The Australia Day public holiday was on a Thursday this year, so Sara and I decided to take our first extended road trip!  We were off to South Australia – specifically Kangaroo Island and then the state capital – Adelaide.

We left on Wednesday night and made our way about 300kms to the Victorian town of Horsham, where we stayed in a old motel.  During our drive we received a call where they gave us our room number and told us the key would be under the mat.  The next morning when we checked out it was a public holiday, so no one was in the office so we just dropped the key in a key drop and hit the road.  So trusting in the country!

For most of the trip the road looked like the above.  A two lane highway with train tracks next to it and gum trees as far as the eye could see.

We had a scheduled ferry ride to Kangaroo Island at 7pm, so even after covering the last 500km of our trip, we had some time to kill, so we decided to stop in a town near the ferry terminal – Victor Harbor.   They had a nice waterfront area including the first horse drawn tram I’d ever seen.  We did a nice hike and got a late lunch / early dinner before heading over to the ferry.

Arriving late-ish into Kangaroo Island, we just headed straight to our hotel to relax and get ready for a long day of exploring the next day.

The next morning dawned and we set of for the other side of the island – Flinders Chase National Park.  It was about an hour and a half drive.  We made a mistake of using google maps – which tends to route you on the most “direct” route.  This was a problem since the most direct route involved unsealed (dirt) roads.  They were not kind to the Yaris and limited us to about 60kph.  Luckily we were only on them for about 9km.  Lesson learned – the tourist maps we had noted which roads were paved and we stuck to those from that point forward.

We arrived at the park and purchased our visitor pass, got some advice and also got breakfast at the visitor center.  Then we set off for a nice hike with stunning coastal views from Weirs Cove over to Admirals Arch.

After that hike we got back into the car to see the other main attraction at the park – “Remarkable Rocks” – they did not disappoint.  I decided to ride one and Sara did a really poor job of hiding.

After all the bushwalking and assorted adventuring, it seemed like a good time to head to the beach.  So, using our map, we found the only paved road that went to the north shore of the island – and to the town of Stokes Bay.  There we found the beach after a short trail through some rocks.  We relaxed and read our books and generally enjoyed the great day.

After exploring Kangaroo Island, the next day we headed back to the mainland via the ferry.  We stopped at the local pub in Cape Jervis and luckily just beat the 100s of bikies that had come to celebrate the holiday weekend.

After some nice fish sandwiches, it was off to Adelaide for the evening.  As per our typical MO, we found a local microbrewery and enjoyed some fresh beers.

Beer!

We spent most of the afternoon / evening just walking around and exploring the city.  The next morning we went for a run along the river before getting in the car for the 8 hour trip back home.  Luckily there were a few points of interest on the way home.

We acquired some good knowledge for future Australian road trips.  We now know we can’t rely on our experience driving around the USA when driving in Australia.  First, we learned that when you sort of need fuel, you should get it, because the servos are few and far between and not necessarily open 24 hours.  Also, food options are similarly limited  – not plentiful and not always open.   We will put these lessons to use on our next road trip.

Another weekend, another boondoggle.  Sara was headed up to Canberra for 3 days of training, so I used more of my credit card bonus Qantas miles to secure an award flight up there.  I considered driving the 6+ hours, but decided against it.

I headed up after work on Friday and met Sara at our fancy hotel that was in the CBD and a short distance from a nice trail on the lake.  That night we headed to a Brewpub, Bent Spoke Brewing Company, and had some great beer and dinner.  I had a chili that was probably an 11 on the Australian spice scale (would be medium hot in the US).  Sara had a fancy lamb burger.

We’ve been trying to ramp up our distances a bit in running, so this weekend was scheduled to be our first 8 miler in a while.  Luckily we were near a very scenic trail on the lake – making the longer distance easier to deal with.  We woke up and headed right to the trail early-ish on Saturday.

After that we checked out Floriade, which is *famous* in Canberra.  Tulips, tulips and more tulips!  Canberra is not a very large city, it seemed like everyone in town must be at this event.

We then walked over to the war memorial, which was very large and elaborate.  There were dioramas of the various battlefields.  We found the frank language about the utter waste of World War 1 very interesting for a museum.

Sara’s co-worker who lives in Canberra had invited us over for dinner / BBQ so that afternoon we headed out to the burbs for some wonderful grilled meat and company.

Sunday we explored the Parliament – you can actually go into the Senate and House chambers and see where they work.

The also let you up on the roof which has nice views over the lake back towards the War Memorial.

Also, there are close up views of the super-crazy “flagpole” that you can see from all over Canberra.

Our flight didn’t leave until 9pm that night, so after our self tour of Parliament and a stop for lunch we headed out to a national park to for a nice bushwalk.  Very scenic, no snakes!

On the way back we had our first Kangaroo inside a Kangaroo experience.  Priceless!