Island Farewell

Dolphins

Fleurieu Peninsular

Kangaroo Island continued

Teatime around the fire

The Southern Ocean

Remarkable Rocks

Kangaroo Island

Apart from Roger Waters (which was excellent, great stage show and brilliant musicianship), the highlight of the trip to Adelaide was Kangaroo Island. It's over 100km long, with a rugged south coast, beautiful beaches, lots of forest in the west, and ground-hugging tea-tree scrub where the southerlies sweep in from the sea. It's a part of Australia, but not quite...

I was in a group of 21 backpackers, 18 female (!), and ages from 19-ish to maybe 60. We had Swedes, Germans (they're everywhere), Canadians, French, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese and Swiss... a real mixture. The people you travel with can make or break a trip, and our group was great. We had a wonderful local guide, Lisa, who was jovial, knowledgeable, and gave two fingers to political correctness whenever possible. A real Aussie. Kangaroo Island Adventure Tours - there you go, a free plug.

We saw kangaroos, of course, but also koalas, echidnas, emus and seals. No platypus, maybe they were on holiday too. If you go there, don't just spend a day, it's worth a longer, better look.

Anna-Lena, our German chatterbox

Lisa and another local

Little Sahara

Seal yoga

Adelaide

Took a quick trip away to Adelaide in early February. The catalyst was a Roger Waters (ex Pink Floyd) concert in Adelaide. He was playing in all the major cities, but I'd wanted to see Adelaide for a while, so that was my excuse for heading south. The city was very nice, not too warm (by Queensland standards anyway). Good restaurants, museum, shops (starting to sound like the brochure). I'd like to go back dometime and do the Great Ocean Rd and a trip up through the Flinders Ranges, a geologist's paradise.

Took two trips away, to Barossa Valley and Kangaroo Island. Adelaide and Barossa photos first:

Something to get the wine buffs excited - a 160-year old vine at Langmeil's vineyard, Barossa Valley.
Something to get the geologists excited - Dickinsonia, an Ediacaran fossil in the South Australian Museum.


Something to get the Triumph people, well, interested anyway. Silver TRs, why didn't the factory think of that?