Goolwa weekend

Hello again, after rather a long break. Last weekend we went down to Goolwa, not far from Victor Harbor. However, while Victor Harbor is very much on the ocean, Goolwa marks the boundary between the ocean and the wetlands where the Murray River flows into the sea. It was originally founded as a port to handle the transfer of goods between ocean-going ships and the river craft that would carry them far up the river. The Murray and its tributary the Darling arise in the mountains to the east, in Victoria and New South Wales, and provides irrigation and formerly transport to the huge area between there and Adelaide. It is also one of the sources of Adelaide's water supply. Consequently, there is almost no aspect of its management that is not controversial. Goolwa was an amazingly active shipyard for river steamers in its day. Later, the construction of a railway that bypassed it cut off much of its trade. But it's still a pleasant small town with most civic facilities, increasingly used by tourist traffic.
We were fortunate to be offered the use of his house on the dunes in Goolwa by Brian O'Neill, a colleague in the Adelaide department. Much of the water-front is taken up by new tourist and second homes constuction.

This is the historic wharf area. The train is the "Cockle Train", that runs a scenic route between Goolwa and Victor Harbor. We didn't get up early enough to catch it.....

There is a bridge from Goolwa to Hindmarsh Island, one of those that separates Lake Alexandrina, the final stage of the Murray's meanderings, from the sea. This is from the island side. We walked over and nearly froze. Leaving Adelaide in brilliant sunshine, we neglected to bring sufficiently warm clothes or waterproofs. Home is going to bring a great revision of our habits!

This is the beach, looking over to Victor Harbor in the far distance. As the land thereabouts is fairly flat and alluvial, the dunes assume an almost Netherlands significance.

Liz on the beach. The shades were a little excessive, in my view- it was overcast and distincly cold.

This is the lock in the barrage from the ocean spit to Hindmarsh Island that separates the sea from the freshwater environment. Use of Murray water for farming and idrinking water has reduced the flow at the mouth to 27% or less of its original value. A series of barrages, not just this one, were constructed in the 1930s to prevent the lakes from suffering salinification. The actual Murray mouth is still open, but shifts in position at an almost perceptible rate by build-up of sandbars. Lately, there have been further problems with Lake Alexandrina. Lowering of the level due to drought and over-use of water has exposed sediments to the atmosphere and these are leaching into the lake and reducing its pH. This is being addressed in a way rather similar to the Aral Sea- a barrage is being constructed between the upper and lower lakes, with a view to preserving a habitat for local species at least in the upper portion. I'm not sure what will happen to the lower portion.

This is me looking over the channel between the spit and the island. It is downstream of the barrage, therefore saltwater and properly a part of the Coorong.

And this is typical Coorong terrain.

Plenty of bird life, including pelicans

Black swans

Egrets

And the first Australian Ibis I've seen so far south. They're very common in Queensland, there they scavenge garbage. But these seem still to do their thing in the shallow water.

On the way back we had a walk at a place called Currency Creek. It doesn't look much from the road, but once one goes underneath the viaduct it is unexpectedly pretty.

The entrance to a disused copper mine

It ends in a rocky pool with a small waterfall. Idyllic. This is a rather poor picture that contrives to omit the waterfall.

And another rather poor picture.

Next weekend- an outback safari, visit to Wilpena pound (huge natural amphitheatre in the Flinders ranges), various gorge walks, sleeping under the stars for those who like it
(we're in a lodge room, thank you very much) and a visit to the Clare Valley winery area first-to dull the senses? We shall see.

Kangaroo Island

As this week was the mid-semester break and Liz was still away, I decided to book for a two-day trip to Kangaroo Island. This is reached from Cape Jervis, about 100km SW of Adelaide. The strait is called "Backstairs Passage" and is about 12km at its narrowest. This is twice the distance a bee can fly and KI is now a recognised mite-free reservoir of Ligurian bees that were introduced in the 19th century. Beekeeping is a big business on the island.

The ferry service is a pretty regular one.

It gets in at Penneshaw, one of two substantial towns. The other is Kingscote, the "capital" of the island (i.e. it has the school, the police station, the local authority offices and a cottage hospital.)

