Kangaroo Island!

Hello People!

We are back from being away at Kangaroo Island! It was great. Really, it would have been nice to be away for one more week. We wanted to do so much while we were there. It was hard to fit is all in as well as rest. It always takes at least one week to wind down and then another week to relax but unfortunately, we only had 6 days...or a little less. Alan was needed at work because his boss was and is still on holidays. However, I always become extremely restless about this time of the year. Sometimes even a bit down and so I need to get away before I feel too down. So off we went. It always gives me such a buzz to be away with our own little family unit....Alan, Isaac and I! You feel independent and free! And it is just so exciting to be doing things as a family unit. I know that Isaac loves it. It is a time where we don't worry about FA. Even though Isaac doesn't have much understanding, I know he feels relaxed more when we are just together in a special way. It is nice to be home as well though. The cats missed us. Thank you to Chris for looking after things back here while we were gone and to Danielle for helping him out! :-)

We stayed in a house owned by Alan's work.....or something like that. It was real nice and I meant to post the photos but forgot to upload them so I will do that next post. I don't have the best of our photos uploaded here so tomorrow when I can get the rest, I will post again with more exciting photos! These are the basic photos.
So we arrived on Friday night and settled in. Saturday we set out on our adventure, firstly, to a place called, "Seal Bay". We went on a guided tour as well as the free board walk. The board walk took us all the way down to the beach but did not allow us on the beach. You could watch the sealions on the beach and take photos. There were LOTS and LOTS of them. The guided tour enabled us to be on the beach with the sealions and we sat there and watched them for ages and ages. Isaac enjoyed it. After a while he started to play in the sand. The seals were great to watch. The young males were all frisky and running up and down the beach, restling and having fun. So active. There was a baby suckling its mum. I have photos of that too. To be uploaded the next entry. I, personally, found it very relaxing watching their behaviour and listening to them "talk". Hehe. At one point the guide was telling us to get up because we were sitting on the beach and he sounded rather urgent but I could not work out why and then behind me was a seal coming, very close, talking......and they can hurt you if they think you are a threat. That was a little scary but still fun! Hehe. So below you can see the seals.

This the place we went next. It is called the "Little Sahara" like Sahara Desert.....now where is the real one.....Eygpt? Africa? Egypt is in Africa........mental blank. However, i have more photos that show how HIGH these sand dunes are. They are amazing. You can hirer a sand board and go flying down them. I ran down them and slid......hehe. I would be too scared with the board and I didn't want horrible bruises if I hurt myself. Alan and Isaac ran and slid down.....Isaac rolled down them. We were all so puffed climbing up them. Isaac didn't seem to be..but Alan and I.....Hahaahahaha!!!! The dunes don't look high in these photos, but believe me they are.....next entry.....the photos that show how big they are......

Then, off we went to "Kelly Hill Caves". I have more pictures but our camera does NOT do it any justice! The cave was amazing. We went on a guided tour. The tour guide was such a nice man. He explained things in simple terms and so relaxing. Isaac listened so quietly the whole time and seemed amazed by everything. The stalagmites and stalagtites and halagmites (not sure on that one). It was quite steep getting into the cave and Isaac did well. He is a bit nervous in the dark. I was HEAPS nervous coming down the stairs. It was REALLY steep! It was fun though.

