Kangaroo Island - The hidden Gem of SA - Part 3

We decided that we will take it easy on the last day of our trip and checked out of the B&B at 9 in the morning. We headed towards Paul's Farm via Pardana. Had a quick Brekky there and continued our journey.



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By 11 AM we reached Paul's farm but it was closed. As we found out, there were two opening times - 12 PM and 3 PM. We were an hour early and decided to head towards Stokes Bay which was 10 minutes from there.


It appeared to be a tiny inlet of water and was filled with multi-coloured pebbles and beautiful stones. On one side of the inlet there were large rocks stacked high one upon the other in such a way that we could not see what was on the other side.


We walked over the pebbles for some time and then decided to do something else as there was nothing more to see. Suddenly we saw people coming through the gaps in between the rocks. We were curious to find out what was going on and decided to explore the place a bit more.


The path between the pile of rocks was magnificent. We were really excited, not knowing what to expect on the other side. We went deeper through this path (which was almost like walking through a cave).











The beach was amazing! It was really beautiful and had crystal clear water with white sand... We walked on the beach, soaking in the beauty of the place.









I also found an orange Starfish washed down by the waves. Had never seen an orange one before (except in the cartoons).





We lied down on the sand for some time, enjoying the sun and left for Paul's place just before 12 PM.





As we neared the place, we saw that the entrance to the farm was packed. There were 8 to 10 vehicles waiting to get in. At 12 PM, Paul arrived in his UTE to open the gates and we followed him into the farm. The cars were to be parked outside the farm and we had to get in by paying a modest entry fee.


The place was filled with animals. There were Kangaroos, Alpacas, Ducks, Hens, Sheeps & Peacocks walking amongst people. The animals seemed pretty friendly and used to being around people. First, there was an animal show and I got to carry a Roo in my arms. That was fun.











We were then taken to another area in the farm where we could see other kinds of animals. Emus, Deers, Ducks, Hens etc...were just a few of them and of course, more Kangaroos. We got to feed these animals too. I was a bit scared of the Emus as they were massive and looked none too friendly, to me!











Next, Paul said that he would bring out a "secret" creature from the small cabin and asked all the men whether they would like to volunteer their wives to hold the creature. Nykaj got excited and he wanted me to volunteer so he said that his wife is bold enough to eat a cobra's heart (I don't know how he came up with that! :) ). No one else came forward as the whole idea was to scare the lady in question, so Paul suggested that I do it to test my courage. I was asked to close my eyes. All the kids were screaming when Paul placed the creature in my hands. I opened my eyes and presto, a Marron!








From there, we went to another section of the farm where there was a Koala and couple of snakes on show. We got to carry the animals and take some pics.














Next we went to the area where birds were on show. I tried to get the birds to sit on my shoulder but they flew away and instead, went on to sit on Nykaj's shoulders. It seemed that the birds liked only men!





The entire show was really great! We had a fun time and by the time we got out, we were starving. We decided to go to Marron Cafe and have lunch.




The Cafe had its own label called Two Wheeler Creek. They also farmed freshwater crayfish – Marron. We went around the fish farm and saw how they farmed the Marrons.





Afterwards, we tasted a few of their Reds and ordered some Marron and wine to go with it. The food was delicious.






After lunch, we went to Kingscote and visited the Honey Farm and tasted some honey. We were tired by then and returned to Penneshaw before the sun set. Our Ferry arrived at 7.30 PM and we reached home by 11 PM.


We had a great time at Kangaroo Island. I would suggest whoever visits the place to spend at least 2 days to enjoy the beauty and the variety the place can offer. It is truely the hidden Gem of South Australia!

Kangaroo Island - The hidden Gem of SA - Part 2

Next morning, we drove to the other end of KI which was about 175Km away from Penneshaw.


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On our way to Flinders Chase, we stopped at Pardana and had breakfast. Pardana was a small and extremely quiet town. We must have spotted a couple of tourists and three or four locals around. That's it. The rest of the area looked deserted and it felt a bit eerie.


We reached Flinders Chase in 2 hours and got Passes to enter the National Park. Our first stop was to see the New Zealand Fur Seals in their natural habitat. For the visitors to have a really close look at the seals, there was a wooden pathway that stretched out about 500 meters or so from the Cliffs.


The view that met our eyes was surreal. We must have spotted around 50-odd seals lying lazily all over the place. Some of them were hard to spot since it appeared as though they took on the same colour as the wet rocks.

















After watching the seals for an hour from the deck, we moved on and then stopped at the Lighthouse.








The next stop was at Remarkable Rocks. And remarkable they really were... Massive granite boulders shaped by the forces of wind, sea spray and rain for the past 500 million years or so.








