Roses, 'Roos, and Remarkable Rocks

We’re making our way through the state of South Australia, getting ready to head up the west coast.

Valentine’s day was in Geelong - a beach town not far from Melbourne which is a very quirky little place.  The mayor is an outrageous character with neon dyed hair and ab implants he shows everyone!  We wandered around the shopping area, had lunch on the water, and admired their extensive beach art displays.  

Burr got up early, went ashore, and came back with a dozen roses!

Aussies tend not to beat around the bush about stuff.

We spent Valentine's Evening with our new buddies, Anne & Andrew.  We are, once again, so lucky in the terrific people we meet on cruises!

OK - there might have been a few glasses of wine involved.

The next day was a sea day - and a very rough one.  Just moving around the ship was tricky and I even resorted to dramamine, which I very rarely do.  We made it to Kangaroo Island the morning of the 16th and this turned out to be our favorite stop so far!  We boarded a huge 4WD vehicle with about 15 people and two terrific guides and set off to explore the island.  Our first stop was Seal Bay, where we walked a boardwalk down to the beach to hang out with the seals there.

The babies wait alone on the beach for several days while the mothers go fishing.

After a wonderful local lunch, our next stop was Flinders Chase National Park - spectacular.

The park is famous for this rock arch.

This was followed by the Remarkable Rocks - yup, that’s their real name!

Then, we made our way to Hanson’s Bay Koala reserve to interrupt some naps.  They could have cared less that we were walking around under them.  While there, we also found a few kangaroos and a wallaby, which is basically a mini-kangaroo.

They keep themselves from falling out of the trees with these serious toenails.

We were close!

Wallaby

Off we went a very short distance - like only 75 miles - to Adelaide, arriving there on the morning of the 17th.  We had 2 days there, so we got to really explore.  We took a “Highlights of Adelaide” coach tour which turned out to be a complete waste of time and money.  These kinds of tours are all about the guide and we had a lousy one.  The best part of the tour was a stop at Mt Lofty for a view of the city from above.  

Our train station - that's just funny.

On the 18th, we decided to go on a little adventure on our own, so we took the local train from the station right near the dock to a little town called Semaphore.  It was just lovely!  We had lunch, walked along the beach, and chatted with some of the locals.  

Typical house in this part of Australia.

The 366th day cache!

The highlight of this day came at the very beginning, though.  A milestone for geocachers is to have found a cache on every date of the year and with his find this morning, he filled in his last empty date!  Not only that, but while we were in Melbourne he found his 4000th!  Not sure what the next quest will be…

We were treated to a beautiful sunset.