Magical Mystery Tour (22 Mar 2014)

Who would think of, let alone organize, cook for, and enjoy taking 5 senior missionaries and two friends on an all day excursion to three different surprise remote locations, having scoped out beforehand distance from stop to stop, restrooms, logistics, supplies, complete with gourmet menu?

Lou and Petra, that's who! You can see by the invitation and instructions...we were only told to SAVE THE DATE! The life long friends that drove the other car were Jill and Gary. We swapped passengers halfway and had fabulous time getting better acquainted. The cars were loaded with coolers, tables, camp chairs, blankets, coats, utensils, and everything we could possibly need on such an excursion.

 

 Total round trip distance for the day was 240 k. We stopped for lunch at Port Willunga and there we beheld a GLORIOUS view of Australia coastline! We all agreed with Petra who described it as breath taking! We ate lunch in a covered picnic area and unpacked the car just before a Hummer limo drove up and unloaded the wedding party for a beach wedding. What a setting! We accidentally set down a case of bottled water when unloading, and once we realized it was missing, noticed wedding goers had the same brand of water bottles.....Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Btiful beach at Port Willunga...the boat came in close to shore I thought...

Elder White and wedding in the far right background.

 

 Sister Salazar, us, Elder White

Us, Petra and Lou, Whites, Jill and Gary

 

On the beach...Jill and Sister Salazar

 

Beautiful beach and sand...Sister Salazar, us, Jill

After lunch while Gary and Lou re packed the car, the rest of us walked along the beach, with beautiful green colored water. It was windy up top, but not so much on the beach..... To describe it as gorgeous sounds lame, but it was G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S!

The second stop of the day was several miles along the coastline at Blowhole Beach in Deep Creek Conservation Park. You would not believe the rutted, narrow, winding, inclined, dirt road once we left Gary's lower-riding car at the top car park AFTER driving several k off the paved road on gravel/dirt. Because he had a 4 wheel drive SUV, Lou drove further down to the the next car park level to unload people and then some of us walked the remaining part of the trail to the ocean. It was an AMAZING sight and several surfers were catching waves. Lou drove back to the first car park level to transport people from Gary's car down and we had 'tea' at this stop once everyone arrived. Carrot cake, almond cake, and lambkins (chocolate frosted white cake squares rolled in coconut) were enjoyed with an out of this world view! I thought to myself several times during the day, " I can't believe that I am in Australia having this MAGNIFICENT experience!" Pictures nor words do justice to the extreme raw beauty our eyes have seen on this day.

Sufer boys (black dots on the water) catching a wave.

On the way down to blowhole beach.

 

Lou, us, Jill

 

Tea stop with a view.

 

Just behind Petra's head at the ridge line is the next level of the road.

 

 After 'tea,' four of the group decided to walk back to Gary's car, which if I haven't explained clearly, was a great distance over rough terrain, and with extreme incline. Petra and Elder White made it the whole way in approximately 30 minutes, and Gary and Jill made it almost to the top. The rest of us rode up with Lou and doubled up in the SUV like when we were teenagers to make room for Gary and Jill along the way.

Petra and Elder White were waiting for us at the top and I admired the grass trees in the conservation park. These pictured were guesstimated to be 100 years old because of the size of their trunk. We saw for the first time kangaroos in the wild and we were thrilled! We probably saw over 100 kangaroos on this adventure.

 

View at stop 3 before we drove to some trees for protection form the brisk breeze.

 

Once we loaded everyone up again we headed for stop #3 which was in the Tapanappa campground area, still in the Deep Creek Conservation Park. We were off paved road again, and thank goodness Lou and Petra had driven the route previously, so they could take us right to the edge. Because it was a perfect day weather wise we could see the lighthouse on Kangaroo Island (it looked SO close until we spotted the ferry for perspective) and a good portion of its shoreline. We were struck by the sheer vastness and beauty of everything including the shoreline, the vegetation, the view, the kangaroos, and the ocean.

It was late in the day by this time, and a wee bit chilly as we set out dinner. We had chicken, goat cheese/pumpkin/spinach slices, quinones/carrot salad, several cheeses and crackers, grapes, prawns, olives, pickles, rock melon, and a couple of other things I tried but cannot recall the name of them. For dessert we had scones with jam and double thick cream.....very yummy!
Its a good thing we don't use cream in America like they do here because I love real cream on my pavlova and on my scones. We also tried some orange flavor dark chocolate, and a pepper, as in hot red pepper, chocolate bar. You don't notice any warmth until after you've chewed and swallowed and then you do!

The Magical Mystery Tour is a treasured memory. We realize and appreciate the effort that Lou and Petra spent planning, preparing, and pulling off the whole event, especially with their busy, working, committed schedules. Knowing that it was such a sacrifice makes their kindness even more heartwarming and we sincerely thank them.