Kangaroo Island, Day 2

We woke up early the next morning. The shower wasn't great, but if any woodland creatures had made their way in, they made it back out by the time we got there, so that's all I can ask. Honestly, my sisters and I may have been the only ones who showered. We were definitely the only ones who changed clothes.

After a quick breakfast we headed on over to the Remarkable Rocks. "Remarkable: is a word that we came across a lot on the trip. We had already been to Remarkable Cave, here were the rocks, and there would be a whole mountain range in New Zealand called the Remarkables. In each case, it means something different.

Remarkable Cave is remarkable because it shows you the shape of Tasmania. The Remarkables are remarkably beautiful. The Remarkable Rocks? Well, it's just kind of amazing how those twisted shapes could come about from the granite. You can climb around quite a bit, but there are areas that you should not go past as it becomes very dangerous, and Peter told us of at least one death. The orange you see is from lichen, not from iron like the sand and rocks at Uluru.

We next headed over to Cape Du Couedic, which has several attractions. There is an old lighthouse, and the remains of the lighthouse keepers' cabins and storerooms. There is also the Admirals Arch.

As you look out at one point, you will see two islands off shore. These are the Casuarina Islands. If you go down this walkway and stairs to see the Admiral's Arch, you see that this spot of land is only tenuously attached to the rest of Kangaroo Island. Someday it will collapse, and there will be three Casuarinas. It is fairly stable now, but I wouldn't want to be down there during an earthquake.

From the Cape you can get a good view of a colony of New Zealand fur seals, but what was most exciting for us was that while we were at the storehouses, we could see a pod of dolphins in the water down below. We were so far up that they kind of just looked like black crescent moons, but it was still kind of a thrill.

We had lunch over at Flinders Chase National Park, and an enormous crow was watching us, trying to find a way to subtly check out our meal. Their information center is pretty good, and you can see a lot of pelts and things. I was mainly interested in that because Peter had told us they had an echidna skin, and I was curious about the spines. They are kind of like sharp, brittle bones. They are hollow, and the tips were off, so it was not as sharp as what you would find on one in the wild, but yes, it is formidable. Probably not as painful as a porcupine, but much more than a hedgehog.

The last hike was Snake Lagoon. I went about halfway, and did not find it particularly pretty, but I at least needed to try it.

It might have been more beautiful a few years ago. The stumpy plants you see with the grassy tops are Xanthorrhoea, or yakka. On December 6th, of 2007 there was a series of lightning strikes. I can't remember if it was fifteen strikes that started seven fires, or there were fifteen fires, but acres and acres were burned. Yakka grow slowly, perhaps an inch a year on their own, but in times of stress they will shoot up these spikes, as shown, and then they can pollinate and send out seeds, and try and create some new life in case the old ones die off. After the fires, there were spikes everywhere.

We also stopped off at Hansen Bay to take a look at that beach, which was quite nice. It was important that we make the pelican feeding at 5, but that will be its own entry also. Then it was back to the ferry, where we could eat dinner and look for penguins while we waited for the boat. There did seem to be one little penguin around, but I couldn't get a good look.

I'll post separate entries about Seal Bay and the pelican feeding before we get into our trip back, and Melbourne and Adelaide and everything that happened there.