Circumnavigating Australia - week 4, the South Coast
A sea-day from Tasmania to Kangaroo Island in somewhat cloudy and cool weather meant a day of lazy dining, music quizzes, port talks, a hot tub session and reading on our balcony. Thankfully the next day we woke up to nicer weather with the ship dropping anchor off the coast of Kangaroo Island. Taking a tender across to the island we started with a wander around the little local market before heading out of town for a walk on the headland. We started at Kangaroo Island Sculpture Trail walking further round the headland to Dolphin viewpoint where we instantly spotted some dolphins very close to the shore. We climbed down to the beach sitting on some of the rocks to watch the dolphins playing and feeding right in front of us. We couldn’t leave without walking the Wallaby trail but unfortunately we didn’t see any wallabies so we decided to make our way back to the ship for a late lunch and a lazy afternoon in the Sanctuary.
The next day we arrived in our final major city, Adelaide where we had booked a cycling excursion. Our group of eight cyclists gathered in the cruise terminal where we were met by Dan from Bike About. We started with a minibus ride to a park just outside of Adelaide CBD where we unloaded the electric bikes from the trailer. Once Dan had set us up on our bikes and explained how to use them we headed off along the river, stopping at Adelaide Oval and some of the bridges en route to take photos of the city. After about half an hour we stopped at a cafe for a coffee beside the river with lots of locals out and about on this Easter Saturday. Back on our bikes we headed through the Botanical Gardens with giant fig trees and hoards of fruit bats, on our way to the National Wine Centre where we enjoyed a three glass wine tasting along with a delicious charcuterie meat and cheese board. After an hour of eating, drinking and chatting with our fellow guests we got back on our bikes and made our way on our bikes back along the river to the minibus. Back on the minibus Dan took us on a quick tour around the city before dropping us back at the ship for a well deserved rest and a relaxed evening on board.
Waking up the next morning to quite rough seas and cloudy skies I tried to have my usual early morning swim but the water in the pool was sloshing about so much it was impossible. After another port talk the weather improved a little so we headed out to open decks for a few hours before getting ready for our last formal night complete with a lovely Easter Sunday special formal menu.
The rather gloomy weather and swirly seas remained with us for another sea-day before we finally arrived into the quirky little town of Albany. With the skies still looking ominous we headed out early, getting the free shuttle bus up to the National Anzac Centre at the top of Mount Clarence. From here we admired the views over Middleton Beach and the large Bay that Albany sits in. Back in the town we had a wander around the shops before the rain came in so we walked back to the ship.
Our final stop of this four week cruise was Busselton, gateway to Margaret River and the famous vineyards of Western Australia. However, the weather really did have other ideas, with the high winds making it impossible for the ship to drop anchor at Busselton, instead heading back to Perth early for an overnight in port before we disembarked the next day, Though we were sad to miss Busselton we had had an amazing four weeks and really felt like we had glimpsed the highlights of this vast country. Though it only felt like a snapshot of Australia we know where we want to return to and couldn’t have asked for a better way to have seen so much of the country in a relatively short time. And we definitely couldn’t have asked for a better form of transport than the beautiful little Coral Princess which became our home away from home for four weeks and the amazing crew, so many of whom became our friends.
We would like to say thank you to Princess cruises for our amazing complimentary suite upgrade. All other costs on this trip were paid for by us.
For part one of this voyage click here, for part two click here and for part three click here.
If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy our New Zealand blogs, North Island and South Island, or our 72 hours in Sydney blog.
If you would like to receive notification of any new blog posts, updates of our travels or links to our vlogs we would love for you to sign up to our mail list below. Thank you.