AH yes, we are up to Sunday. We were trying to get to church Sunday morning but Saturday night was a rough one for us. Isaac woke croup like and he needed steam in the bathroom. He woke at about 2.30am and was awake for a while. It was cold and he could not stop coughing. The steam helped and he slept with Alan in the lounge with the heater because there were no heaters in the bedrooms. Poor love. The next morning Alan was wiped out because Isaac kept him awake most of the night with his coughing. Needless to say, we didn't make it to a church. However, we set out at about 1pm to go to "Cliffords Honey Farm". On Kangaroo Island there is a special breed of bee. No other part in Australia has this bee. Because this is an Island the bee is isolated there. They are the Liguirian Bee. They are very pure and don't have diseases like the other ones. They are gentle in nature and make the GREATEST honey. They are quaranteened from the rest of Australia. No other bee can be brought across. No honey products from the main land and no unprocessed stuff. There is a $10 000 fine if you do. We tasted the honey and it is lovely. We bought a bottle of it and cream honey and ate honey ice cream which was interesting and nice. They had a glass bee hive there and we were able to watch a lot. They had things on the wall of how to identify different bees of different status. We were able to pick out the queen bee! Boy is she big! We saw her babies that she was tending too. Did you know that the worker bees make new Queens by feeding ordinary babies "royal jelly" that is excreted from their glands just under their body? The other babies are fed the usual pollen and honey but the ones reserved for royalty are given royal jelly. Then the first "Queen" baby to hatch stings the other "queens to be" while they are still in their caccoon until they die so she is the only Queen. Amazing hey! Sounds cruel! That is how a Queen is produced. The other babies which are fed pollen and honey just grow up to be infertile lady worker bees! I thought that was really interesting! So below is Isaac and I pretending to be Bees! He insisted on being the Queen! Haha!

This is the glass bee hive.......very interesting. Did you also know that bees do a dance and jiggle and wag their bodies to tell other bees that there is a new flower available? Well, I didn 't know that and it was fun picking out which bees were doing this dance. Hehe. It is really noticeable.

Nothing better than sitting down and enjoying honey ice cream and biscuits from the honey farm. Alan and I eating a bee biscuit! I enjoyed them!

Isaac LOVED his!

While we were on Kangaroo Island we were able to see the devastation of the December 2007 fires that ripped through a lot of the Island. It was HUGE news here in Australia. We were also able to see the new growth of the trees that have been happening almost a year later and took a photo of the re-growth. Isn't nature amazing? Check out the picture below!

Some devastation of the bush fires! Not the best photo though.....

We had to get back to Kingscote, where we were staying by 6pm. Due to Isaac's episode the night before we had to take him to the hospital there for a check up and any medicine he may have needed. At 5.30pm we came upon the nightly pelican feeding that happens. I have some great shots of things happening while feeding but will need to dowload that next entry. Some of the birds had so much fish that they could not get it down their throats! Ha! That was funny! A local fisherman does this for the tourists! In the photo they were starting to crowd around him pretty close and he was telling us heaps about them!

There was a playground near the hospital that we played at while waiting for the 6pm clinic!

Alan pretending to be a kid!

So we went to the hospital and were there for 4 hours waiting for the doctor. As soon as we arrived an ambulance pulled in and they got priority. This is just a country hospital. There was a child who came in with a dog bite to the face, a broken foot and arm and all sorts of emergencies that kicked us back! It was 10pm and Isaac was so tired and so Alan and I decided to leave and try and treat Isaac at home. If he had another bad episode we would come back in as emergency. He slept well that night though. He developed tonsilitis a couple of days after though and we had to take him to the GP there but at least they were open with it not being a Sunday and all. We made heaps of friends in the waiting room of the hospital though and laughed quite a bit.....hehe

Monday, Isaac insisted on going to the "duck Lagoon" which ended up being lovely! The wildlife noises there were great. I am not sure if they were dugs or geese or frogs or what but it was lovely. There were ducks and swans swimming around. It was beautiful as you can see from the photos. I am sure I have more photos I can post of this as well.

More of the duck lagoon. Very pretty.....

Off we went to a cafe in the middle of no where to experience some nice, fresh seafood for lunch. Marron.........it is a giant yabby or fresh water cray fish. We had a sea food platter for 2. Prawns, marron....heaps of it....salad and fruit and scallops. It was real nice. Isaac had chicken nuggets....hehe .. Below is a picture of a Marron walking outside his tank. The man took it out to show Isaac. Isaac was nervous which is why he was holding my hand :-)

Admiral Arch was the next stop! The South-West side of the Island. Very nice. Unfortunately the photos are a bit dark but the arch is beautiful. New Zealand Fur Seals live here and were lying all over the rocks and very close. It was so peaceful. The sea crashing against the rocks was so relaxing!