Next, we went to Andermel Marron Farm and Cafe to have lunch and afterwards, we headed towards Seal Bay to watch some Australian Sea Lions.



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The Seal Bay was a restricted area and we had to pay a fee to get to the beach and have a look at the seals at close range. It was a guided tour with 5 to 10 people in a single group. The guide gave a detailed description about the different families of seals, the behaviours of males and females etc etc...All Nat Geo stuff!











There were about 100-odd sea lions scattered around the beach. We ended up watching them for almost half an hour. They were lolling around on the beach. What a life! Or, so I thought.


But, as it turned out, these poor creatures have to go deep into the ocean searching for food, for 3 days at a stretch. If they do get back after managing to avoid the various predators in the ocean, they will sleep for the next 2 to 3 days and then, do it all over again. On second thoughts, not such a great life.


On our way back from the beach we spotted an Echinda.





It was almost 5 by the time we left Seal Bay. We had to get back to Penneshaw before it got too dark and 2 hours of driving were ahead of us. We were bone weary by the time we reached our B&B and dropped dead (well, almost) as soon as we finished our dinner.


Part 3 - coming soon!

Kangaroo Island - The hidden Gem of SA

Kangaroo Island (KI) has been one of those places Nykaj and I have always wanted to visit but never got around to doing. We have heard from a lot of our friends that the place is almost surreal in its beauty. Finally, a week before Easter we decided to head off to KI.


As usual, planning our trip at the last minute meant that we were in the waiting list for both accomodation and Ferry Tickets. Luckily we scraped through and got everything booked. Every time something like this happen, I would think to myself that I should be a bit more organised in such matters, but I guess, last minute planning is a great catalyst to ignite our holiday and adventure spirit.


We started early and drove around 120 Kms to reach Cape Jervis. From there, we caught the 12.30 Sealink Ferry to KI and reached the Island at around 1.20PM.



We checked into our B&B, Sunset Retreat, in Penneshaw which was just 2 minutes away from the docking area. Gail ran the place and it was well kept. I think she and her husband have been living there since their retirement. Anyhow, after unloading our stuff, we had a quick chat with Gail and got a few ideas on how to plan our trip so as to make the most of our visit.


We were starving by then and stopped at Dudley Winery. We ordered our lunch and also did some wine tasting. We really liked their Shiraz and Merlot and ended up buying a few of those.




After that nice meal, we headed towards Kingscote which was 60Km from Penneshaw. We drove around Kingscote a bit and all of a sudden, spotted a few pelicans by the sea.





We parked the car and walked down to the beach. We were a bit wary of approaching the pelicans but managed to walk stealthily towards them and gingerly lowered ourselves to sit beside them. As it turned out, the pelicans were least bothered. So much for our caution.





The sun was about to set and the place looked beautiful. On one side, there was the vast blue Antarctic Ocean and on the other side, happy holiday makers having a BBQ on the beach with their friends and family. An idyllic setting.


After we left the beach, we managed to locate Kingscote IGA just as they were closing for the day, sped through the aisles of the supermarket; grabbed some chicken and pasta and checked out.


From there we headed towards Sunset Winery. Their Sparkling Shiraz was one of the best of its kind we have tasted. We stacked a few bottles in the car and suddenly realized that it was getting darker by the minute. We had to watch out for the Roos, so decided to call it a day and returned to the B&B.

Flinders Ranges - South Australian Outback

Most of the time, Nykaj and I make holiday plans at the last minute. It was the first long weekend after we bought our Jeep and we decided we should make good use of our 4WD during the holiday. We were like 2 excited kids with a new toy. A couple of days before the long weekend, we figured that the best place to go is Flinders Ranges.


I searched the web for good accomodation deals but most of the places were fully booked. We never thought that it was going to be this busy. We should have known since the weather was perfect and it was long holidays! Someone had cancelled their holiday unit booking at Rawnsley Park Station at the last minute and luckily we called them at the right time and were able to book the last available cabin. We were excited about the whole trip as it was the first time we were going for such a long drive to the South Australian outback.


It was close to one full day of driving to Rawnsley Park Station with a few stops in between. We started early in the morning and drove through many little towns on the way. We stopped at Two Wells to fill up petrol and when we went into the shop, we were surprised to see the shop filled with Rodeo gear! I was expecting to see something similar to a Servo shop.





From Two Wells, we hit the highway again and in a couple of hours, I felt hungry. We drove into the next town which was Port Germein and thought of having lunch at the local pub, but it was closed! The beach was near by and we decided to stretch our legs a bit. There was a rather long jetty which turned out to be the Longest Wooden Jetty in Australia (as we found out later). We started walking and it kind of never ended! However the scenery was breathtaking. On one side, you had the start of Flinders Ranges, on the other side a crystal clear ocean and above, the beautiful blue sky with patches of clouds. A must-see if you ever head that way.





