Victor Harbour - 16th July, 2009

Today we set off relatively early for our trip to Victor Harbour. What a breeze our trips have been in terms of planning, as we cleverly brought along our Navman (the old days we used to have to read the maps). Our first stop was at the tourist information centre,where we looked at booking a whale watching cruise. Unfortunately not today, but we were able to see from a map where some whale spotting hot stops, which we decided to drive along, with no luck.We did though, book our tickets for the night time penguin spotting on granite island. Our day then commenced with walk over the causeway to granite island. This island reminded me of the landscape of Scotland and to Michael the coastline of Ireland. The island is covered with granite boulders of different sizes. The kids spent their time imagining the things they saw in the shapes of the boulders We were able to take some amazing shots of the beautiful landscape and plant life. Our walk around the island only took about 45 mins, with a stop for morning tea overlooking the coast. From here we went to the township of Goolwa, which once was a major shipping town for the transportation of goods to the Murray River. With the development of other forms of transport eg; trucks and trains, this town soon needed to find other attractions. We managed to have a lovely lunch down on the wharf, near the bridge that goes over to Hindmarsh Insland.
As we had a few hours before the evening penguin spotting, we decided to take a drive through the Fleurieu Peninsula, via The Inman Valley and down to Cape Jarvis. This is where the ferries leave from for Kangaroo Island. On our way we stopped at a spot, where the HMAS Hobart has been sunk and is now used as a diving wreck. As our penguin tour wasn't scheduled for 6.00pm we headed back to Victor Harbour where we had the WORST fish and chips(yuck, yuck,). On granite island you are met by a tour guide for penguin spotting, who talks about the penguins habits during the tour. At one part we even got to feel the pelt of a penguin. We were fortunate enough to spot around 20 of the fairy penguins and one possum. The reasoning behind the night time spotting, is that the penguins spend all day out feeding in the ocean and return in the evening to their burrows. Before entering the burrows they prean their feathers. I almost forgot, we were lucky enough to see a baby chick (penguin) that it's parents had made their nest underneath the Granite Island sign (see photo).