Kangaroo Island is about 100 miles long by 40 miles wide. Its population is 4000+, mostly living in the two major towns. It is composed of a limestone plateau with a central "cap" of laterite, a ferrous material. A lot of the roads are sealed, the rest are graded and made of laterite. This gives the scene a rather African look, though of course the bush is eucalypts and not acacias, etc as in Africa. Most of the island is given over to farming- sheep, beekeeping, grain and canola, but there are extensive nature reserves, particularly in the remote west.

On the first day we visited a "birds of prey" centre. Most of them weren't raptors- a toad headed bee-eater (no, I'm not making his up) , a pair of kookaburras etc., but we also saw a barn owl, a peregrine falcon and a wedge-tailed eagle, which was spectacular. This is a kookaburra.

This is the wedge-tailed eagle "hooding" after catching its lure.

And this is a better view of it.

We next visited a Eucalyptus Oil Distillery. The visit started off well with a glimpse of their tame emu,

And got better with some Chemical Engineering. This man extracts eucalyptus oil using a two-stage steam distillation. This is the second stage (all home-made, NB). The steam engine is to pump separated water back to the still for the next batch. The primary distillation is outside and consists of an oil drum heated by a wood fire. The leaves and water are added directly to the drum and a makeshift stillhead and condenser is fitted.

The biggest attraction was an orphaned wallaby joey that was being hand reared. They keep it in a sock inside a leather bag to simulate the maternal pouch. There shoudl be some kind of law against being as cute as this!

Next stop, an animal sanctuary- kind of petting zoo. The kangaroos are mainly the Kangaroo Island Brown type, but there is one albino.

This is an echidna (spiny anteater). It's an egg-laying mammal, I'm told. I hadn't known that the front legs point forward and the back legs point backwards, uniquely in nature. Very difficult to tell which end is which, as a result.

This is a cassowary

And they have a lot of koalas. They had been extinct on the island and were re-introduced. There are now > 10,000 and they're killing the native trees off. A cull was proposed but was opposed by the animal rights people, so now they're catching them one by one, dragging them down the tree scratching and biting and sterilising them. Total cost $Au 8million- it would be

cheaper and a lot more humane to shoot them.

The 'roos are tame enough to hand feed. These were pretty near satiated by the time we'd finished, but they kept gamely eating.

Next stop a beach where sealions breed. We were allowed down among them but with a lot of rstrcitions to stop them being stressed. They seemed quite unfazed, but the guide was rather tense.

They just lie and sleep most of the time.

Being limestone, KI has caves. The Kelly cave was discovered when a stockman and his horse (Kelly) fell through a sink-hole into the acves. The stockman managed to climb out- the horse has never been discovered.

I couldn't get the flash on the borrowed camera to work, so this is all I can show. They're very much dryer than European limestone caves and the stalactites are very slow-growing with few stalagmites. There is one formation called a helictite that I haven't seen before- a bent stalactite. This results from the drops not getting down to the tip but evaporating at a mid-pint and forming a spur.

Where we had lunch there were a lot of wild koalas in the trees. (To be honest, this was at the sanctuary. In the wild, they sleep a lot further up and one can't photograph them too well.)

The "Remarkable Rocks" are just that. They're a granite intrusion, presumably from deep in the earth. There are a lot of hollowed-out "scoops" that seem to be _underneath_ the rocks. Gas bubbles? Erosion? No one really knows.

You get to them along a boardwalk. We're told there are a lot of snakes in the bush. But this could just be a ploy to make people walk on the boardwalk and save the plants. You don't take risks- only 2 varieties of Australian snakes aren't venomous.

They really are weird.

Yes, fans, I was there.........

The coast around is pretty impressive.

We also went to a formation called Admiral's Arch to see the New Zealand Fur Seal colony. The scenery there, too is pretty impressive

But the seals are not easy to approach. (This is from a gantry underneath the arch.) I've been closer to these beasts in New Zealand itself.

Finally back to Kingscote and a guy who feeds the pelicans every evening. Messy job- there is a reason he's wearing that hat.

Messy eaters, at the best of times.

It was a good tour- not cheap, but worth the cash. The arrangements went like clockwork and the overnight accommodation was of a good standard. To be recommended.