March 11

March 9 - 11: Open Seas Cruising & Adelaide

March 9 - 10: Open Seas Cruising & Adelaide
After leaving Esperance we sailed across the "Great Australian Bight" (see map above right). We both enjoyed the days "off" and the time flew by. One of the best highlights was when Kim took on the challenge of climbing the rock wall on deck 12! See the video at below:

We both found the days just FLEW by. We walked about 2 1/2 miles each day for a morning exercise. We read some; we watched several hours of a miniseries, "The Kennedy's" which Brad and Lauren had given us for Christmas. It's excellent by the way, and I am finding out all kinds of things I didn't know about the family and that period of time. I also was able to get the Internet without any problem, so I was able to enter our journals and videos, and able to upload them all. It means a lot to both of us that so many people are reading them and sending us their comments either through our Facebook links, through text messages, or through an email.

The first night at sea was the first of three "Formal Dinner" nights. You can see our pic at the left - it was the only one that I could sport my new glasses. And the other five or six photos of us were terrible. Several of them the photographer was about a foot away from our face and we just don't need an 8 1/2 x 11 inch close up of our faces! :) The second night was termed "smart casual" for the attire. I wore a jacket with an open neck shirt, and found once we reached the dining area that this had been the choice of most men. We were seated at a new table on the second night and again the conversation was just wonderful. Everyone at the table was so very, very friendly and we enjoyed sharing our life stories with them, and hearing theirs. The couple close to us had just retired - she at the beginning of this school year as she, like I, was a retired school teacher!

We had to set the alarm for the arrival in Adelaide, as the ship docked around dawn (which was 7:00 am) and we wanted to get coffee before our 8:30 am tour began. As it turned out we had timed it all perfectly and were in the Aurora theatre a little before our meeting time of 8 am. I went down to the stage area where they were passing out stickers based on your tour and bus. It was very efficiently organized, and it had to be.......last night at the show the tour director had told everyone that over 900 passengers were getting off before 9 am - that's out of a total guest count of 2,100 - so a little less than half!

We didn't have to wait more than fifteen minutes before our number was called and we left the ship. Today the door out was right there on deck 5 literally right outside the theatre. When we were documented off we went through a very nice port facility (unlike Esperance for example which was a board dock and a rock & sand beach :) When we emerged from the facility it was like being at Disney World! There were busses everywhere, and they were all clearly marked - as you walked out the doors there was a girl there pointing everyone where to find their busses (because of our florescent tags!). We boarded and within minutes we were ready to roll into Adelaide.

Our tour guide was a gentleman by the name of John who was full of information to share, which made the travels very interesting and the time passed quickly. It was explained that when Adelaide was first settled it was a planned city from the very beginning; and according to John, one of the few like it in Australia. Near the port there was mostly industrial growth, but he showed us how waterfront apartments and entertainment districts had begun to grow as some of the older port business had slowed. And then we reached what was called the park district. The way the city was laid out - quite an interesting and well-thought-out plan I thought - was that the city itself would be one square mile. Then bordering it all the way around would be open parks. If you look at the panoramic view of the city below you can see how this appears. And even the parks were designed to fit a plan, not just open parks. On the southern end the parks were more geared towards gardens and open parks for family picnics, etc. But on the northern edge the parks were designed for sporting - rugby and soccer fields, areas for an entertainment fair, and so on. On the west side of town the parks were largely gardens.  Once we got into the city itself many of the buildings were very light in color, from sandstone, and the closer you got to the center, the more you got into more business and government buildings. It was quite obvious that the city had not simply sprouted up in a haphazard fashion. One of the most interesting things we saw, I thought, was the original rail station. The building itself was a pretty piece of archeticture, but was most interesting to me was that with the decline in railway travel and transportation the upper three two floors of the structure were empty. So rather than let that remain, the city, in cooperation with ownership of the casino, moved the casino onto the top two floors of this downtown building. I thought that was such a smart use of the building and location - gives the casino a prime location, draws people into the downtown district, and makes use of a historical and attractive building.

After leaving the downtown area and entering the edges of the northern park we could see the hillside area up ahead. We headed through a natural gorge and drove to the top where we eventually stopped at Mount Lofty. This is marked with a light tower - see at right - and provides a panoramic view of all of the greater Adelaide area...... see photo below.  When we reached the observation area Kim filmed me doing the introduction to today's video and then we looked around for about fifteen minutes before heading back down the hillside to the Cleland Wildlife Park. As we traveled down the narrow, winding road there were two structures of interest - one was a private home that was built in the mid-1800s which was a castle. It still remains a private family residence, and the view is awesome of the valley below. Also we drove past a hotel/resort which had an even more spectacular view.

