South Australia
October
15 - November 1
Written by KarenAdelaide
There's not much to say about Adelaide, mainly because we only stayed there two days due to Pete's new hatred of driving in strange big cities. As you know it is difficult to drive in an unfamiliar city. In addition, Pete has to deal with driving on the left side of the road, having the driver's seat on the right hand side of the van, having the stick shift on the steering column and shifting with his left hand. Pete has gotten comfortable to all these things, but he seemed to begin to fall apart as soon we entered the "big city". I have offered to drive numerous times when we approach cities but Pete always declines my offer.We arrived in Adelaide at 10AM so we didn't have to worry about rush hour. We couldn't find street parking so Pete pulled into a multistory parking lot. There was an overhead sign warning about height clearance. As we drove under it, we could hear it scraping on the van roof. So Pete put it in reverse and we backed out of the lot. Finally we located some street parking that was angled so Pete (already stressed) didn't have to wrestle the van which doesn't have powered steering into a spot.
We visited the Migration Museum. As the name implies, it was all about the immigrants and how they got to Oz and the hardships they endured. Getting to Oz from England by boat was a 3 month ordeal. The ship would head directly south until it reached the "roaring 40s" when it would turn east. They would then sail until they thought they were underneath Oz (using celestial navigation) and then turn northward. The museum also pointed out how difficult it was for anyone who was not of Anglo-Saxon decent to immigrate to Oz. For example, if you were Greek, the officials would give you a test in Chinese. Of course you would fail so they could deny your immigration based on the fact that you couldn't pass the test. Unbelievable.
For our first night we stayed in Adelaide but the next morning, after rush hour of course, we left the city. Pete really didn't want to be in a big city. I hope he can adjust when we return to the DC area. Right now I'd say he would only be comfortable in a place about the size of Deale, Maryland (a one street town for those of you unfamiliar with the place).
Barossa Valley
Since Pete was so stressed about the big city, I figured some free glasses of wine would be just what he needed so we drove to the Barossa Valley about 1 hour north east of Adelaide. The Barossa is the largest single wine processing region in Oz. Over 500 grape growers, some now sixth generation, supply about 60,000 tons of grapes to some 50 wineries each vintage year. Pete was thinking, "So many vineyards, so little time."The valley was settled by German immigrants in the 1840s and they immediately planted grapes. One of the many wines we tasted was from vines that are over 150 years old. It's amazing but the plants are still producing.
At one of the vineyards, there was a road rally. There were about
50 cars - old Alpha Romeos, Mustangs, minis, and Datsun Z28s to name a few.
Each car has a driver and navigator who wear matching uniforms (many teams were
husband and wife). They must also have roll bars in the cars. All the cars are
decked out with their sponsors' names. The rally was scheduled to last 4 days
and this was day 2. The cars raced to this winery and had lunch. Now they were
getting ready for another leg this afternoon. A small section of the road is
closed to normal traffic and each car completes the course as fast as possible.
After four days the times for each car to complete each leg is tallied and the
fastest time wins. Luckily the rally didn't affect our plans to visit 5
wineries in one day.We haven't been to a US winery in 10 years so we can't compare Oz winery tours to US tours. We can just say that the wineries are extremely generous. Every one we visited had at least 10 wines available for tasting and the employees expected you to start at the top (sparkling wines) and continue to the bottom (dessert wines and ports). Neither one of us tasted every wine at every place but we did go back for seconds sometimes. One of the most interesting wines we tasted was a sparkling Shiraz. It's a sparkling red wine which is perfect for us because I prefer sparkling wines and Pete prefers reds. We've never heard of it before but every winery had one and we were assured that it is very popular with Aussies for the holidays. We had a wonderful time (at least what we remember) driving through the countryside sampling wines. The valley is very picturesque. We spent the night in the valley at a caravan park.
Kangaroo Island
This is one of my favorite places in Oz so far. The island is only 10 miles off the coast of Cape Jervis which is a two hour drive south of Adelaide. The ferry can hold 60 cars and 350 passengers and takes 45 minutes to cross to the island.
