travelling Kangaroo Island

This was our bus trip day, an organized overview of the island and its wares. As usual, we were picked up at 7:30, at the hotel. Interestingly, there were three other couples from Canada: one from Peterborough, one from Calgary, and one from Port Colbourne. It was nice to hear a Canadian accent again (although we don't really have one do we?).

After picking up some other folks along the way, we were off to the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Oil Plant. You might think that this would be a big, modern, plant in the style of a (say) tomato processing plant. You'd be wrong. This is one guy, working with some mates, and a few others to handle the selling. He owns the land, drives the tractor which cuts the plant, drives the truck which brings the leaves to the "still", which is just a big iron kettle and a wood fire underneath.





This still boils down the leaves and gets the oil from them, which is then further refined on the premises, and bottled. He makes a good part of the production of Australia from this rather primitive plant. But he is doing research, and trying to farm responsibly (as are most of the people we met in KI. And Larry, the bloke in charge, is a character, with strong opinions about almost everything, and not unwilling to share them.

From there, we were ferried to the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park to feed the kangaroos (the island has its own species of kangaroo), look at koalas, and visit the birds and other animals. I have included a picture of the kangaroos


an echidna (which is an egg-laying mammal)


a cassowary


and a beautiful parrot


There were lots of other local animals (all native to the island), but space doesn't permit. By the way, it turns out that Koalas are anything but cute: they sleep 20 hours a day, bite and claw you if they get angry, smell a lot, and have the social skills of a rock).

Then off to the west end of the island for a tour of the Remarkable Rocks, which are, actually, remarkable with a capital "r". The wind was blowing hard enough, one of the fellow guests said, "to blow a dog off its chain". But it kept the flies away, even though it made it a bit more difficult to fell safe.














We finished with a quick rtip to Admiral's Arch, a natural hole through the limestone in the west end of the island which is quite awesome.


And then home to the hotel, for a quiet evening and packing for the next day. We have decided we don't really like bus trips, but this one was fine - even better than fine.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island