We had postponed an earlier trip to Australia because of lockdown, but once retired, we resurrected our plans and less than a year later were boarding the plane in Heathrow (our first flight in 10 years!). The plan was to fly into Perth, spend some time travelling around Western Australia before flying over to Adelaide to meet up with family and spend time with them in South Australia. We would then part ways and travel south to Victoria before flying up to Sydney to reconvene.
Day 1 and 2 - Landing in Perth
- Kings Park and Botanic Gardens
- Rottnest Island
Australasian darter, Perth waterside
Rainbow lorikeet, Kings Park
Elizabeth Quay Bridge
Perth waterfront panorama
Leaving Freemantle or Free-o
Rottnest Island quokka
Rainbow bee-eater
Crested tern bathing
Silver gulls
Australian raven
Day 3 to 12-14 - southeast WA by van
- Lake Clifton thrombolites, among the earliest forms of life on earth;
- waking early on our first morning to photograph pelicans and night herons at dawn;
- sunset at Hamelin Bay;
- Beedlup National Park, with the giant karri trees and miniature red-winged fairy wrens;
- Windy Harbour and our first encounter this holiday with Western grey kangaroos.
- Windy Harbour, a small settlement in the D'entrecasteaux National Park.- Valley of the Giants.
- Greens Pool and Elephant Rocks.
Denmark River
- Cheynes Beach
Fast forward a couple of days, we had returned the camper van and landed in Adelaide to met up with family for the next leg of our journey. We spent a night in Glenelg (one of 9 palindromic place names in Australia), before driving down the Fleurieu Peninsula to take the ferry across to Kangaroo Island. There were so many highlights from our two nights on the island, but hear are a few:
- a mob of Western Grey kangaroos relaxing around the corner from our rental and one of my favourite photos from the whole Australian trip!
- Remarkable Rocks - they truly are remarkable!
- long-nosed fur seals in the surf and the seascape of Cape du Couedic.
- Just when we thought we weren't going to see a koala, we parked randomly and what was in the tree next to the car...?!
- almost stepping on a black tiger snake!
- spotting my first albatross (a shy albatross) from the ferry heading back to the mainland.
From Kangaroo Island, we drove "around the corner" to Goolwa for a night on the Murray River - my brother-in-law had found us a four-berth converted paddle-steam moored in amongst the reeds in the estuary. It was a fantastic night, with black swans, pelicans and a myriad of other water birds swimming passed. And we had our first and only encounter with a rakali - an Australian aquatic mammal, smaller than our European otter, but just as graceful in the water.
Returning to Adelaide, we hired another car and headed off towards Melbourne and Phillip Island. We spent two nights at Meningie, on the shores of Lake Albert (more pelicans), a night near Portland (and the only mainland gannet colony in Australia) and a long drive down the Great Ocean Road, to spend a night near the Twelve Apostles.
Our final stop before heading north to Sydney was, after negotiating the Melbourne traffic, was Phillip Island. My initial impression was one of disappointment - it felt over-developed. But, once we go away from the main spine road across the island, that all changed. We spent a fantastic day walking around Cape Woolamai State Faunal Reserve, before heading over to Summerlands to watch Fairy Penguins emerge from the ocean and return to their nesting burrows (no photography allowed) - one of the highlights of the whole trip!
Returning to Melbourne, we took the short flight up to Sydney for most of the rest of our trip, staying with my brother-in-law and his family. We spent most of the next three weeks in and around the city, but also a couple of stays out of town.
We had spent a night (under canvas in a hammock) in the Queensland rainforest on a previous visit, which was an experience. On this trip, three of us drove north from Sydney to spend a few nights in a lodge in the middle of the Barrington Tops rainforest. What a fantastic place! King parrots, crimson rosellas, pied currawongs and a host of other birds wherever you looked, with pademelons feeding below the veranda! The only downside was the number of leeches - fascinating animals, but they kept you moving!
Our final trip (in fact three separate trips) before flying home was out to the Blue Mountains, a place we have returned to on each of our Australian trips.
