Sunday morning we drove a really long way on leaving the park - to the corner!! We parked the bus and sat to watch the 'Bay to Birdwood Classic' regretting we hadn't signed up ourselves on Wednesday. It is a rally for classic vehicles and had everything from classic to vintage; cars, sportscars, 4wd's, motorcycles, scooters, panel vans, utes, trucks, VW campers, hotrods etc. As our bus is a classic it qualified so maybe one day we'll come down and enjoy the 10 days of activities which begins with a procession of the vehicles over 2 hours from the Bay(near Glenelg) to Birdwood(Near Gumeracha and the Rocking Horse). People sit along the route in Adelaide to watch and cheer them on. (post note: we have seen groups of vehicles at Victor Harbour and Goolwa since)
At 11.30 we finally made our way out of Adelaide towards Victor Harbour our next stop. The weather was overcast with rainstorms and not conducive to stopping so we missed a few interesting stops - lots of wineries, produce and galleries. Once arriving in Victor Harbour with the weather no better and very windy we decided to chance booking our Penguin night tour for Monday night and postponing our Horse-drawn tram trip as well.
Monday :we awoke to more of the same weather but by 1pm it began to clear a little and we decided it was now or never. By the time we walked into town it had improved and eventually the sun came out and we had carried our rain jackets and umbrellas again for nothing.
What a busy time we had ! We caught the Horse-drawn tram acoss the bridge to Granite Island where we did the island circuit walk and Jess took lots of photos. We returned to the island Bistro and had fish and chips for dinner while waiting to do the 6.30pm Penguin tour. It was a nice meal - the chips were excellent.
Granite Island is a rookery for penguins who return to their nesting burrows to have their chicks each year. They can have up to 3 clutches a season if their weight is kept up ie there is plenty of food. Unfortunately, they are another victim of the Murray River Problem. As a result of declining water levels the nutrients in the river here are reduced, reducing the no. of fish spawned and therefore reducing the amount of food available to the peguins and seals. Also the seals have less fish to eat so they are now hunting the younger penguins. One was in the beach area patrolling near the breakwall in full view waiting for the penguins nightly return. The penguins no's have dropped from 2000, 20 years ago to over 400 last year and half again this year. We were lucky to see them.
The penguin tour at dusk views the little penguins on their return to their young after a days fishing. We saw quite a few including 4 waddling across the tram path to their nests. We also saw a seal,and possums on the cliffs. Missed seeing the 1 metre Water Rats. This was a very good tour; small, personal and not at all contrived, and not dear( $32 for 3).
All we had left at 8pm, carrying our unused raingear, was the walk back across the tramway bridge and back along the foreshore to the c'van park. Boy were my legs tired!!
PS Amanda - another good day trip for the kids!
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