The
island is 93 miles long by 33 miles wide. The island is still very
underdeveloped. More than half the island has never been cleared of vegetation,
with about one third conserved in national parks. Only the three main roads are
paved, all the rest are dirt.Captain Matthew Flinders, a Brit, made the first recorded European sighting of the island in March 1802. He came ashore on the north coast, and named it Kangaroo Island due to the plentiful kangaroos that were available for his to crew to slaughter. On the afternoon of April 8, 1802, as the Investigator tacked towards the mainland, a sail appeared on the horizon. It was the French corvette, the Geographe, under the command of Nicolas Baudin. Despite Britain and France being at war, both parties soon realised that neither had hostile intentions. Information was exchanged about their explorations, with Flinders advising Baudin of the large island nearby with the opportunity to replenish supplies with fresh roo meat and water. Baudin returned to the island in the summer of 1802-03, mapping much of the rugged south and west coastlines. In those days who ever mapped an area of the world got to name everything they mapped. This explains why the south and west areas of the island have French names and the north and east have English names.
The island was sparsely populated until after World War II when the government gave ex-soldiers land to farm on the island. 174 soldiers and their families settled on the island. The population increased from 1,113 in 1947 to 2,167 in 1954. As of 1996, the population was 4,219. The island didn't get electricity until 1965 when an underwater cable was laid. Prior to that the people used diesel generators for power.
There are 4 lighthouses on the island and we visited 3 of them. Cape Willoughby, the oldest lighthouse in South Australia was completed in 1852. The park ranger took us on a tour around the grounds and to the top of the lighthouse where we had a fabulous view of the Southern Ocean. Right near the lighthouse is Windmill Bay where the beach is covered with almost perfectly round rocks the size of large TVs. A look at the roaring surf as it crashed over the rocks explains it. Pete went out on the rocks to touch the Southern Ocean for the first time while I took his picture. To get a good picture I waited for a big wave. Oh no, I think I had him wait too long - a huge wave crashed near him and the foam quickly rushed towards him. I've never seen Pete move so fast hopping from rock to rock. I thought he escaped but when he reached me he showed me his backside which was soaking wet from the waist down.
Seal Bay is where an Australian sea lion colony lives. The colony survived when all the other island colonies were killed by whalers and sealers in the early 1800s because the bay is protected by a reef. Park rangers take groups of visitors down onto the beach so people can see the animals up close. We actually did the tour twice because it was so neat to walk the beach with the sea lions.
The males can weigh up to 800 lbs; while the females weigh 250 lbs. The females are pregnant for 18 months, then they immediately get pregnant again. They will nurse the pup for 18 months until the new pup is born. We were there during breeding season so there was a lot of activity on the beach. All the males fight for domination. It is quite impressive to see two huge sea lions head butting each other and they can move extremely quick on land as well as in the ocean. All the males have scars on their heads and fronts from this fighting. We also saw a few pups under two months old so they had not even been in the water yet.
The sea lions typically go out to sea for three days to hunt and feed. Then they return to this beach for three days of rest.
We saw the
Kangaroo Island kangaroo which is smaller, darker and has longer fur than the
mainland species. In the Visitors Center parking lot at Flinders Chase National
Park, we saw two kangaroos. One of them had a joey in its pouch. This was the
first time we had seen a joey. The roos were so tame we were able to pet them
(but not the joey, which hid in the pouch with his little feet sticking
out.)Tammar wallabies (look like little roo) are abundant on the island. At one of the caravan parks, we spotted dozens of them on a short walk around the campgrounds. As we were walking towards the trees, we wondered out loud if we would see any koalas in the tree. The caravan park owners said there were plenty in the trees all around us. As we looked closer we realized that in fact the koalas were everywhere above us.