From Port Germein we headed straight towards Port Augusta. From there we took a diversion to Quorn to reach Wilpena Pound where Rawnsley Park Station is situated. I think we drove around 700Km in total that day.



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We had a typical Aussie pub meal at Quorn; chicken schnitzel and beer. Quorn is a small town where a lot of miners live. Their families stay back while the men folk go away for a few months to work in the mines. The local people were friendly and helpful. We were given Hot tips on must-see places and towns we should visit.


Just in front of the pub, we saw the historic Pichi Richi Railway Station where a timber-bodied diesel carriage was on display. There were a few tourists waiting to board the train. I think these trains are around 100 years old.


From Quorn it took us about 2 hours to reach Rawnsley Park Station. The Flinders Ranges was magnificent. The drive was really spectacular as you see endless stretches of barren land with red and orange dust. The Ranges are a riot of colours. Sometimes they look yellow, other times they look orange and yet other times they are blue in colour.





By the time we checked into our unit it was too late for another adventure. The main reason being, you might get hit by Kangaroos while driving at night. It seems the Kangaroos would jump in front of the car at night and get hypnotised by the lights. As you are driving, on an average, at 110 Km/hr your car will be smashed and the roo will die. As we did not have a roo catcher in front of the jeep it was not advisable for us to venture out in the dark. So we decided to freshen up and drive around Wilpena Pound and just explore the area surrounding the station.

The sun was setting and Wilpena Pound suddenly lit up and became golden in colour. I was reminded of the movie Mackenna's Gold where Mackenna waits for the sunset to find the hidden path! It was that beautiful.





After enjoying the sunset, we came back to our little cabin and had a snooze before heading off to the Woolshed Restaurant for dinner. It was an old Woolshed converted into a restaurant and it had that rustic charm about it. The food was good and both of us had steak and some wine to go with it and off we went to sleep.


Read On - Ranges Day 2 & 3

Flinders Ranges - Day 2 & 3

Next morning we woke up just before sunrise and packed our gear for our next adventure. We reached the Flinders Ranges National Park gateway and paid the permit fees to enter the reserve area. The interesting part was that it was an unmanned post. We had to write our own receipt and drop the money and a hand written ticket into a small pay box. I found it a bit amusing.







The drive was real fun. Nykaj and I took turns to experience the joy of driving in such a rough terrain. It is a bit hard to sit in the passenger seat when you are going up, down and sideways. We went through Brachina Gorge which was absolutely spectacular. You find yourself in a different world, one which you never even thought existed. We stopped at almost all the Lookout points to immerse ourselves in the beauty surrounding us.



On the top



The ranges we were going to cross




Inside the gorges




All alone in the middle of nowhere



We continued our journey and went to Parachillna via Blinmen. We stopped at Blinmen which is an old, copper-mining town. We had a coffee and cake at the Wild Lime Cafe. The Cafe also had an Art Gallery with lots of Aboriginal Art Works on display.



The Wild Lime Cafe at Blinmen

Afterwards, we walked around Blinmen a bit and found that the town was having one of its local Food and Wine Festival. The place was packed and we saw people camping and cooking, outback style. They had coal burning on the ground and old pots filled with slowly cooking vegetables, meat etc. Also, some of them were baking bread over coal fire.


After a few hours at Blinmen, we headed towards Parachilna. The Prairie Hotel at Parachilna is famous for the Ferrel's meal they provide. We ordered their signature dish which had Emu, Roo and Camel meat in it. Was really good. They had put tiny flags on each meat type which looked rather cute.






A stick on every meat type stating what it is

After that heavy meal, we wanted to see what is there further up. We knew that the Desert was somewhere up there. We thought, maybe if we drive a couple of hours we might get lucky and hit the desert. After 2 hours or so of driving, we had managed to reach only Leigh Creek which is another mining town bordering the desert.


We asked a few local guys about heading to the nearest desert but it was getting late and I think it was another 3 to 5 hours away. Time was against us so we decided to postpone the Desert trip for another day and returned to Wilpena Pound via Hawker.



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The route we travelled through the ranges


We were really tired and as soon as we reached our shack, we crashed into the bed for half an hour. At around 7.30pm we had dinner at the Woolshed Restaurant.

The next day, we woke up early in the morning and headed back to Adelaide. It was a 6-hour drive @ an average of 110 Km/hr. The journey back was as breathtaking as the onward one. I took a few pictures from inside our car.




We reached home at around 4 in the evening. Nykaj and I were in the dream land of Flinders Ranges for another month or so! It was a wonderful holiday and I am sure we will visit the Flinders Ranges again, one of these days...

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