Why are you going there?” is the response I usually received when telling anyone I was going to Adelaide, regardless of whether or not that person was from Australia. I didn’t even know why I was going other than I researched ‘top cities to visit in Australia’ and it was on most lists. I also wanted to do something different than what people typically do when visiting Australia.
Adelaide is a much smaller city than Sydney and Melbourne, and its located at the bottom tip of Australia, technically close to Antartica. I was glad to have a slightly later start to my morning (pickup was 945), and I made it there around 2. I stayed right downtown and planned to explore the area while waiting for the weather to clear then go to the beach. Markets or ‘arcades’ are clearly big in Australia, and Adelaide’s market is in the heart of its Chinatown. This was a cool area to see, and supposedly has some of the best Chinese food in Australia. I was surprised it was located so close to the center of downtown. The weather never cleared, so I just ate dinner and went to bed before my early start to Kangaroo Island the next day. For what its worth, I was told Henley beach is the best spot to visit for people my age, in addition to the popular Glenelg Beach.
Saturday, Jan 26 was “Australia day” which was described to me as their version of Columbus day. Originally I thought it would be like 4th of July and a big party, but learned Australians don’t want to celebrate their separation from their aboriginal cultures really, so the day is a bit weird now. This is similar to the feeling people in the states have about not wanting to celebrate Columbus Day bc of what it meant for the Native American culture. It’s a bigger celebration in Sydney or Melbourne bc it’s a public holiday and an excuse to drink all day.
I had no idea what to expect from Kangaroo Island either, I just knew it had strong Google ratings too. My initial thought was that it would be relatively small like Phillip Island, which was really wrong. Kangaroo island was probably my favorite stop so far and each place we stoppedon the island was different. There are resorts and several towns within the island, as well as so much land dedicated to National Parks and wildlife. Check out the ‘Southern Ocean Lodge’. This place was just ranked the #4 motel in the world!
To reach Kangaroo Island from Adelaide, we were bussed about 90 minutes to Cape Jervis where we caught a ferry for another 90 minute ride to reach the island. I’ve done many guided bus tours on this trip so far and really recommend them. The stops are all the right amount of time and it’s really nice to be able to cover so much ground in a day. The bus drivers are all passionate and knowledgable about the areas too. The drive to Cape Jervis was nice. We saw so many wild kangaroos on the side of the road that they may as well have been deer. The ferry was comfortable and once we reached the island we were led to a new bus and headed to Seal Bay Conservation Park. Here we spent about 45 minutes which was plenty of time see the seals down on the beach. We had a tour guide to give us background on the different types of seals we were seeing and some of their behaviors. I couldn’t stop looking at the surrounding area of the beach. It was stunning there and cool to be up close to these animals.
After Seal Bay, we headed into Flinder’s Chase National Park to walk out to the ‘Remarkable Rocks’. We also spent 45 minutes here, which was plenty of time to walk out onto the Rocks and see the views. After the remarkable rocks we were led to a buffet lunch at a restaurant called Vivonne Bay. Following lunch at Vivonne Bay we took a quick 20 minute guided tour at Hanson Bay Wildlife Park. This specific location is best known for its care of Koalas, thus we saw nearly 30 wild koalas along one row of trees in a very short period of time. Never stand under a koala apparently btw because they’re tempted to go to the bathroom on you??? Needless to say, I was pretty paranoid and constantly making sure nothing was directly above me.
Our last stop of the day was a quick hike down to Admiral’s Arch. This was beautiful too and there were wild New Zealand Fur Seals basking along all of the rocks. It’s amazing how much of Australia is left to its animals.
The day was nearly over before I realized that instead of the 3 hr drive/ ferry journey back to Adelaide that most people had ahead of them, I was going to be taking a 20 minute flight back. If you are ever presented this option and can do it, I highly highly recommend it. This was a long day, and getting home at 7 vs 1030 that night was a HUGE difference and relief. This flight experience was cool too. We didnt go through security and just hopped on a small plane home.
I got back to Adelaide in time to walk and get a burger, so I caught the tail end of some Australia Day celebrations and went to bed!
Uluru, which is the center of Australia, is next!
Ally Round the World 