
It was at the second spot that I met the gentleman pictured (not one of my own shots). Killer is a humpbacked Maori wrasse. He came right up to the boat as soon as we got there looking for the squid they feed him. He's much more beautiful than this picture suggests. He's also very friendly and I got to give him a pat. After spending a good while with Killer, there was a guided snorkel tour on which I saw a blue spotted reef ray. Next there was a hearty lunch with huge prawns (shrimp) and cold cuts.
At the last stop, I found Nemo. I also found soft corals like I've never seen before and some huge giant clams that made the ones at Heron Island look puny. The final treat was seeing a red-lined trigger fish. Just beautiful.
Back in Cairns now and well fed. Dinner was souvlaki at a popular Greek restaurant. Excellent. Now it's time to go across the street to the gelato shop for dessert and then back to the hotel. Tomorrow will be an even longer day and I probably won't blog. It's aboriginal culture day and night.

Paradise Lost

I leave today for Cairns. While I'm excited about getting to that part of the reef and warmer water, it's hard to leave this place. It's somewhere between a summer camp and a Rock Resort and the people are incredible, both staff and guests.

Yesterday, I did two snorkels. The morning snorkel was from the beach and was the best I've had yet. The depth was just right, the fish were plentiful and varied and the clarity was great. I even got some good pics. The afternoon was from the boat. It was an incredibly low tide which made the clarity less than optimal. The highlights were seeing dolphins on the way out and some huge angel fish. I thought I heard some whistles and clicks, but convinced myself that I was imagining things. When I got back on the boat, they said the dolphins had been really near me. If only...

Right after the afternoon trip I had a massage. It was the most relaxing massage I've ever had. Not terribly therapeutic physically, but left my mind completely blank.

Dinner was an incredible feast. They called it a seafood buffet, but it was much more than that. On the seafood side, there were coral trout, salmon, crab, yabbies (crayfish), Moreton Bay bugs (somewhere between a crayfish and a slipper lobster), shrimp, and octopus. Then there were pork, lamb, and beef roasts with sides of potatoes, noodles, and veggies. Next, it was the fruit and cheese table. Australian cheeses are very good. I haven't had one yet I didn't like. Finally, there were several dessert options including Pavlova and chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup. By the time I left, I was waddling.

All that's left to do before I leave is check out. Laundry got done last night and I'm all set for my days in Cairns.

Catching Up

Sorry the blog has been so sparse lately. As I said, there is only one machine for Internet access here and it is usually in use and has a line of people waiting.

Here is Heron Island, one of the Capricorn Islands. It's about 30 miles off shore and contains a resort, a research station, and a national park. The resort is an interesting mix of rustic comfort, summer camp atmosphere, and incredible service. My room looks out over the reef and the sounds of the waves and the nobby terns are the only ones I hear. The guests run the gamut from singles to newlyweds to young families to older couples. They come from pretty much all over the world. Food is of mixed quality. Breakfast is lousy. Lunch is pretty good. Both are done buffet style. Dinner is good and dessert better. The chef has a way with chocolate. The first night there was a rich chocolate creme brulee and yesterday's lunch had a chocolate mousse worthy of Julia Child.

Accommodations are in small buildings. The lowest level rooms are in small one story buildings with two units per building. These are about 200 yards from the beach. My room is on the second floor of a two story building. It's fairly comfortable, but far from luxurious. The only TV on the island is in the bar. The bar does some really good alcohol-free drinks. Yesterday I had a mintlip: crushed mint, lime juice, gingerale, and soda water. Probably the most refreshing drink I've ever had.

The main attraction of the island is the reef. On Thursday, I went on a snorkel trip. Mask trouble made it less than spectacular. I did see many kinds of fish I'd never seen before. Yesterday morning, I took the semi-submersible and it was great. We saw a turtle, a couple of manta rays and uncountable eagle rays. Tons of fish and coral as well. In the afternoon, I went on the very informative reef walk.

My new obsession is clams. The ones here are nothing like the ones in the US. These look more like giant scallops. Each one is different and the range of colors is amazing. I've been taking tons of photos of them so someday you'll see what I mean.

A couple of side notes. The drive up from Hervey Bay was a long non-scenic trip. The bright spot was a general store that had a very sweet Siamese kitten. Last night, I had a chat with an Aussie couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. We came to the inevitable topic of toilets. Yes, they do twirl clockwise here. These folks had been to the US and said that the first few days they were there, they thought the toilets were all broken. When Australian toilets have that much water in them, it means there's a problem. These folks didn't know what to do. Should they stand on the seat? Should they call housekeeping?

Last night's star gazing was cut a bit short by the brightness of the full moon making it impossible to see most of the constellations. We did see Scorpio, Libra, Chiron, and, of course, the southern cross. The woman who did the talk was very knowlegeable and lots of fun. The highlight was seeing a star that seemed to go by forever. It was almost like a comet dragging a long tail.

Today, I'll go for a beach snorkel and an afternoon boat snorkel. The water's cold enough that I'll be wearing a wetsuit. Rather uncomfortable and very unflattering, but the only way to stay in for any length of time.

Tomorrow will be taken up with moving on to Cairns. I'll try to write the day after when I get back from my trip out to the outer northern reef.

Hanging on Heron

Just a quick note to let you all know I'm alive. There's just one Internet access point on Heron Island and it's is very popular.

