KI (2)

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Our first full day on the island was Hogmanay and we drove up to the "capital" Kingscote in the north to get provisions in for New Year. On the return journey, we stopped at Island Beehive where they produce honey from Ligurian bees. We had some nice tasters but we didn't do the factory tour. Their honeycomb ice cream was excellent however.

The next pit stop was KI Spirits - the smallest distillery you have ever seen. It was very homely, but production was little more than a domestic kitchen could do. The sampling session was good however -  we tasted their gin, but skipped their range of flavoured vodkas and went for their liqueurs:

We then compounded the felony and indulged in their Drunken Ice Cream - basically, it was the same honeycomb ice cream we'd already sampled at the Island Beehive, with added walnuts, doused in spirit - and just to make sure, some honey and walnut liqueur was poured over the top! Here's the ingredients:

It was a lovely way to spend an hour or so in a nice homely farmstead setting. Here we are with big grins after the tasting:

We shared dinner at the cabin and stayed up to see the New Year in - a fairly raucous game of cards helped keep us all awake.

On New Year's Day, we decided to head west. We made a quick stop at Vivonne Bay where Kelly and Chris had spent a few hours the day before. It's a gorgeous beach - Jo found a sea horse washed up:

We drove on and stopped for coffee at one of the few places open on this public holiday - the Koala Centre and Walk. We didn't do the formal walk - no need - there were 2 koalas in the trees where we parked - male and female apparently, although we learned that the female was probably sterilised anyway, as they had too many koalas on the island for the eucalyptus trees which they feed on, and they'd had to introduce a programme to ensure numbers didn't keep escalating.

After that, we entered Flinders Chase National Park and headed down to the south west corner of the island to see what they call Remarkable Rocks - and they were. Formed naturally millions of years ago, there were some very strange shapes on view:

We picnic-ed there too:

After lunch, we headed back to the Park HQ and Jo and I went on the 4.5 km walk out to the Platypus watering hole. It was a lovely walk, but it was still way too hot to see any animals - they only appear when the sun goes down and it begins to cool off. Here's Jo at the watering hole:

So that was it - now back to base camp where Ross was taking a day out, chilling and reading.

Kangaroo Island (1)

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On Sunday morning, we drove both cars down to David and Lorene's in Port Elliott, where we transferred stuff from Kelly's car to David's and then headed for the ferry at Cape Jervis for our hour long sail to Kangaroo Island. It wasn't a huge ferry but its manoeuvrability in the tiny port was amazing - it had to turn a complete 180° to get the car ramp facing the right way:

There was a bit of swell on the crossing, but nothing much - just enough to keep Jo quiet for a while, though:

Notice how focussed Jo is, whilst everyone else is chatting away?

The landing at Penneshaw - although a small port, it's not as tight as Cape Jervis:

We made a slight detour to an Arts Centre that Lorene wanted to see. At its entrance was a stone octopus:

KI is quite a big island and we had to make our way all the way from Penneshaw in the far north east down to Seal Bay (near Vivonne Bay) in the south:

We checked in to our cabins near Seal Bay - there were only 6 of them, and we had booked 2. They were basic, but functional, and would be fine for our short break. They had a nice decking overlooking the bush, facing mostly east:

For our first night, we dined at the resort centre. It was fairly basic, but it did the trick. Kelly and Chris took a shine to one of the old benches:

Whilst the rest of us sat at another table:

So that was day 1 - arrival. More to follow.

Between Boxing Day and KI

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Thursday 27th was a quiet day. Kelly and I walked to the park that surrounds the city centre, then  Kelly went off to meet one of her pals, whilst I sat in the park and read - at least until the workers who were erecting stands and fences for New Year finally got to me and I wandered off. It was nice for a while though.

On Friday, we all headed for town in different ways and different times. Kelly, Ross and Chris walked in, whilst Jo and I sauntered down the Parade and then jumped on a bus. Would they take our Senior Bus Passes? Sorry - got to be Aussie ones.

We strolled around the city centre and bumped in to Chris and Ross a couple of times, finally all meeting up in the Exeter Hotel for a beer - a place we had visited before - a bit grungey - not at all up-market, but fine by us. We decided to try somewhere else for our next beer and lunch, but the 2 places we chose were shut until 4 pm! Never mind, we found a nice little Greek restaurant and had a nice time.

When we were at Rundle Mall, there was a petition to save a historic old fountain which they are now planning to demolish for some reason. Here's what might be one of the final sightings of this:

In the evening, we just ate in Kelly and Chris' back court. Ross was making Cuba Libre's:

On Saturday, Kelly stayed at home and chilled out, whilst Chris drove Ross, Jo and I to the Barossa for some more sampling and viewing.

Our first stop was at the famous Jacob's Creek. We didn't really want to taste any of their wines, but thought we would look in to their new visitor centre anyway:

Next stop was an altogether less industrial winery, recommended by Chris - Rockford, located in farm/steading type buildings - look at their front web page - http://www.rockfordwines.com.au/

What a beautiful place - and they had a sideline in preserves as well, so we did a fair bit of shopping here.

From wine to beer - we arrived at Barrosa Valley Brewing (http://www.bvbeer.com.au/Display/) in lovely Tanunda. Great place, super beers and sampler trays too - what's not to like?

We left there to head for the other Barossa brewery in Greenock. We'd been there before but it was shut - and it was again this time, so there's no way we're giving them a 3rd chance. We then hotfooted it back to Tanunda, but also stopped off at another of Chris' winery recommendations  - Torbreck (http://www.torbreck.com/) - super place and quality again.

Back at the brewery, we had hoped to fill our Growler (we'd bought one at Lobethal Bierhaus on Sunday) but they didn't have the licence to do this, so we just settled for another quick beer:

So that was Saturday - the following day we were heading off to Kangaroo Island for 4 nights, including New Year.