Dawn and Sara's Australian Trip

Took our rental car back to the adelaide airport. Lovely day but cool at 19C. There was a weather system impacting the flights into Sydney.
Landed in Sydney at just after 3 and made our way back to Parramatta . Had dinner at a German Beer Hall and then walked through town. Sara is repacking her belongings for her trip home. It is 31 C here today.

Started our day in teh Barossa Valley . Drove through the country back roads to an old german settlement called Hahndorf. It is a popular tourist spot for many people . Sara and I decided to just drive through and drive on to the Cleland Wildlife part on top of Mount Lofty which is in the adelaide hills and 20 minutes outside of adelaide. There we feed the kangaroos, held and petted a variety of koalas , kookabirras, lorikeets and many other native animals. Took many pictures -couldnt resist the rascals. The native animal compound covers many km which we walked through including the bird cage ( Sara did too) . The holding of Blair the Koala was a highlight of the day. We then drove down to Adelaide to the Rydges Hotel at the south park area. We checked in at 3;30 and then walked all through Victoria Square to Rundle Mall again. We did a little last minute shopping. We walked through china town which is very small compared to other cities. Went to Hogs Breath Restaurant one more time for our chicken dishes (parma) for me and divan for sara. It cooled down significantly from 28C down to 20C in a matter of a couple of hours. The past couple of days had large storm fronts ( some trees came down last night in the animal reserve) which resulted in the drop of temps. Tomorrow we head back to Sydney - Sara is on her way on Thursday and I leave on Friday..

Woke up to see a calm ocean from our balcony. Check out time was 10 sm. From the hotel we headed up North east through Adelaide to the Barossa Valley. We took the same highway for a while that would have taken us up to Darwin through Alice Springs. It took us 1.5 hours from Glenelg to get to the Valley. The scenery is brown hills in the distance, and grape vines everywhere you lookl. There are also olive trees on many of the farms in the valley. We stayed in Tanunda- the Weintal resort. This area has many German roots and many German visitors. This town is home to many well known wineries- Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Jacob's Creek and many smaller ones all along the main road into and out of town. The population of Tanunda is just around 4400 people. We went to our first tasting at Wolf Blass and had the whole visitors center to ourselves. This winery employs 300 people. It was unusually slow there according to the lady providing us with the wine samples. Bought a gold label sparkling wine for mimiosa's tonight. The get many of their grapes from the Adelaide Hills which is not as hot as the Valley. It was 35C today here. I also bought a wine that is only available at the cellar door ( this is what they call the winery stores ) vs the bottle shop where the prices are higher . We then headed in the opposite side of town to Jacobs Creek. The visitor center is at the back of several acres. It is interesting to see the markers along the creek which you have to cross to get to the center. Fortunately it was dry today but can go several meters high . We had an amazing lunch at Jacob's Creek . They pair each menu item with a wine.l It was fanastic food - local king prawns ( shrimp) with a pineapple salsa. For dessert I had a ricotta and chocolate raviloli with blue berries and Sara had deconstructed lemon pie. Is was yummy with their reisling. After our meal , we took a walk through the winery to an animal viewing area- red kangaroos and emus. We then came back into town to pick up a few supplies. There are some quaint antiques and stores in town- which we avoided due to the weight of our bags on our last flight. Back to the hotel for dinner- the special was chicken schnitzel for 9.99 .... so good... tomorrow staying back in adelaide .

Today was a travel day from Kangaroo Island to the main land again. Slept in a little but able to get on the road at 10 am to wonderful sunshine. Drove into Kingscote to have a bit of breakfast to go and grab some gas( fuel). Drove south west down to seal bay area. Went to a Birds of Prey exhibit at the beginning of seal bay road. The tickets were laminated feathers . We had a ring side seat to the bird demonstration area. We saw falcons, kestrals, hawks, owls and an eagle. The white owl actually hopped from each persons lap. Sara managed to do it with flinching too much. Great birds. A sea eagle came over head when a small owl was on display and the owl got very scared and changed into a rigid pose and then flew under cover into a gum tree. Casper the white owl was hiding in a hollow of a tree waiting for the audience to call him out. The two gentleman giving the demonstration did a wonderful job for a cost of $15 each. We then drove to Penneshaw to where we had to catch the ferry. We went to the Penneshaw Hotel and had a wonderful lunch overlooking the azure blue ocean and looking at the main land. The ferry crossing was smooth . There were two trucks with carrying sheep on the ship - phew!!!. We drove up the south highway to Glenelg which is on the coast. OUr hotel room overlooks an amazing beach and the ocean view is breathtaking. At dinner tonight we met a girl from Seattle who has been here since Feb and enjoying herself working in the area. Sara and I then took a stroll along the beach to the jetty to watch the locals catching crab and other fish. This is a busy town and reminds me of mrytle beach. Loved to sit on the balcony with a glass of local white wine watching ths sunset. Tomorrow is wine country - Borassa .

Last night was interesting. We got "bogged"... stuck in the sand on our nocturnal tour last night.. did not make it to the penquins or see much of the wildlife- just a bunch of wallabies ( out number the kangaroos 3 to 1 on the island).
This morning we got up early to go to the other side of the island - Flinders Chase down to see the NZ fur seals and Admirals arch ( took my breath away) . We had to buy a park pass to see the sights but well worth it., We then booted over to the quad adventure tour to take a 4 wheel quad vehicle over the tree roots, rocks , sand and up and down many hills . It came to a beautiful beach and cliff - called Cape Kersaint on the south of the island. We were the only two in the party so Andrew our leader took his time with us and saw some sights that he normally does not take people to. We ended up climbing from one beach over a bunch of rocks to another secluded harbour which is known for the sharks . We did not see any since the water was pretty choppy. On our way back to the previous beach, we saw 3 star fish and a natural bee hive in the caves of cliff that we just climbed down. Awesome. Then we got back to our bikes to head back and encountered a meter long lizard, some kangaroos and lots of dirt and sand. He took us to the grasses but advised us to say close due to the number of sink holes in the area. We held the acceleration full on through the grass which is away from all the stones. It was great. Now both of us are very sore after 3 hours on the bikes ( was supposed to be 2 hours but took a little longer). We then took a drive to seal bay but it was more commercial than the other site and headed back to Kingscote in search of food. Apparently the town closes up around noon. We found one place open called Hot stuff and got salt and pepper squid for Sara. Then we ended up coming back to the hotel to shower off all the dust and get ready for dinner in the hotel ( Wed - Sat are the only days serving dinner) . The Hotel we are staying in appears to date from the 50's and very thin walls but is a convenient location and overlooks the ocean.
Tomorrow we take the 2:30 ferry back to the mainland and then head up the coastal road to Glenlig just outside Adelaide.