Indian Pacific to KI & Adelaide

I've been in numerous taxis, on a train, on numerous bus rides, on a ferry and driven all in the last 3 days... phew... it was worth it though - I've seen so many great things!

I started my journey from Sydney to Kangaroo Island on the Indian Pacific railways. I purposefully took the train so I'd see the country and boy did I. The trip started out through the beautiful Blue Mountains and then wound down into verdant green hills, broken up with farmhouses, sheep & cows... I sat and talked with a Dutch couple (who are going around the world looking for shipwrecks) and watched out the windows for Kangaroos (we saw lots! - couldn't get any good pics though).



I went to sleep that night and when I woke up I was in the brilliant red desert of the Outback - it was great! To be honest, my first thought was that if Scotty transported me there I wouldn't be able to tell if I was in OZ or in Wyoming - until, that is, you spot kangaroo, emu, wedge-tailed eagles (which have a huge wingspan, can't really tell in the pic) and flocks of brillant white cokatoos with bright red bellies instead of the normal antelope ;0)





We stopped off that morning in an old mining town called Broken Hill and I had time for a quick 1 hour tour - it was what you'd expect from a small frontier town (touristy now of course). We also toured the Royal Flying Doctors headquarters for the area - they actually fly doctors out to people all over outback and its a free service... don't tell Hillary.

This all kept me very enteratained until I pulled into the Adelaide train station and jumped on a bus to get me down to Kangaroo Island.

I got there just in time for sunset. I made freinds with the car rental guy and we sat and had a beer watching it - he gave me some great pointers on where to go (early) the next morning - then (in exchange for a ride to the airport in the morning) he took me on a nocturnal tour of the area looking for penguins, possums and lots of wallabies (he sidelights as a tour guide) - it was fantastic ;0)

My first port of call the next day was Seal Bay - the tour guide took us right down onto the beach among them! They actually aren't seals, but Australian Sealions (this is because they have 4 feet, unlike seals which only have 2 and 2 flippers). It was great to watch and learn about them - the little pups were very fun to watch. There was an awful lot of fighting going on between the "teenage boys" in the group though and they have BIG teeth ;0)

After the seals I had lunch (a great fish sandwich recommended by my friend) and went to a secluded beach to eat it with a huge beer. The water was the clearest blue (azure I think ;0) I've ever seen and it was warm enough for nice long swims... although I have to admit I never went in past my knees and dunked down (way too many stories at this point about sharks and crocadiles on deserted beaches) I kept my eyes on the water at all times ;0) [at least Sealy the Dead Seal wasn't around this time] - there were also some really neat rock formation @ one end of the beach with some cool looking birds hanging out on them.

I stopped off @ Litte Sahara and played in the huge sand dunes and a Koala Sanctuary - this Guano scared the hell out of me when I was walking around looking at things like the termite mound...

Then I headed down the coast & saw Admiral's Arch, which is fantastic enough on it's own, but just happens to also have a colony of Australian Fur Seals that call it home! They were fun to watch, but and I spent a little too much time there (I didn't get to the platypus ponds I meant to stop by on my way back) - see if you can spot the seals in the pic... there were LOTS more of them on the other side of the arch.

Just around the bend are the Remarkable Rocks - these are huge boulders left over on top of a magma bubble. Really neat to walk around in...

It was a long drive back and then (after a quick beer with my friend) a ferry ride back and a longer bus ride to Adelaide (I was glad to get here - I was so tired that I went straight to bed - on a FRIDAY night!!!). I did see some dolphins playing in the ferry's wake though...