2015/11 Australia trip - Chapman River |
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We had a couple of hours drive across the island towards the Dudley Peninsula and the ferry terminal at Penneshaw. We stopped for a break at the peninsula’s narrowest point at Prospect Hill, climbed by Matt Flinders in 1802; he expected to have a view of the island’s interior but instead had a view of the south coast. The picture shows how narrow the isthmus is.
While I was climbing the long staircase up to the lookout, Sandie went to dump a bag of garbage in the bin and was confronted by a goanna which had obviously got used to frightening tourists into dropping their garbage and feeding said goanna. Sandie doesn’t frighten easily and the goanna lost the standoff. This was one of more than a dozen goannas we’d seen on the island.
This isn’t the same goanna; it’s one we found at the roadside trying to dig its way out of trouble. These were some flowers from the same area.
In Penneshaw we found the penguin colony right next to the ferry terminal. There are evening tours timed for when the penguins return from the sea to their burrows, but not much was going on in midafternoon.
We needed to move on anyway and find a campsite for the night. Our Garmin was convinced that there was a route from the penguin colony to Lashmar park but the directions kept leading us to tracks on private property so we gave up and went back to Penneshaw to pick up the main road.
We found the park and began looking for Antechamber Bay; we didn’t find it but found another camping area on the Chapman River. And promptly quit looking, as it was one of those perfect spots on the river’s edge, warm out of the wind, no flies, just a few mozzies. The ranger stopped by to warn us that the next day had a total fire ban and we chatted for a half hour. He never checked our pass.