Kangaroo Island

We sailed into Kangaroo Island and took a tender into the little port called Penneshaw. We all noticed how the harbor had some of the clearest waters we’ve seen yet. The island is mostly composed of limestone and granite.

We boarded a small bus and trekked over to Dudley Wines on the Dudley Peninsula on the some of the bumpiest roads so far. They had delicious wines and a fabulous view. I saw a photo where they use to have a sign over the tasting bar that said Wine N Wool Baaaar. In their little gift shop they had wool items from across Australia. I’ve included the adorable driving range below.

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You can see the little boats if you look closely on the left photo. I guess that’s how far you are trying to drive. The boats made us all smile. The drivers left there that you can use as mentioned by real golfers would not be real useful to get the ball as far as the furthest boat. The views are to die for. The wine was good and Kangaroo Island a place all three of use would live. The roads – mostly dirt and bumpy. Traffic jams non existent. The coldest February on record once again. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day weather wise!

They have a wine called Porky Flat Shiraz after porcupines which the Europeans thought they had seen but they were actually Echidna’s!

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Next up was walking around the lighthouse. Reading about historical boat wrecks, enjoying the views and seeing the kangaroos in their natural habitat. These kangaroos are slightly smaller and hairier than those on the mainland.

Our guide, one of the best so far told fabulous stories. He had two kangaroos in his front yard this morning foraging and hit one last night on his way home. …and yes he has a roo bar on his vehicle! Kangaroos remind me of our white tailed deer at home at the beach. Pests. Visitors to Dillon Beach love to take their photo – oh aren’t they cute. We hate to hit them with our car since we’d ruin it. Maybe I need a roo bar?

He also told the story of living through the Sun Vista sinking in 1999. No we do not feel threatened by our ship going down! Folks think that the Sun Vista sinking was for the insurance money…great stories on the internet to read if your interested.

Just for a bit of trivia…The formulation of kangaroo milk changes constantly over the year+ a joey nurses. Its complex, so to summarise: Tiny newborn joeys get a watery, high protein and simple carb, immunity-rich milk; older pouch joeys get high carb, high protein and some fat; big joeys at foot get massive fat and protein and low carbs.

But wait, there’s more. Kangaroo always – she has two unique milk compositions coming out of different nipples at the same time. It’s a general fact that kangaroos don’t have twin joeys. But they do have joeys 9-12 months apart*. Big sister joey @1 year old will leave the pouch just before her little sister is born. Little sister climbs up into the pouch, finds a small teat (there are four, but only three are small enough for her to gobble) and hangs on tight.

Big sister joey shoves her head in the pouch to suckle from ‘her’ nipple. It is huge by this time – the nipple stretches as the joey grows – and sometimes even hangs out of the pouch. Big sister will nurse until she’s about 18 months old. So that’s six months of sharing an increasingly tiny bedroom with big sister. No wonder kangaroo girls have the occasional disagreement!

In fact, they don’t poo or wee until mum tells them to. A boon for a fastidious working mum. You will often see a kangaroo mother put her head into her own pouch. She is keeping it clean. She licks it out regularly to ensure no dirt accumulates. While she’s at it, she gives joey a thorough wash.

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On the way back to the boat after Dudley Winery and the Lighthouse, we stopped and hiked to one of the many stunning beaches around the island. There were six people not counting us and we figured it was a 2-3 mile beach. The water was amazing- well I would have actually gotten into it if I had had a swimsuit and that is rare for me – ask my family. 18 degrees isn’t that warm but my feet certainly enjoyed it! We collected our sand with smiles on our face.

There are about 4,000 locals on the island. There was no recent aboriginal history after the ice age. The Island was originally founded by a group of European folks that included a Buick. His brother went to the United States – guess what he did? The first crops were wheat and barley and of course sheep and cattle.

There are ZERO traffic lights and ZERO taxi’s. Cruise ship guests are lost when they can’t find a taxi. I doubt they have UBER but we didn’t ask. The have a maritime climate here and are very isolated. I asked about fog and he pretty much said what fog. I said I’d happily give them a little of ours from Dillon Beach!

Now you may wonder what happened since many of you may have heard that 50% of the island burned in January? The lightening strike originally started in a ravine. It stayed confined in the ravine for two weeks. A local farmer wanted to clear a fire path to keep it from spreading. The local tree huggers said no way this area is a national park. If that had been allowed they would still have their entire island in tact. Now there is no longer a national park.

Two weeks later the fire storm took off and burned all the way to the south, turned around a burned all the way back to the north in a V formation and wiped out pretty much everything on half the island in ONLY 24 hours! (reminds me of the Tubbs fire in 2017 and the damage it did in 24 hours!) We never even saw a hint of burned areas since this is the third island size wise in Australia. Their tourist industry from the Adelaide area is just now starting to pick up via the ferries. Smoke taint which might be expect on their wines didn’t happen since the winds keep moving in all direction so taint didn’t happen to their grapes. Most of the smoke taint hit the Adelaide area. Sorry folks!

Now the update. The next morning before we started our trip to visit animals and a winery, we were given our new itinerary. Mostly sea days to Cape Town and then sea dys to Rio De Janeiro and mostly sea days to Miami. Miami to San Francisco is unchanged so far. We love sea days. That certainly made it easier to decide.

We understand many are choosing to leave in Fremantle/Perth and head home. Many due to underlying health issues. Others don’t want to go around Africa. If any of the starred ports on our itinerary come to fruition we will be thrilled. Like the Seychelles or seeing Buenos Aires again and especially Devils Island. One lady is leaving because her kids want her home…she is leaving her aunt behind who is adorable and refuses to leave. One husband is staying while his wife is leaving. He had big smiles on his face!

We just have no reason to get off a perfectly healthy at this point in time ship and get into Sydney or points east where the virus is (think Tom Hanks) or even airports at home and the TSA. We imagine there might be 100-150 at best World Cruise passengers left and a full set of crew. No passengers are getting on in Fremantle – we’re not sure about any new crew. Things have become tighter with restrictions of things like game boards or the library or dances, but we imagine as we head across the Indian Ocean some of these restrictions might lift. We have our Italian teacher and his girlfriend, our cruise director and his wife, our butler who will miss his family in India due to the itinerary change. And then there is our captain who would not go home to Italy even if he could! We have Ben our Georgia friend who has one acoustic and one electric guitar so there might be more jam nights! Larkin has her some of her board game friends staying – others haven’t decided.

Michael has a list of wine aficionados who want to talk about wine. He will make that happen. We have games and cards and books and knitting and art work that I have not been able to get to!!! I need to edit my book and I will have no excuses if I don’t work on it! Italian will continue to be our brain challenge. Maria Louisa from Mexico in our Italian class is staying on board and she said she’d teach us Spanish.

Those who are left have a great adventurous attitude and spirit. The ship needs to head to the states, we will be on the ship. We are worried more for our friends at home as the virus spreads so rapidly. Pray we stay healthy and we continue to pray for your health!

Thanks Sienna! Until my Port Lincoln blog, Stay away from crowds! Love and Hugs!