C ADELAIDE

On Sunday morning,  around 6:30AM the bus picks us up at our hotel for the Kangaroo Island tour.  We take a bus through the countryside and then catch a ferry out to the island and return via seaplane.  Kangaroo Island turns out to be one of our favorite places.  The scenery is beautiful and our tourguide was absolutely wonderful and very funny.
During the tour of the island we visit an Emu farm where we get to see the "exciting" process of the making of eucalyptus oil.  It turns out this product does just about everything - it's a shame that one of the bottles I brought home with me burst in my suitcase!  After that, we visit Seal Rock where we view seals from a distance sunning themselves.  Then we are taken by a tour guide down to the beach where we stand among the sea lions.  We are warned to stay in groups because they may take chase if they see anyone seperated.  We have a few close calls as some of them rush towards us, but nobody gets hurt.  We view many other sites on the island and have a nice Australian BBQ lunch where we spend lots of time chatting with our island tourguide.

Other sites include visits to the outdoor Rundle Mall and the Adelaide Casino. Just like the casino in Melbourne, these just don't compare to Las Vegas, or even Atlantic City, NJ.  None of them prove to be winners for us, although we do get a see a new game there.

That evening, we are scheduled for the very popular Rod Steinart's Outback Bushmans Dinner/Surf the Stars tour. I call to confirm everything, only to find out that the place burned to the ground a few weeks back and they are now in the process of rebuilding it. There is no replacement for the tour at this time.   I also call to try to reserve another thing, which is a camel breakfast.  Well, not only are the camels booked already for breakfast, but also for dinner that evening and since we're leaving the next morning it's not an option to try any other times.  In the end, this works out to be in our favor, as I find a good replacement in Ayers Rock for both of these tours.  We decide instead to have dinner and watch folksinger Ted Egan that evening, which turns out to be not too terribly bad.  Next time, we know that Alice Springs is certainly a place we can skip. 

E AYERS ROCK

In Alice Springs, I had picked up some literature on tours in Ayers Rock and called to book a Sunset Camel Tour for that evening.  This incorporates all of the things we missed in Alice Springs for the most part.  We are picked up 
at our hotel and taken to the camel tour.  There are about a dozen camels tied together and after a brief camel history we climb aboard ours.  We ride out into the desert at sunset and along the way our tour guide stops and points out 
various things in the desert.  We stop just as the sun is setting over Ayers Rock and our tourguide takes each person who has a camera and takes their photo aboard the camel with the rock in the background. 

We return and have a nice spread of food and drinks to enjoy, including smoked camel.  Next we are taken back to our hotel where we are treated to an aussie barbeque.  We get to choose our own raw meat or fish to cook on the big open grill.  I choose the safe route of beef while Frank chooses Alligator.  We cook our meats and get some of the other veggies and bread there and eat while enjoying some live entertainment.  It was great.

After dinner, a bus picks us back up and takes us to the Ayers Rock Observatory for that evening.  We get to peek through several telescopes and planets and stars in the distance and get to hear a little bit about them.  Definitely worth it - we had a great time!

G DUNK ISLAND

We check out the events schedule and notice a rainforest horesback ride.  Sounds great, we book it for that evening.  When we arrive, we are both asked if we'd had any experience.  Frank has had none, and I've been on a horse about 3 times in my life, but apparently when I filled out the form I didn't read it close enough.  They had 2 intermediate horses lined up for us, but we weren't intimidated and it went quite well.

The ride itself was not the relaxing ride we expected.  It was an adventure up and down hills and narrow trails, and sometimes a little scary - we weren't sure the horses would make it.  Our guide did stop and take our picture on the horses which was nice.  That evening we attend a barbeque and are seated with 2 other nice couples from Melbourne for dinner.  We have a great time, talking most of the evening until the wildlife dominates the conversation.  First a mouse-like creature ends up in the brush behind us and not too long later we notice a snake there as well - after being told there are no poisonous snakes on the island!  The guys scare the snake off, but I'm pretrified walking back to our room through the woods!

We ordered a picnic lunch for the next day, but when Frank arrives the next morning to pick it up it isn't ready.  The order wasn't placed.  They are very apologetic, and offer to take care of it right away and even bring it to us.  An hour later Frank returns to pick it up and they've packed food for four by mistake, but since they had a problem earlier, they just give it to us anyway.  It's way too much food!  We haul the basket out to the beach where we had rented a boat and hoped to go to a secluded part of the island to eat.  As we near the coast, we start hitting bottom and realize the water is just too shallow.  We return to the deeper water and drop anchor and eat in the boat.  It's nice, we even see a few sea turtles.  However, when we got to leave we can't get the anchor back up.  We think about resorting to using the butter knife to slice the rope, but finally get it loose and are on our way.  That night, we have a champaigne sunset cruise on a sailboat, but when we arrive it looks like a big storm is about to blow in.  We wait for a while, and then they decide it's safe.  We got a few sprinkles, but not much and the water ends up being quite rough.  They really try to force the champaigne on you there, but we survive anyway!

