South Australia: Adelaide and lots of wildlife
We roll into Adelaide early, and have to wind our watches back half an hour… and dispose of any fruit or veg we might be trying to smuggle across the state border. They do take quarantine quite seriously here. Being mean, I force a few oranges down my throat so as not to waste money…
I have a lot of time to kill before I can check into my place. It’s a tiny city, really just a town, with wide streets, low rise buildings and flowering jacaranda trees everywhere.
I tick off the sights in one afternoon, the South Australian museum, art gallery and the immigration museum.
Kangaroo Island is a farily large island a short boat ride from the mainland tip of the Fleurieu Peninsular. It’s overcast and chilly (surprise, surprise) when the Campwild van picks us up mid morning. The van is quite empty today with only 6 of us, though some more people will join us tomorrow. We make our way slowly down the peninsular stopping off at a disneyfied German town called Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, before doing a bit of impromptu wine tasting in McLaren Vale (stocking up on some classy $5 bottles!) before being introduced to the local delicacy, unlikely as it seems, the humble Pie.
The landscape is dry and parched with struggling crops and equally struggling cattle farms. SA is the driest state on the driest continent on earth and is now entering it’s 7th year of drought after the driest winter on record. And now summer is approaching… Not really the sort of World records you want. We don’t take the big Sealink ferry from Cape Jervis to Penneshaw, instead hopping on a fishing boat to Christmas Bay, hoping to see some dolphins.
We aren’t lucky, but it feels a bit more exclusive having our own boat! This evening we drive to the Eco Hut at the romantically named “Antechamber Bay (East)”. This is one of the imaginative names on the island: centre road, northern road, southern road, remarkable rocks… The hut is solar powered, solar heated, has self composting toilets (complete with the redback spider family that live under one of the chairs next to the shower): it’d make Dave Angel the Fast Show’s Eco Warrior proud.
We wander along the beach until it’s time to make dinner.
They even barbeque noodles here!
Sunset is spectacular, and a couple of us go and sleep in our swags (Aussie bush beds, a kind of tent in a bag) on the beach under the stars. Until it rains, a lot, at about 2am…
Over the next two days see lots of nice beaches and dramatic cliffs including the Remarkable Rocks;
Sea Lions, New Zealand fur seals, koalas (and their bizarre mating ritual), echidnas (little spikey things), lots of eastern grey kangaroos (some are even living, and not sleeping at the side of the road), a tiger snake (3rd most poisonous in the world; deceased), small penguins returning to their nests at night; there are the bizarre post boxes made from everything from old toilets to washing machines, and we have a go at sand surfing in Little Sahara. We’re supposed to camp out in the bush on the 2nd night, but it’s too dangerous as there is no escape if the burning forest fires spread towards us, so we make do with the wintertime farmhouse, and sit round playing the didgeridoo -badly – until the early hours.
So a pretty good trip all in all!
Tags: Travel
Nick