Day 36 – October 6 2012

A little bit of rain overnight – showery stuff with the air a bit cooler this morning, threatening to shower again but didn’t.  We headed off to the Flinders Chase National Park again, this time for the Rocky River Hike, a moderate 9km walk.  This walk starts from the visitor centre & starts along the same path as the Platypus Waterholes Hike for around 2km, then diverts & follows the Rocky River towards the sea.  The walk was very pleasant, cool to start with but before long we had to remove our rain jackets as the clouds cleared & the sun shone through.  The wildflowers are really starting to get into full flowering mode now, there are so many different species of plant out in flower, a really pretty sight.  The park is slowly recovering from the 2007 bushfire, but a lot of the large trees are dead & with the recent strong winds last week they have lost lots of branches or have been blown over.  At times there is a jumbled confusion of dead trees & branches with new plants in flowers all around them.  The Rocky River water has a slight tannin stain & was flowing well from last night’s rain.  We didn’t spot any platypus or marron, however did come across a nice large goanna sunning itself.  There are lots of birds flitting around & chirping, with a red-breasted robin sitting still & posing long enough for us to take a photo.

The last part of the walk had a little bit of uneven ground to contend with as the limestone was at the surface, but otherwise, a good track.  Once back at the visitor centre it was lunchtime & again we had the garfish, whiting, salad & again it was just as good as last time.

This afternoon we headed back down to Admirals Arch on Cape Du Couedic & this time we did the Lighthouse Heritage Walk. This is a short stroll looking at the history of the lightstation, including the 3 lighthouse keeper cottages, the stables for the horses & cart, storehouse & flagpole.  Another interesting piece of history with the stone cottages being restored & in excellent condition, apart from some minor wind damage to the slate roofs from the strong winds last week.

We then headed down to Admirals Arch.  We spent a fair bit of time looking at the seals playing & the large waves crashing into the rocks as the sun sparkled off the water through the limestone arch.  We were protected from the wind a bit, but after a while the southerly breeze straight from Antarctica made its presence felt & we started to feel cold.  We wanted to see the sun setting through the arch but it was too cold & getting too late for the drive back as it is dangerous with so much wildlife around.  On the way back to camp I had to slow down a few times for kangaroos & once braked hard for a kangaroo that wanted to commit suicide & raced straight out in front of the car.  We were very lucky I was travelling slowly & spotted the kangaroo in time.  The heart was beating a little faster after that little episode.  We decided not to have dinner as we were still too full from the delicious lunch we had.  We once again had a great day but we are tired, so after the blog an early night for both of us.