dazjet 'n family: The Edge of the Earth

Still used to getting up early, we witnessed a sunrise from the house this morning. Considering it’s light around 6am, that’s a bit early for holidays! But worth it I guess!

It was a 77km drive to Vivonne Bay, our destination of the day. While the French names of places are difficult to pronounce (just wait til we get to the lighthouse near Admiral’s Arch next week) there is also conjecture about how to sound out some of the less French sounding places. Take for example, Penneshaw – is is pronounced pen–shore, or as pen-e-shore? Vivonne Bay is another one – is it Viv-on or is it Viv-own? However you choose to pronounce it, it has been voted one of the best beaches in Australia, so we were keen to check it out.

Our first stop was at an interesting collection of letterboxes near the Vivonne Bay turnoff. There were old fridges, dryers, toasters and other assorted hidey holes for the postman to deposit the mail.

We searched and found a geocache under the bridge that spans the Harriet River before driving down Jetty Rd to Castle Rock Beach (or the boat ramp beach as it might also be referred to as). This smaller bay was pristine, with white sand and turquoise waters. At the end, jutting out was a limestone headland. In the water was a smaller and quite unique limestone formation. I assume this is the ‘castle rock’. On top sat three very content looking cormorants. Kings or queens of their castle!

We drove around to Vivonne Bay itself and had a look at the beach. It was nice. It was however quite seaweedy so probably not at its best today. One of Australia’s best beaches. Well, sorry, as lovely as it was I don’t think it qualified as my favourite beach today.

After an early lunch we drove to nearby Kangaroo Island Outdoor Action. Their motto is less talk and more action, and that’s what we were seeking! This was a family treat, one that we would not normally splash out on… but as this is a bucket list destination, it needed some memorable action to compliment the awesome scenery!

We'd booked an ‘Ultimate Action Package’ for 5… this consisted of a personalised quad bike tour, sand boarding and kayaking. Today we were off on the quad bikes. This was a 3 hour trip, with just the five of us and a guide. They call it the ‘Edge of the Earth’ tour.

Once fitted up with the gear and the bikes, we practiced on their little circuit to get the hang of riding. Gemma managed to get her quad bike with all four wheels up on the tyre barrier! At that point it was decided she needed a slightly smaller one!

Going by the motto… less talk and more action… here’s some photos:

We got to the ‘edge of the world’ which was spectacular Cape Kersaint. It was a lovely beach – and we even saw some dolphins playing in the surf.

By the time we got back, our 3 hour tour had become a 4 hour tour… I think we were slower than we were meant to be. We did meet another local goanna on the way - just a young one it was.