The next morning we hear rushing water outside our door around 7am.  We check it out and think "wow, what a nice little waterfall", only it's starting to make it impossible to get out of our steps.  We call the front desk to check it out and it turns out a pipe had burst outside our room.  They spend the rest of day outside our room, digging out the area to fix the problem.  After breakfast that morning, I am scheduled for a scuba diving lesson in the pool in preparation for a dive we are going on that afternoon.  It's supposed to be a group lessong, but I'm the only one signed up so I get my own private lesson in front of the entire island, as the pool is in front of all of the restaurants.  My instructor is really nice, and after a little struggle I finally get the hang of it.  This turns out later to be a blessing, as the lesson they give us on the boat I would have never made it through!
 

Later that morning we arrive at the dock to take the scuba tour of the Great Barrier Reef.  We board the large boat and it takes off for the reef.  The ride out is very rough, the large boat is catching air left and right and although I've never been sea sick before, I suddenly notice I'm getting the cold sweats.  Frank tells me to get to the back of the boat, and as I walk back there I'm sure I'm not going to make it without losing my breakfast.  Well, I get outside of the back of the boat and my instructor from that morning checks on me and brings me some ice water.  After a while, I start to feel much better.  The other first time divers are getting their instruction for our dive(s) that day from the second instructor on the boat, and I catch the end of the lesson there.  Frank is certified so he gets to go out with the other experts and my instructor from that morning on his first dive.  Next thing I know, they are getting us ready for the dive.  We put on our wetsuits and flippers, then they strap what seems like another hundred pounds of weights on me before putting the tank on me as well.  I can barely keep my balance, then I have to put on the flippers and walk to the the smaller boat that drops us out in the reef.  I'm not sure I'll even make it.

We head out to the reef and we all jump off the boat into the beautiful clear blue reef water.  It's only about 4 feet deep, but as I touch bottom the waves start to knock me over and with the flippers I can't keep my balance.  I swallow a few gallons of salt water and next thing I know that breakfast I managed to salvage earlier is now fish food.  After heaving for a while, I feel much better and then we have our little lesson in the water.  I manage to survive that and then off we go into the deep!  It's actually pretty nice, only I have a hard time clearing my ears - I feel like my head is going to explode a few times.  Our instructor guides the 4 of us along, pointing things out to us and picking up things for us to touch.  We even get to touch a sea clam, which feels like velvet! The finale of our dive is everyone standing on the bottom as we are guided into a backflip.  This entire thing is also being filmed by an underwater cameraman, including the flip.  We then ascend to the top to get back onto the big boat for lunch.  I have a hard time holding on to the tow rope with the waves knocking me around,  and a harder time climbing out of the water and up the steps with all of the weights.  I end up cutting my foot on something and by the time I get inside I'm bleeding and have to get some first aid.

Frank arrives from his dive a little while later and asks me how I did.  I'm not very enthusiastic.  While it was nice, I got sick and cut my foot and all in all I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the whole experience.  He asks me if I'm going on the second dive, and I'm pretty negative about that one.  We eat lunch and the cameraman comes around to harrass me about not wanting to dive again.  Of course, I finally agree to try it a second time.  After all, when will I ever return to the Great Barrier Reef?  There are even fewer people on the second dive, so I get to go with Frank and with my original instructor.  This dive was a little deeper, and although it was nice I have a hard time keeping up without trying to float to the top or sink to the bottom.  The instructor keeps coming over to make adjustments so I can keep up, as I'm not touching any of that stuff!   Again, the cameraman is following us around, even gets Frank to hold my hand in the water.  Of course, this makes for great film later and we end up buying the video of the entire trip, which is supposed to include everyone on the trip but is clearly biased towards us with all of our footage!  I do survive the second dive without any of the problems of the first, but am in no hurry to do it again.

We return to our room and I am desperate to take a shower.  Of course, we have no hot water.  Frank calls the front desk and they send someone to reset the breaker, but I just can't wait and I take an ice cold shower.  Again, they are very apologetic and by now they even know our names!  The next morning we just enjoyed the pools before our trip back to the mainland.  The flight back takes a lot longer, and we are even convinced our pilot is lost for a while, but we do finally get back to Cairns.