Kangaroo Island

So at the end of the last blog entry, Amanda, Matt and I had just arrived back in Adelaide, and since Jenny had no room for us this time around, we decided to stay with Marion (the Buddhist hippy from last time). And then began our search for a car to get us back to Wollongong. Marion told us about a van she’d seen for just $500! We went to have a look at it, and the guy who was selling it told us outright that it was a piece of crap and that it was so cheap because he just wanted to get rid of it (he used to use it as a camper van but he’d just bought a $10,000 Winnebago). He clearly didn’t need the money, so we thought he might be legit. We took it for a test drive and it seemed mechanically sound, so we bought it, called it Reggie, and hoped that this deal wouldn't turn out to be too good to be true. He even threw in a tent, sleeping bag, road atlas, bottle of wine and some beer!

We couldn't see Jenny again until Sunday, since she was working nights, and her husband Mark was working days, but when we bought the Reggie, it was only Tuesday. We didn't really want to stay in Adelaide for all that time, because it's a tiny city compared to most, and we'd already seen a lot of it, so we decided to spend a few nights on the nearby Kangaroo Island. We booked our ferries and that night we were there! Arriving in the small town of Penneshaw (although for Kangaroo Island - KI - it was a big city) we saw that after sunset small penguins come to the beach after a day of catching fish. We stayed there hoping to see an army of penguins coming onto the sand, but sadly they didn't show up. Disappointed, we drove along the south coast looking for somewhere to stay. I was driving, but I'd left my glasses at Jenny's house so very nearly ran over half the island's population of kangaroos! It got to about midnight and I was too tired to drive any more, and too scared of hitting wildlife, so we pulled over near a B&B and slept in the van.

The next day we got up early and got away from the B&B before they noticed us and went for a walk next to a lagoon. We were hoping for a nice little swim, but it was a protected area, and the water didn't look that nice anyway. When we got back, we had a nice, healthy breakfast of doritos and tinned spaghetti before heading further along the coast. We found a café where we stopped to have tea when a galah wondered over to us and let us stroke it before biting my finger. A man with a strange beard came and picked it up, fed it some milkshake and told us about a raptor show that would start in about an hour. We thought we may as well go along since we had nothing better to do. It was really interesting learning about these birds of prey, how their habits differed and where we could see wild ones.

We'd picked up a leaflet with adventure activities, and if you're a regular follower of this blog, then you will know that this will have instantly appealed to me! That afternoon, we tried sand surfing for the first time in the island's "little Sahara" desert. At first, we were all pretty crap to be honest, but we soon got the hang of it. I was surprised I could do it, considering I can barely balance on a skateboard, and could only stand up for about half a second on a surf board, but I feel like by the time we had to hand the boards back, I was pretty good (as in, I could get down the dune without falling over...). The only bad thing about this experience was that we had to walk back up the dunes with the boards if we wanted to go again. I think this was the biggest workout I've had since I left Wollongong. We were too exhausted to do anything after climbing up the dunes so many times, so we found a nice little spot by the river and played cards until we couldn't see any more and went to bed.

Friday started with a four hour kayak session up and down the river, which was fun - especially when we fell out (trying to get back in was the best part, mainly for the amusement of the people still in their boats), and after this we went to the Kelly Hill caves, which is a very (geologically) young limestone cave, at a mere 2 million years old. Despite its young age, it still had hundreds of interesting cave formations like stalactites, stalagmites and apparently gravity defying helictites (one I'd never heard of before, and they are still an unexplained phenomenon). As we drove further along the coast, we saw a sign for a koala walk where we were "guaranteed to see koalas" so of course we had to go and do it. Sure enough, we saw a fair few of them, along with kangaroos and the rare KI echidna (an echidna is like a hedgehog crossed with a porcupine but with a long nose).

Even when we'd finished gawping at the adorable Australian fauna, there was still another three hours until sunset, so we drove further still along the south coast (this island is a lot bigger than we thought it would be) to the "Remarkable Rocks" - which did actually live up to their name, with an interesting story about their formation and the way they had been shaped by erosion. They were made better by the fact that it was so late and no one else was there.

Saturday, our last day on the island, started at the nearby Admiral's Arch, where a colony of New Zealand fur seals made their home. We watched for a while as they lazed on the rocks, and some of the males play-fought, and we spotted a pup that had either lost its mum or had been rejected. It was heart breaking to watch it go from female to female trying to get some attention, but there wasn't much we could really do, so we just left. We then went to seal bay to see some more seals - Australian fur seals this time. Amanda and I took the guided tour so that we could go onto the beach, get close up, and hear some facts from the guide. Here is one of the facts: once females mature, they are impregnated for eighteen months, and eight days later are impregnated again, so they are constantly pregnant and breast feeding. I feel like I know a few people like this from school.

To break up the drive back to the ferry port, we decided to stop off wherever sounded interesting. We ended up going to a sheep dairy farm to sample some sheep's milk cheese and yoghurt (actually quite nice) at a distillery and a winery where we sampled some posh spirits, wines and walnuts (laced with limoncello). When we got back to Penneshaw, we went for a dip in the crystal clear ocean while we waited for the ferry and reflected on the great few days that we'd had.

But then, on the drive back to Adelaide, disaster struck. The temperature gage suddenly kept getting higher and higher, forcing us to pull over at what I thought was a garage (it was actually a house) where three helpful men (real men, that knew about cars, not like Matt and me) gave us some water for the radiator and made us at ease by talking to us and telling us that they didn't think it would be too bad. After a while, we set off again, but not long after, the temp rose again. When we turned the engine off we could hear the water in the radiator boiling - it was REALLY hot. We stopped again to let it cool down and set off again. Reggie seemed to run fine and managed to get us back to the city, but when we turned the engine off this time, it kind of spluttered and coughed before it went silent and revealed plumes of smoke coming from the engine.

The next day, Reggie wouldn't start. Definitely bad times. We were stuck in Adelaide. Luckily we'd booked him in with the mechanic on Tuesday (the lazy sod didn't work Saturday, Sunday or Monday, but he was recommended to us by Marion). All we can do now is await his verdict. We hope you get better soon Reggie!