Hitting the Road in Australia

So it was time to say good bye to all my friends I had made in Perth.  Moving weekend was tough but worth it getting all our deposit money back.  My last evening was spent round my aussie mates house Sabine having dinner and drinks before I headed back to the hostel I booked myself into and a private room for the last time before I hit the road.  Well that was a waste of money – too warm with no fan so had to have the window open and the traffic kept me awake all night.  Well at least it helped me to be up early in the morning for my flight seeing as I wasn’t really sleeping!

Needless to say – I arrived in Adelaide pretty damn tired.  Thankfully I had booked myself into the YHA City Central – WOW – if all Hostels were like this I would say hotels would go out of business very easily.  This is classed as a 5 star hostel and I can certainly see why.  Ok, it may not be to everyone’s taste as its very big so I guess it can feel a bit more impersonal BUT they do do a lot to try and make it easy to mix with other people.

The whole place is incredibly modern and new and in fantastic condition.  A lift to take you to all floors (very handy with a heavy bag!) and a massive main communal area full of lots of comfy sofas and chairs.  Plenty of tables to sit and eat at and the kitchen has been really well designed with little pod like areas for you to cook in making it easy to not be on top of other people.  There’s a pool table in the middle of the common area, a ping pong table, more games rooms off to the sides and a TV room.  Every floor in the building also has a quite large reading room so a nice quiet spot to go to if you want.  Anyway – I was in a 4 bed share for the first night and was quite thankful it was full of older german woman who went to bed early so I got a great nights sleep!

The next day I was up very early again for my trip to Kangaroo Island.  Something I was very excited about especially as my friend Tami had told me it was one of the highlights for her.  Well – I’m pleased I made the effort to go – it was amazing and definitely one of the best things I have done.  In short – I felt like I was in a wildlife documentary the whole time I was there.

After much research and my obligatory posting on the Thorntree forum asking for advice I decided to book my tour with Sun n Surf for the 2 day option.  Our guide was “Hi, my name’s Doug” – a brilliant guy and incredibly knowledgeable without boring you – and loved me asking so many questions! 

What did we see on Kangaroo Island – everything! 

It was a very early start leaving Adelaide with a very long drive down the Fleurieu Peninsula down to the ferry from Cape Jarvis with a slightly rough but not too bad crossing.  After hitting KI we headed out first to hike up Prospect Hill to get a good view of the Island.  I just loooved that walk up the hill, but, I have to admit it was worth it for the views we got.

From there we headed to Pennington Bay, a really pretty beach only let down by the cloudy and windy weather we were having that day but showed me yet another beautiful and undeveloped beach in Australia – if only there were more places like this in the world!

We then headed to a Wildlife Sanctuary to go on a walk looking for Koalas – definitely got my Koala overload – they are so cute even if they can be viscous. 

Next it was time to see the very Remarkable Rocks and some fun photo ops followed by one of my very best highlights of everything I have seen and done – going to Admirals Arch and the fur seal colony.  It really was a sight to be seen, hundreds of these seals just laying there, playing in the sea and on the rocks just a few feet away from me and completely wild.  It was like something out of a dream being able to be this close to these wild animals and I never in a million years thought I would be actually doing it.  I must have spent 30 minutes just standing in the one place watching the seals with our guide and asking all sorts of questions and I would have been there even longer if the rest of the group wasn’t ready to move on (it was rather cold, wet and windy there!).

Another dream experience that evening was going on a night time walk to see the penguins.  I have to say I didn’t go to do the Philip Island penguin thing so I have nothing to compare it too but this was great as there were no crowds of tourists just our group walking along trying to find little wild penguins.  At first I was kind of disappointed as Doug found some penguins but they were quite far down the rocks and I just couldn’t see them – but of course, with a little persistence and more searching we got a great find!  Apart from seeing them just sleeping and laying down we also got to see some feeding their babies!   

Our accommodation that night was staying in Suf and Sun’s own private farmstay accommodation – The Woolshed. 

The next morning we were up early to do the Sandboarding at Little Sahara.  Ok, call me a spoilsport but I decided to sit it out and chill whilst everyone else did it.  I guess it was because I had tried Sandboarding when I did my trip in WA and it was fun to try it once but I really really didn’t fancy getting sand in my mouth and all inside my clothes at the start of the day.  I know – I’m boring – but at least I tried it once!!

