Away to the south

Following the workshops in the Blue Mountains, Sydney, I headed off to the south, met up with a friend and we took the ferry to Kangaroo Island, a large island 155 km long, and 55 kms wide, off the southern coast of Australia.  The majority of roads are unsealed, and driving on the gravel surfaces is like driving on small slippery marbles, or juddering your way across corrugated surfaces.  As the Island has an abundance of wildlife, caution is recommended when driving in the early morning, at dusk and at night, as some of the inhabitants are large, travel at speeds and can do terrible damage to a car...and the occupants!  Despite this, the Island has a wild natural beauty, and is a mixture of woodlands, open forests, fresh and salt lakes, spectacular coastal cliffs and mild glassy bays. 

For Carolin - Admiral's Arch on the SE coast....battered by strong seas and winds coming off the Antarctic.  A beautiful and idyllic view, but the smell was overpowering, as this sheltered cave and rocks are home to many seals, and after being hunted almost to extinction for their fur and meat, they are now a protected species.

 

 Nepean Bay, our own "private" beach 5 minutes from the beach cottage we rented.

 Duck Lagoon.....sadly no ducks left.  After seal hunting was stopped, the land was clear felled for farming, and the resulting erosion has caused salinity and poisoning of the inland waterways, resulting in dead and dying trees.

A rusty disused old still used to extract eucalyptus oil.......would love to have wrapped it in some cloth! 

 A local inhabitant....an echidna, who I narrowly missed squashing as he ambled across the road.  I stopped and followed it into the bush and stayed quiet and still until it felt safe and popped it's snout out to continue foraging.  It was about 30cm.....12 inches...long.

 Pelican feeding

Remarkable Rocks.........definitely!!

Nothing between here and Antarctica!

A beautiful old brick one room schoolhouse, built in the  mid 1800s.

....and look, I found a good pupil inside, who knew all the right answers!

There was so much to see and do on the Island, and I don't think we covered even half of it, but I thoroughly enjoyed what we did see and do.  Next, a change of landscape, and onto Broken Hill, a mining town out in the desert country of western New South Wales.