The
first tree we stopped at, there was a koala about 10 feet off the ground. He
just sat there eating away. We sat down on the ground and watched him for about
30 minutes. After he cleaned all the leaves off the branch he was sitting on,
he moved onto another branch and began the process again. At the end of our
walk, we had spotted about a dozen koalas and one had a baby clinging to it.
Very magical moments.The echidna is an unusual egg-laying mammal that eats ants and termites and looks like a small porcupine. We had not seen any on the mainland but we spotted three on the island. Each time we spotted one, it was on a dirt road and the echidna was crossing it. When I jumped out to take a picture of it, the echidna stopped and hunkered down. It reminded me of an armadillo. I stayed still for a few seconds and then it would pop back up and start moving again. I got a good shot of him.
About 9000 New Zealand fur seals live and breed around Cape du Couedic on the southwest tip of the island. There is also a lighthouse there that is not open to the public. However when we arrived, there were two workmen sitting on the steps of the lighthouse having a coffee/tea break. We asked them if they would show us the lighthouse and they did. As we were leaving the lighthouse four tourists were walking towards it. The workman said to us, "OK you are the consultants who came to make sure we were doing a good job. Otherwise we'll end up giving tours all day." Then he quickly ushered us out the door and slammed it shut. We walked down to the point and viewed the seals from balconies along the cliff edges. They were having a great time surfing in the waves and swimming in the pools.
Down the beach from Cape du Couedic, is Remarkable Rocks, a
cluster of huge, weather-sculptured granite boulders perched on a granite dome
that swoops 75 meters to the sea. The rock sculptures were created in the same
fashion as Devil's Marbles. It looks like someone commissioned a sculptor to
create a modern design and place it at this point.We also visited Kelly Hill Caves where a park ranger gave us a guided tour of the largest cave. One of the interesting things about this cave is that it is dry, not wet and damp like most caves. There were dozens of stalactites, stalagmites and helictites. Helictites are pure calcite formations that grow in random directions.
The
caves were large sand dunes and over time they were compressed into solids then
there were earthquakes so the caves appeared. Over time there have been more
movements and the ground has fallen away more and created more
caverns.The night before we left the island we stayed in Penneshaw where the ferry departs. A fairy penguin colony resides here. The penguins just about live at sea. They spend months at a time out there. During mating or moulting times many of these cute little creatures at twilight waddle out of the sea across the beach to the protected sand dunes and their burrows. A boardwalk has been built right through the burrow area and people just stand there and watch the penguins. We saw about two dozen. They weigh 2-2.5 lbs. and are about 1 foot tall. They are the smallest penguins in the world, but make a very loud noise that can only be described as a sick crow squawking.
The Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road was built between 1919 and 1932 with the idea of constructing a scenic road of world repute, equalling California's Pacific Coast Highway- and it certainly lives up to its reputation. The road hugs the coast for about 300 miles and includes cliffs, ocean vistas, beaches, rain forests and some incredible rock formations.
One 65 mile section of the road is called The Shipwreck Coast
because 163 ships sank along it. Our first stop was Loch Ard Gorge. The Loch
Ard, an iron-hulled square rigger was transporting immigrants from England
to Melbourne in June 1878 when it hit a reef and sank Of 53 people on board,
two survived. They were swept into a long gorge that had a narrow entrance,
high walls and a small beach. There is a walkway going down to the beach so we
saw where the two landed. Unbelievable surge and crashing waves in the gorge. A
cemetery where the ship's passengers and crew are buried is on the clifftops
overlooking the gorge.We also saw the Twelve Apostles - gigantic limestone pillars; some 65 meters tall. The coastline erodes at 2cm a year. All the pillars were originally part of the cliffs. Over time the erosion forms caves then arches. The arches collapse because they are no longer strong enough to support their own weight and pillars are left then they slowly get eroded and nothing is left. The coastline is just incredibly dramatic. We used a whole roll of film just on The Shipwreck Coast.
