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Published: March 24th 2009
Who's Foot Print
Mr Kangaroo, that's whoDAY 136
Waking up to a warm morning in the Coorong National Park, the sun was strong and we enjoyed lying in bed and soaking up this sunshine.
We had a busy morning sorting a few things out and wandering around this wilderness of a camp site. There were a few campers here, one or two have gone already, We admired the views of the flats.
I drove up to the loo’s, they were too far away to walk! They are long drop loos as well, yuck, but at least there are loos here and I have to say that these are some of the cleanest long drop loos I have come across.. When I came back we had a light breakfast of tea and cereal. Packed away the tent and repacked the trailer.
Wandering down a small track onto the beach, watching for snakes of course, we find that standing on this beach the sand is crispy, the tide has long gone out and left what appears to be a layer of salt over the sand. The sand crunches as we walk across it to the water.
We not only see our footprints in the
Parnka Point
This was the view from 50 yards from our trailer sand but we also see one claw print every 2 metres or so along the beach, they look like Kangaroo prints, this seems to be a very elusive creature in this environment, unlike some of the other areas that we have been the Kangaroos are very much part of the scenery and perhaps more used to people being around.
This is a very exposed and seemingly harsh environment; there is little shade here for a hot sunny day. The water is blue and shimmers in the sunshine, which is now high in the sky.
Before leaving we telephoned Sealink to find out about the crossings for Kangaroo Island, they confirm that they can fit us onto the Midday sailing tomorrow (24th), this is great news, we were worried that we would not be able to get on for a few days. We paid $508 return, for 2 people, the truck and the trailer. We have booked an open ticket, so we just need to let them know when we want to return. Colin, the nice chap at Sealink said just phone up the day before you want to come back. Easter is coming but most people will be
Parnka Point
The view was amazing travelling too the Island by the time we want to come back.
It has been suggested to us that we only do 4 or 5 days so we will see how we get on. We do hope to relax a little and take in the surrounds and a lot of the wildlife. We do expect to see Australian Seals, New Zealand Sea Lions, Penguins, Kangaroo Island Kangaroos (pure breed) and Kangaroo Island Wallabies (again pure breed), Goannas, Koalas. Not sure about Wombats though, we cannot see those listed.
The day just disappears, we drive through a town called Tailem Bend and just on the outskirts we find a “Genuine South Australian Pioneer Village” I believe to be Tailem bend of old from years ago. This amazing little place was put together by a guy, which took him years to do. The collection of stuff he has got is amazing.
In the front they have loads of trucks from years ago. We deceide not to pay $20.00 bucks each as we still have a long way to go and time is ticking away. We have washing to do, and preparations before going to Kangaroo Island tomorrow.
The journey
Caroline
Taking Photo's on the beach is quite complicated from Mount Barker, where we stop for a little lunch. However with Caroline at the map and me at the handlebars, there are no worries, we soon find our destination and we rock up to our campsite at about 4.30pm.
Caroline rushes into the laundry to get some washing down and whilst that is doing we get the trailer tent up and out with all our bits and pieces. We settle in the camp kitchen and do our dinner; we are eating up things that need eating and as the fridge needs cleaning there are a couple of items well past their sell by date so need throwing. We manage to cook a decent meal out of a couple of beef burgers, a chorizo and some tortellini with a tin of diced tomatoes thrown in.
After dinner we clean out our Evacool fridge to give it a good wash out and a repack, the drinking water also needs replenishing. We intend to be up and packed away early in the morning as we are not going to get caught out again as we did when we went to Fraser Island, we will fuel up and
Blue Sky
I took this shot of the Sky Food up before we get to Kangaroo Island. (if you remember our earlier blog, the fuel on Fraser Island which was about $1.85 litre.
We have just finished our meal, when a couple start charting to us, they ask us where we are from and we tell them from Southampton in the UK, the guy said he was stationed in the UK during the war, and was based in Pocklington, he had been in Halifax bombers as a mid upper Gunner with 102 Squadron and had been shot down over France in 1945, all of the crew survived except one.
Thankfully George Heath and his crew had managed to stay hidden in a French farmhouse with help from the resistance for 60 days.
George became a member of the Caterpillar Club, a club that was formed in 1922, when Leslie Irvin made a pledge to donate a gold pin to every person whose life was saved by using one of his parachutes.
It was called the “Caterpillar Club” for several reasons, namely: The parachute main sail and lines were woven from the finest silk. The lowly worm spins a cocoon, crawls out and flies away from
Scenery
What Fantastic Senery certain death, if it remains in sight of the cocoon. A better example of what a pilot or passenger should do in the case of an uncontrollable plane could not have better figurative depiction." By the 1950's the number of members in the club had grown to over 80,000 members.
George showed us his membership card for the Caterpillar Club, he would usually be wearing his gold caterpillar pin, and sadly today he is not so we do not get to see it. Lets not forget his wife Elizabeth (Beth) as well. They are on their way back home after a week on Kangaroo Island. We were fascinated by Georges story, and said we would do some research on his squadron and the Caterpillar Club.
The camp kitchen closes at 9.30, so as usual we are the last ones and we are turfed out. Back in the cosy confines of our tent we do a little more blog work have another cup of tea and exhausted we hit the sack as we needed to be up early and needed to rest.
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Liz and Rick
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We have become groupies! Can't wait to read about the next adventure of the T's. You write so well and your descriptions of the places are excellent. We realise that we have visited many of the places mentioned, yet take so much of our beautiful country for granted! Safe travelling and enjoy Kangaroo island. What an expensive ferry ride!