Cape ............ it is a french name and I cannot remember it. There was a light house by admiral arch.

It was tall but not one we could climb up!

This is a fur seal sleeping right by where we were walking on the board walk near the arch! So sweet!

Another picture of the arch...a bit dark and doesn't bring it to justice....but it truely is very pretty!

The other side of the arch from above!

Off to "Remarkable Rocks"! They were just that. The wind, rain, salt and people walking about have caused amazing chances in the rocks and the erosion is spectacular! I am not sure of my grammar there but that is ok. They are cool rocks and you can climb right up to them!

Isaac and I standing under one of the rocks!

The spray of the sea!

Alan and Isaac by the rocks. We had to be careful. It was windy and freak waves often occur a little closer to the cliff. Some people have died being washed off the rocks and blown off by the wind. Quite scary!

Alan inside a rock. Amazing hey!

Isaac and I posing! Ha! He was adjusting his pants right at this moment! Ha! Right when the photo was taken!

The coastline!

Tuesday! Kind of North-West of the Island. Cape Borda. This is one of the fully functioning lighthouses and is the tallest clifts of the island. The lighthouse is short and square because the clifts are so high it does not need to be real tall to do its job. The weather is reported here as well and people live on sight. Below was a walking trail we went on which took us to the edge of the clift! It was SO rocky. More rocky than it appears below. You really had to watch your footing.

The Rocky Path!

Cape Borda fully functioning light house and weather station! We climbed it but didn't have to go far! Hehe

Ok, so after that we drove further k's and went to a wild life park. This Kangaroo is in no danger....he just wants our food through the fence and we had none. We thought he was cute and took a photo!
Albino kanga! Or wallaby....rather small....

Very silly.....ozzy as we would say. These two turkeys were trying to impress 2 girls and they were doing their dance and feathers up and about and calling....doing their silly gobble. Isaac thought that was hilarious and so did we! :-)

The Koalas were gorgeous! We all had a go at patting them! I do have more photos of this as well.

Isaac and Alan feeding a kangaroo!

Sweet Kangaroo!

Ha! This is a wild pig! Ha! When you see him up close his teeth are all funny and weird. He was really threatened by Alan. May be because Alan was wearing black and is a male. Alan, Isaac and I all got a fright when this thing suddenly stood up and went to charge and made a grunt! Ha....he did it twice and yet we still got a fright! They are rather agressive and we were worried he would break his fence down!

A wild Tiger Cat. I don't know if it is native to Australia?

I must have included this twice....Alan and Isaac feeding a kangaroo!

Sleeping Koala...isn't it sweet? Don't fall off your branch!

Laughing Kookaburra put on a good show for Alan, Isaac and I! Hehe

Cape Willoughby East of the Island. Yep, we travelled heaps!

Cape Willoughby Lighthouse. It has 150 stairs in it. We wanted to do the tour and climb up but didn't have much time until our ferry left for the main land of Australia so we will have to do that next time.

It was so windy when we left! Apparently the ferry is cancelled when over 50 knots for the wind. This day was forecast at 100 knots! However, may be it died down a bit but not enough for our liking. It was a rough ride home and so we didn't take many pictures. Alan felt a bit ill and I think I mentioned Isaac threw up. I was sleeping a bit to take my mind off it all because I felt quite tired. I wonder what the sheep thought. The boat was rocking back and forth quite badly and people were throwing up over the side and on deck....yucky. The sheep were rocking back and forth in the semi trailer....I wonder if any of them felt sick. Poor things....see pictures below!

The Sheep!

Well I didn't tell you about our penguin night tour. That was good. next entry I will tell you. I will also tell you of our adventure out in the sticks at night looking for a light house......ending up in a paddock type thing...Isaac asleep in the back and Alan and I laughing about our adventure. I will download more pictures too! So you can see some real good ones. Right now it is time for bed and I hope you enjoyed my post. Feel free to leave a comment. I LOVE it when people do. I get such a buzz!

Love Charisse