The Damn Van Part III
About halfway along The Great Ocean Road, the road turns inland and goes through Otway National Park, a rainforest. The terrain here is very steep and the road is full of twists and turns. It was at this time that the van, which had been running beautifully since passing inspection in Alice Springs, began to act up. Pete had the gas pedal floored but the engine won't take any fuel. It started backfiring. We were puttering along at about 10 mph. This seems to be the same problem we had back as we approached Alice Springs. We pulled off the road, turned off the engine and had lunch. It was lunch time, we were hungry and we thought resting the engine might make a difference (the Dario approach to modern mechanics). After lunch the engine started fine and we went about 2 miles without problems then again it won't take fuel. A truck pulled alongside of us, the driver said he owned one of these vans years ago and offered to help. He looked at the engine and adjusted the points. He said we needed new points and we might also need a new fuel filter. We had to drive 12 miles to the next town and go to a mechanic. During that time the engine got worse and was cutting off while we were coasting downhill. This allowed the sediment in the fuel filter to settle down and give us a few more minutes of good unobstructed fuel. Finally we coasted into town. There was one garage located along the outskirts of town. We arrived there at 1PM on a Saturday. The garage door was locked up tight and the side door was closed. It looked like we were out of luck and would have to wait until Monday but Pete knocked on the door anyway. An old guy with a long beard appeared with a frown on his face. He said it was his day off but reluctantly he decided he would look at it to see if it was the fuel filter causing our problems. It took him 5 minutes to remove the old fuel filter and put on a new one. It cost us $15 dollars. Lucky us. We drove for 2 more hours to Melbourne with no problems whatsoever. Yeah! Pete asked the mechanic if he had done work on backpacker vans before. For the first time in our short meeting with him he smiled and pointed to a van over in a vehicle graveyard with high grass growing over it. He said a young English couple bought it in Melbourne for $A2000. They put $A1500 into it to get it to pass inspection and drove it here. They were having more troubles. He told them it would be another $A1000 to fix the engine. They just left the van and walked away. They couldn't afford it. We keep telling ourselves things could be worse. Hopefully, our van will make it to Sydney. Stay tuned while we hold our breath.Melbourne
For 5 days we stayed in Melbourne with Stewart (Stu) and Diana, friends that we made on the Bundaberg dive boat, and their two youngest children, Susie (21) and Ben (19).
Susie
is currently in her 4th year of university and took exams while we were there.
She only has one year left and she'll have a combination Arts and Law degree.
Ben works at a local department store and is studying to be a professional
singer. Stu and Diana own their own home renovation company. They all treated
us like family and we were very disappointed when we could only stay for five
days. They have two other daughters that are currently living in a flat
(apartment) together in Sydney.During our stay in Melbourne we did not have to drive. Either Stu drove or we took public transportation. This was probably good for "pete's sake". It was a real treat to live under a "real" roof and have unlimited running hot water, good climate control, great homemade meals from a real refrigerator, use of free washer and dryer, and unlimited free TV and internet. One day Stu and Diana took us on a drive down on the peninsula for a picnic. Let me expand on the "good cooking" part. Diana and Susie are two of the best cooks (besides our mothers of course) and we were treated to wonderful meals around the clock. They thought nothing of whipping up a homemade chicken pate just before a stir fry with rice noodles. Food was bountiful! Our visit with them was fun, filling, and very relaxing. We had a wonderful time!
The weather during our five days in Melbourne and in fact the weather ever since we left the outback became quite cold. There were times that our thin blooded South Pacific bodies had to dawn long underwear to be comfortable in temps only reaching the high 50sF. You might remember Joan, the Spaniard from Tilikum Triton, he had a policy that we began to seriously consider adopting while we were enduring these cold days. His policy was to never wander (if he could help it) beyond 20 degrees north or south of the equator. Joan is a wise and "warm" man.
Near Future Plans
We plan to head for another wine country area while on our way to Canberra, the capital of Oz. Then we'll see some more beautiful mountain ranges while heading to Jarvis Bay and our last stop - Sydney. After selling the van we plan to fly to Auckland, New Zealand on Nov 24. Stay tuned.