Bouncing Around Kangaroo Island

27.August.2006 – 3.September.2006

We’ve had the goal to give back before we started this around the world trip to give back in some manner. Nadine researched organizations, contacted people, and finally set up a volunteer experience on Kangaroo Island. We would volunteer with WWOOF as sub-wwoofers. WWOOF is an acronym for Willing Workers On Organic Farms. In a wwoofing situation, an individual or couple, volunteer their services, usually manual labor, for half a day while the hosts provide food and lodging.

We were fortunate to set up our wwoofing experience with Dean and Judy Johnson from American River on Kangaroo Island. From Adelaide, we jumped on a bus south to the coast, hopped on a ferry, rode another shuttle, and finally arrived at Muston Heights B&B. Dean welcomed us warmly at the gate and then drove the winding red clay driveway past wallabies to their cozy little abode.

At the early hour of 8:30 (5 in the afternoon local Texas time), we started our first half day of work. I mowed grass and pulled weeds outside, while Nadine did some gardening and cleaning inside. For our point of view, it was great just helping someone out, and more importantly, meeting some Aussies in their daily setting. After an arduous morning of work, we visited the thriving metropolis of American River. It’s not actually located on a river, but an inlet of the sea. The town earned its name after a few Americans built a boat 200 years ago.

We concluded our meandering as Americans in American River by mailing two bottles of Barossa Valley wine back to the States, and hiked a lengthy nature trail back to the Muston Heights B&B.

The following day was complete with mowing, cleaning, and setting some rock down for their garden. Our reward for a full day’s work was a full day off to explore.

Simply stated, Kangaroo Island earned its name from British and French sailors who found an overwhelming number of kangaroos on the island.

Even further back in history before the Europeans named this island based on its wildlife, a misunderstanding between Captain Cook and the Aboriginal population named this beast. When Captain Cook initially interacted with the Aboriginals, he asked what was the name of that hopping marsupial right under that tree. He misunderstood the true meaning of their response. They simply answered kangaroo. From then on, the British called the kangaroo, well, a kangaroo. The word kangaroo in the Aboriginal language doesn’t actually refer to the animal, but simply means “I don’t know.” Thus, when the Aboriginals were asked what that animal was, they said “I don’t know,” and the explorers took it to be the name for the kangaroo. They really messed that one up. That takes us back to an important lesson, communication is the key.

With a day and a car at our disposal, without hesitation we drove through the idyllic red ochre roads to a Koala Park. It was here that we walked around staring at the groggy koalas hanging out in the eucalyptus trees. We counted ten, Nadine being responsible for spotting nine of them.

We continued on to Flinders Chase National Park. Walking up to the Visitors Center, a sign informed the public to kindly remember your license plate number for a park pass. Directly below the sign, I spotted a small, red kangaroo just chillin’ in the sun. He blended into the scenery! Our presence did not disturb him, so we snapped a few pics and stared at him for a while in disbelief. Even though kangaroos are supposedly endemic like deer in the U.S., this was the only kangaroo we saw in all of Australia.

From the rangers station, hundreds of New Zealand seals were swimming, lounging, and frolicking around the Admiral’s Arch seal colony. All the while, huge waves crashed against the rocks while months old baby seals suckled at their mother’s teats. The smell of the entire area would make you believe you were in the middle of Albuquerque, New Mexico on a midsummer day.

Up the coast are the Remarkables, a set of rocks that shot up from the ocean as magma and have taken on some unique forms from erosion over thousands of years. This locale rendered great photo ops. And as many Daniel Radcliffe fans will readily note, this is the same place that he filmed the movie, The December Boys. A film even more popular than his Harry Potter series.

Time dictated we return to American River before the sun set and we would be more likely to hit an ominous creature in the Johnson’s car. By the end of the day, we had seen koalas, a porcupine, a single kangaroo, 2 tiger snakes (very poisonous, Nadine shouldn’t have played with them), a large lizard, and hundreds of humans.

Our hosts Judy and Dean are great people and have had some great life experiences. Both are close to my parents age and keep a very busy work schedule farming, cleaning, flying, cooking, maintaining a B&B, washing, and everything in between. During the evening, we would sit around the fire laughing, talking, and watching tv.

As a matter of fact, Dean also flies planes. On a weekly basis he flies back and forth between Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. There was even an English version of the Amazing Race (a show Nadine and I have applied for a few times) that raced around Kangaroo Island. He flew a few teams around and back over to the mainland. He even flew us back to Adelaide. The flight afforded fantastic aerial views and he handed me the controls. Dean slyly took back control of the plane and performed a little roller coaster move, pulling back on the controls and following it with a dip of the plane which left Nadine screaming. She blamed me for that little maneuver.

Answers to the G’day Mate questions

1) Cyclones only happen in the Southern hemisphere while hurricanes take place in the Northern hemisphere. 1A) Makes you wonder why Iowa State is called the Cyclones. I know Nate must be scratching is head about that one.

2) Nadine and I actually saw one of these in the wild recently.

Questions for this week

1) How many of the worlds most deadliest snakes are found in Australia?

2) How many of these did Nadine and I see so far in Australia?

Cheers
JW