 

I was really just saving myself and waking myself up ready for our trip to Seal Bay Conservation Park and our guided walk.  This area is very protected and you either have to stick to boardwalks to keep you away from the Seals or take a guided walk down to the beach.  It is very strict on what you can and can’t do and the guides are watching you all the time as the area is littered with wild Sea Lions and their pups.  We were so lucky as we saw some little pups playing and then when you get down to the beach you are told that you must be very careful and not to walk so that you are blocking a Sea Lions access to the sea.  Basically we could only walk as far along the beach as the Sea Lions allowed us to depending on where they fancied sitting.  It was again, one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had to be so close to such wild exotic animals – nothing like seeing them in some kind of Zoo enclosure or show.

 

Our second day was coming to an end so we spent some time driving around to some lovely remote spots of Kangaroo Island that would be very hard to find if you chose to go independently, including the very beautiful Vivonne Bay.  Just before we were due to get on the ferry we were treated to the Pelican feeding at Kingscote.  Every day a local man goes down to the pier, waits a few minutes for around a hundred Pelicans to fly in, then piles on his waders and gloves, walks down to the water with his buckets of fish and feeds them all – it really is a sight that you can only see.  Unfortunately all my photos of Kangaroo Island were very brief as it was at this point my camera screen decided to break so I couldn’t actually see what I was taking photos of.  After a long 2 days it was time to head back on to the ferry to begin our very long journey back up to Adelaide.

Well, you know how small a world it is when travelling when who did I bump into on the ferry on my way back to the mainland but Greg – one of my mates from the hostel in Perth.  He’d just done a day trip to Kangaroo Island and was also staying in the YHA in Adelaide. 

We had separate transfers so made arrangements to get together the next day to do some sightseeing.  Well the next day the weather was terrible.  Pouring down with rain.  Seriously, whoever thinks that Australia has beautiful hot weather all the time is deluded.  Well, it doesn’t help that I was there for the wettest summer they had seen for 10 years. 

Greg and I had talked about going to Cleland Park which is a wildlife park in Adelaide where you can cuddle a Koala, something I really wanted to do but have since heard some very mixed things about this and most states in Australia now won’t let you do it. 

We were umming and arghing and in the end decided to book these tickets for a bus to take us there that afternoon.  We thought we were mad as we are the only ones going – but in the end it turned out great as the park was practically empty and it stopped raining!  The best bit was, because the park was so empty and the weather was cool, I had no problems getting to cuddle a koala.  They are so fluffy and cute but weigh a ton! 

The next day I was due to change hostels from the YHA in the city centre to the only hostel in Glenelg for 3 nights, a beach town about a 20/30 minute tram ride from the city.  It sounded a great idea at the time I booked it- and it would have been – if the weather was even half as nice as it was whilst I was there.  Unfortunately it was raining so much and so windy you could hardly even walk down to the sea front. 

As for the hostel – well would I recommend it to anyone?  Only if you were really desperate to stay in a hostel in Glenlg but then, the tram is really quick and easy from the city centre so it really isn’t worth it.  Yes there are some good points about the hostel - No bunk beds are nice- and the beds are comfy with nice clean sheets, decent duvets and pillows.  I slept really well (when I didn’t get woken up by various people!).  As this is a basic requirement of a hostel – perfect and admittedly not all hostels get this basic requirement right. 

There were a few other good points - free "continental" breakfast is as much toast and jam as you can eat from 7am to 10am.  The location is right by the beach.  Its opposite the bus stop to and from the airport.  There are free dvd's available to watch on a lovely HD TV and the bar isn't overly expensive for drinks.

Not so bad you say? Well, the place is like a rabbit warren and there is no real signage to help you find things. It’s a strange combination of Hostel and Bar which could be great if the owner was just as interested in running a nice hostel as trying to have a "cool" bar.  I put it in speech marks as the bar is empty the majority of the time yet he still insists on pumping out music all day and night at ridiculous volumes. The TV room for the hostel is right next to the bar so if you are trying to chill and watch movies as we were in the terrible weather it was impossible some of the time.  I was told by other guests that even on quiet nights when he has been asked to turn the music down as they couldn't sleep he has refused saying its busy - but the bar was empty.  Its like the guests he has paying to stay there are an inconvenience to him.  Well, I could go on and on and on at the faults of this place.  As I said though, it wasn’t all bad - there was a nice bunch of people who I hung out with in the living/common area watching films and playing drinking games with.

Whilst I was in Glenlg I also booked to do a wine tour to the Barossa Valley and that was another disappointment! Argh!  Well lets just say that 3 out of 4 wineries were crap and I didn’t like any of the wines, only in the last winery, and I wasn’t the only person on the tour to think that.   

Overall what did I think of Adelaide – Kangaroo Island 10 out of 10 – Adelaide city and YHA, hmmm nice enough but the rest of it, not so in love with the place.  Still – it didn’t matter – another adventure yet to come in Melbourne!