Having a great time. Did my first snorkel yesterday. Took semi-submersible today and saw some huge manta rays. Finished morning with a wonderful spa treatment. Off now for a reef walk. Will try to post more later.

Thar They Blow

It's been a fun couple of days in Hervey Bay. Lack of blog yesterday due solely to problems with Internet access. Tonight, someone finally knew where to find an Internet cafe. Took me to a part of town I didn't know existed that's filled with restaurants. Will try one as soon as this is finished. Please excuse spelling errors tonight. For some reason, the spell check option isn't available tonight.

Yesterday morning, I walked over to the Whalesong to take my first whale watch here. The people were just lovely. The whales were plentiful and a couple came right up to the boat. These are humpbacks that are like those of New England and California. The main difference is that the southern hemisphere humpbacks have much more white on their underside. Many have flukes that are nearly all white. Photo identification must be tough here. I'll find out when I send some of my photos to the researchers. I saw my first humpback spy hop and got a decent photo.

The trip also gave me a chance to see some of Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. Given that it's sand, I was surprised at how much vegetation there was. Most of the island seems to be forested. Fraser is one of the few places where there are still pure-bred dingos. In most other places, they've interbred with domestic dogs.

In the avro (afternoon), I went on a flight to see dugongs. No great pictures, but fantastic memories. There were tons of them, including at least one mother-calf pair. We also saw dolphins, a ray, and one very small shark.

Dinner was fantastic. The restaurant seemed a bit snooty at first, but when the waiter sat down next to me, I knew everything would be OK. The seafood medley included a couple of things I really wanted to try. The local scallops are fairly small, but very tasty. The real treat was having a Moreton Bay bug. This is a pretty famous crustacean similar to a crayfish. Very yummy. There was also some coral trout which was very good along with pranks and calimari. What I don't understand is why they served fries with the dish since there were potatoes in it. Dessert was a pavlova, a well known Aussie specialty. It's usually a baked meringue with a fruit filling. This one was different in that it was very soft and was a roulade rather than a mound. The berry filling was very good.

Walking back to the hotel, I met Tiger the chihuahua. A very good doggie who gave very nice nose kisses. When I went over to the wharf this morning, there were Tiger and his mommy again. We had a nice chat and I got more kisses. Tiger clearly remembered me and tried to climb into my arms. Even the Australian dogs are friendly.

Back on Whalesong this morning with very different conditions. The wind picked up overnight and what had been totally flat seas were very choppy. Unlike the day before when the boat was very crowded, it was only about half full. About half of that half was people from the Netherlands and I actually used a bit of Dutch.

The rest of the boat was Australians. One of the things I've noticed here is that the people spend a lot of time traveling within their own country. Campers (caravans here) are very popular and people take extended vacations to explore different areas. One person I talked to was covering about half the country in one trip.

I continue to be amazed by how friendly and open the people here are. For example, the photo shop has someone taking pictures of people as they board the boats. Yesterday, I waved the person off. This morning, I decided to have the picture taken since I was wearing my Red Sox World Series shirt. When I got on the boat for the afternoon, it was the same photographer and she really wanted to take my picture so nobody else would back out. When the boat docked, she gave me that picture as a gift.

The morning trip was OK, but not spectacular. With all the chop, the crew and I hoped for a lot of surface activity. We didn't get it. There were plenty of whales, though.

The afternoon boat was the Spirit of Hervey Bay. It's a bit bigger than Whalesong, definitely faster, and has underwater viewing areas. The crew was as nice as any I've met, but the naturalist had some bad information.

This was a spectacular trip. The surface activity we missed in the morning was in abundance in the afternoon. The first whale we saw was breaching. Then we had pectoral fin slapping, tail lobbing, rolling, and close approaches. There was a spy hop, but that was when I foolishly went below hoping for an underwater view. There was one aggregation of at least five whales that was clearly competitive. Although I got some great shots, there were many I missed because I was so busy enjoying the view.

Now, it's off to dinner. My departure tomorrow will be very early in order to get to Gladstone in time for my boat to Heron Island. I can't believe how little of the trip is left. It's just blown by.

Crikey!

The day did not start out all that well. After leaving for the airport at 5 am, I picked up a paper that said there were whales seen in Victor Harbor yesterday. If only I hadn't left for Adelaide so early!

Once I got to Brisbane, all was better. I got directions to Steve (Crikey) Irwin's Australia Zoo that were perfect and arrived in time to take in the free-flight bird show and the tiger show. Leaving before the crocs came on stage, I wandered the zoo until it was time for my tour of the koala hospital. More kangaroos and wallabies, including a couple of white ones. One wallaby really took to me even though I didn't have any food for it. The dingos there were nowhere near as much fun as the ones in Urumbirra. No puppies. I did see my first cassowary. Several years ago, I had a strange dream that someone gave me one as a gift and it attacked me. Seeing the size of it's feet, I'm glad it was just a dream. In one of the many koala exhibits, I struck what I thought was gold with a couple of baby koalas clinging to their mothers.

Little did I know what true gold is. For the koala hospital tour, I was the only guest and I suspect I got to see some things not usually on the tour. There was a sweet koala who had lost a leg and couldn't be released that I got to pet. Then there were two babies smaller than any I had ever seen. Heart-breakingly cute! One was just poking his head out of the pouch.

From the zoo in Beerwah, it was a 3+ hour drive to Hervey Bay where signs led me straight to my hotel. The room looks out over the marina and the boat I'm going out on in the morning. There will be whales!

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.