Feb 9: Kangaroo Island, across Backstairs Passage, up the Fleureau Peninsula, across the Murray River ferry to Meningies.

First, to the National Sea Lion Conservancy on the Southern Ocean. Guided by a docent we walked onto the beach and watched the antics of the Australian Sea Lion.  Here, at the same south altitude that Monterey, CA is north, we watched the seals…and looked south to the 3000 miles of open ocean to Antarctica. Mind boggling.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g7179521-d1626938-r253392495-Seal_Bay_Conservation_Park-Seal_Bay_Kangaroo_Island_South_Australia.html

Then we backed onto the ferry for a rather rough crossing over the Backstairs Passage. 

Stopping in Goolwa, an hour later we crossed the Murray River on a cable ferry at Wellington, its last point before the ocean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_River

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington,_South_Australia

Time for a geographic orientation:  the Murray is the longest river in Australia, and combined with the Darling, the Murray-Darling system drains 90% of eastern Australia. Just before the Murray flows into the Southern Ocean, it enters a large fresh water lake system, one that includes Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert.  Combined, these lakes cover a thousand square miles…and are only separated from the sea by a 2½ mile wide sand spit.  In early summer it teems with wildlife and hosts many migratory North American birds that fly 10,000 miles round trip to be here.  Most noteworthy is the shearwater.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shearwater

If you are a biologist…”meningies” would mean the lining on the outside of the brain…but in Australia it is just a gorgeous little town sitting on Lake Albert. We settled into our lakeside campsite, drank shiraz and watched the waterbirds, and seared our marinated kangaroo.   

This is not California!

We have learned this: if it is weird and wonderful, it is Australian :)