Preparation for Tasmania ... Hats

K and Shari bought hats in preparation for our trip to Tasmania. We leave in a few hours.

Granite Island & the Little Penguins

Ae stopped at Victor Harbor on our way back to Adelaide from Kangaroo Island. We had one mission .... to see the Little Penguins (a.k.a. Fairy Penguins) at Granite Island!

The Little Penguins are the smallest penguins. They come ashore at dusk every day to feed their chicks and sleep in their burrows. Light (including camera flash) temporarily blinds them. So, I stole the following photos from somebody else's website .

As one can imagine, we were overjoyed by the chance to observe the Little Penguins!

Kangaroo Island ... Day 5

Leaving Day. We packed up and did a bit of hiking at Lathami Conservation Park (which butted up against the land where our cabin was). On our way out, we did see three yellow tailed black cockatoos - which was very exciting!

Kangaroo Island ... Day 4

This was the odd morning - instead of touring nature, we toured local businesses, including the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery and Clifford's Honey Farm. We tried to visit Paul's Place Wildlife Park ... but it was only open from noon - 2:oo PM. We also tried to visit Island Pure Sheep Dairy ... but it was open from 1 PM - 4 PM. We also tried to visit Jumbuck Shearing ... but they were closed due to the big shearing competition. One thing we have learned about Australians is that they are not all about profit.

We spent the rest of the day bird watching at Murray Lagoon (see the black swans below)


and hanging out on the rocks at Stokes Bay (near our cabin).

Kangaroo Island ... Day 3

We spent the morning at seal bay, where we watched Australian sea lions for hours. It was amazing.


Then, it was on to Kelly Hill Conservation Park where we toured a cave (the view from above ground in Kangaroo Island is much better than the one from below ground).


We spent the early afternoon at Vivonne Bay - this is notable because a professor at Sydney University evaluated 10,000 beaches across Australia, rating them on things like clarity of water, privacy and cleanliness. Vivonne Bay came out on top. The locals are quick to point out that Vivonne Bay is the best beach in Australia.


We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Little Sahara Geologic Monument. It reminded me of the time that my aunt Debbie and I took my cousin Kendra to the Oregon Sand Dunes ... she started running down one of the dunes, lost her balance and went end over end until she came to a sudden stop at the bottom. Amazing she is still with us. As a result, K and I were quite careful at the Little Sahara sand dune system. You can't tell by the photo, but it was really windy on top of the dunes.