It wasn't long before we reached our destination. As we pulled to a stop John told us we'd be here for about two and a half hours. From what I had read about the wildlife park I thought that was an awfully long time to wander around and see what appeared to be a small - but interesting - sample of wildlife. But I also had the thought flash through my mind simultaneously that they had done this MANY more times than I had and probably had a pretty good handle on how long you needed......and that was indeed the case!

We entered the park and saw a Tasmanian Devil. Interesting little fellow - looked like a gigantic rat, or perhaps a small guinea pig. But what was most fascinating about him was that while we stood there, for over five minutes, it was apparently his morning exercise time........ there was a large tree with shrubs stationed in the middle of his open-air containment area. The devil just kept running laps the entire time! Never changed speeds, or stopped.....made it easy to get photos and video, but it was pretty amusing!  After seeing the Tasmanian Devil we saw a huge lizard....took a few minutes to find him as he blended into the background pretty well, but we spotted him. And then it was on into the kangaroo area. As we'd driven up the hillside John had told us that kangaroo and koalas lived in the wild all up and down the hillside. Kim even spotted a kangaroo as we approached Mount Lofty. But here in Cleland Wildlife Park the kangaroos just roamed around and we were told you could walk right up to them! John explained that (a) they were a gentle animal to begin with, and (b) they were very accustomed to tourists coming up to them. He also informed us you could buy a bag of feed to give them, but he advised against it as they would come to you anyway.

As we entered the huge area set aside for the kangaroos immediately we saw them all over the place. We walked past one that was lounging in the sun and then approached some off to the side near the fence. Kim took the camera and had me be the first. She was far back - probably twenty yards as you see in the video - but the closer I went towards the kangaroo, he didn't move. So I went right up to him and she followed filming it! Then it was Kim's turn and she approached two of them; again they let her come right up to her.....and a third even hopped over to join the crowd!

A little ways farther ahead a family was petting two kangaroo so we walked up and when we got there the kangaroo were just so friendly, letting first Kim and then me to pet them. Their fur was very soft and felt like a nice warm, but light-weight comforter. It was just amazing to walk right up to them and pet them - but hey, we're in Australia! You SHOULD be able to say hello to their best-known species of wildlife!

When we had arrived at the entrance to the Cleland Wildlife Park our group had been introduced to the park and given maps by a worker there. She made special emphasis to point out that the koala bears "would be brought out" at 11 am. She also explained that you could walk right up to them - with a handler there - and you could pet them; or for a charge you could actually hold one and have your photo taken. After seeing the kangaroos it was about ten minutes to eleven and we kept trying to determine from the map how to get to the koala area. We were eventually joined by two other couples who had also discovered dead ends and eventually we found our way.  The first area was a small enclosed area - a circle with a diamater of about twenty yards - that had like a hut in the center divided into about six "apartments." Each had it's own tree with fresh leaves for the koalas. And sure enough, there they were. They were MUCH larger than I had envisioned them to be. A couple of them were sleeping, but several of them were active. And before we left one of them imitated the Tasmanian Devil and began doing his morning laps!

A line had formed to see the koalas and I asked Kim if she wanted to hold one as I was more than happy to pay for that - we had the time to wait and when would we be in Australia to hold a koala again. She said she'd be content to pet them and have our photo taken. The couple in front of us were curious about where to hold one for the price and he went up the line where it said to go for that experience; but he returned and said it was the same place we were heading now - which was NOT a hold/photo spot. The wife would not let it go and he went again - same report when he came back. I prodded Kim and finally she said she wanted to have that experience, but she wanted me to hold the koala. So Kim set off along the path and I could see her across the way in a couple of minutes, waving for me to join her :) So I crossed over onto that path and went into the building. We were about the sixth one in line and the two girls running the "show" explained that the koala had to take a few minutes to get used to being with the people and have a bite to eat before we could begin. About five minutes later individuals or couples would go up and the instructions were to just stand still and the koala would climb over onto you. You took them like a baby and then he'd turn his head to the camera and there you go! Two people were ahead of us and the koala was tired, so they had to go get another. There were a couple of groups of people behind us who had waited until the last minute to join the line and their bus was scheduled to leave, but as the girl said, "we are on koala time here!" Out came the next koala, Banjo by name. And within minutes it was our turn. As Banjo had his snack and was brought to me Kim videoed - and then once I had him she joined me for the video. Awfully cool to be able to say we held a koala! Awfully big and like the kangaroo, such soft fur!

Tomorrow we are at sea all day, and then on Tuesday we arrive in Melbourne where we take the "Great Ocean Drive" - a 10 1/2 hour excursion up the coastline!