As predicted (and rather unusually for the BBC weather app) the forecast was correct and after a fairly bright start the rain set in or a good couple of hours. We did what we often do in the middle of a long trip and took a couple of hours to catch up with ‘house keeping’. Emails that need to be sent, Avis car hire has applied some strange charges so we emailed them and I attempted to add credit to our Telstra SIM card only to have John Lewis Partnership card block my transaction as they thought it might be fraudulent. Give them their due though, they texted me immediately and all I had to do was to text back ‘Y’ for yes - that is my transaction and a few minutes after they allowed the transaction.
After all of this the rain had more than enough time to ease off so we drove into Kingscote fora proper look at the town in daylight and to enjoy a coffee and raspberry Lammington - last enjoyed at the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland over 5 years ago.
We then visited various places along the North coast of the island as the weather is supposed to be better in this area. In actual fact, it only seemed to rain when we were in the car which was good. First we headed to Emu Bay, full of shells. Then back down the road towards Stokes Bay, stopping at a very strange lake with a lot of dead trees. This is today’s photo and I think it looks rather sinister. I am not sure why the trees have died, perhaps their roots are waterlogged? (Just a bit of post production work for a more sinister look - best viewed on black if you've got time).
I added a few more birds to my collection and saw another pair of black swans, this time with four cygnets. There were also literally hundreds, if not thousands of small black millipedes on the path, I hate millipedes and had to do a dance on the way back to make sure none went on my shoes. Perhaps the weather brought them out as we have seen a lot all around the place today?
The day ended as we walked back from dinner on the coastal path again looking for nocturnal wildlife and hoping for a second possum sighting with our new super-duper head torches on - I was really surprised to catch a glimpse of a penguin along a narrow path but by the time I had switched to the red light to show Colin it had disappeared. This is very interesting as I had not realised they were penguins in Kingscote, I thought just a small population in Penneshaw. I will need to investigate tomorrow. We have seen this species before in New Zealand (on the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin, South Island) where they are called ‘Blue Penguins’ - here in Australia they are called Little Penguins or Little Blue Penguins!
