KI Day 2

Very quiet location of hotel, however was quite windy outside last night so my room door kept rattling. Will work out a cunning way to stop the same happening tonight. My little gaggle were all up early for breakfast and we were all on the bus ready for our 9 am departure, well.... All bar one who was a whole minute late. So I deemed it my mission to let her know in no uncertain terms that we were now going to have to cut our tour day short by one minute, and as our last stop for the day was to be a winery, I was not happy at the potential loss of tasting time!!!! It became a standing gag all day that we would miss out on so many things because CB kept us all waiting for 1 minute. Thankfully she took it in great humour and I think she secretly liked the extra attention.
And so to our day, cooler today of about 22 and cloud cover nearly all day, so very pleasant. First stop for the morning was straight to Seal Bay where we joined our guide Tania, for a walk down to the sand dunes and water's edge to see the local Australian Seal colony. It is breeding season so was very interesting to see the young bulls showing off with their 'play' fighting, and the older big bulls sniffing around the young females, where some of the young females who appeared to be flirting then would back away. It kind of reminded me of the old days at the Police Club on pay nights!!!!!
we then went to the 'Raptor Domain' to see the Birds of Prey show which was really interesting and very much hands on for anyone who want to pat owls and hold a wedge tailed eagle. The birds were very well cared for and the 2 presenters were clearly passionate about caring for them. Well worth the visit. Then off to Vivionne Bay (named Australia's best beach, but I don't know who is responsible for giving it that titles) for lunch which was really nice. One thing is for certain, there is no shortage of good meals to be had.
After lunch we all waddled back on to the coach and head towards our next stop, but have a couple of little detours as one of the ladies has asked if we are going to see koalas as she has never seen them in the wild. Our lovely bus driver for the day, Les was able to get us off the main road and over the Cygnet River (which doesn't have any water in it due to such low rainfall ) and Lo and behold we sight 2 koalas up a gum tree. This totally made that lady's day! Lots of photos and back on the coach to the Island Pure sheep dairy where we are informed on the milking if sheep and the cheese and yoghurt production process. The Haloumi is to die for and I'll be buying up the KI Feta when I get home. Our day is not yet done so now we are off to the North Cape and the Bay of Shoals winery for a wine tasting of the local wines. There are 7 wineries on the island and there is a bit of sharing of grapes to make different varietal wines. I was not happy to hear that this particular winery had pulled up their Chardonnay grapes in favour of another variety... Oh well, just as well the Sav Blanc was quaffable. My oldies couple who are very keen on a tipple at any time of the day, bought up big. Not sure how they think they are getting it all back on the ferry though. Maybe they can hide some bottles in the seat of her walker!!! Or possibly there won't be any left for the ferry trip home the way the two of them knock it back. Good luck to 'em I reckon as long as I don't have to pay for it or clean up after them if it all gets ugly.
Lovely views from Bay of Shoals and only about 2 km out of Kingscote, so back to our hotel about 5.30 and dinner at 6.30. After a much needed cuppa in my room, off to dinner with my gaggle and all saying how much they have enjoyed the day. Baked crumbed Hake and veggies for dinner, followed by honeycomb panacotta and rhubarb coullis. Yum, yum. Early night in store this evening as we have an early 8 am get away in the morning. I've given CB a lesson in time telling with reference to where Mickey Mouse's hands are on the clock face. I think I'm lucky that she is such a nice lady that she didn't tell me where to shove Mickey Mouse's hands... Much laughing and hugging and most have retired to their rooms so here's my chance to update today's blog.
There are no larger than life characters as on the NI trip. That's an excellent thing from my viewpoint but may be disappointing to my armchair traveller followers. I did have one cheeky follower suggest that as Big W wasn't coming this time perhaps there would be a 'Target' instead but I sincerely hope that wouldn't be the case, as this implied to me that there would be someone I actually wanted to shoot!!! My current gaggle are quite lovely and as we are now half way through the tour, I'm hoping that they will all continue to get along well, no one gets sick or lost, and no one causes me any more distress than being 1 minute late for the coach. In putting this in print, I just hope I haven't hexed myself.