Going to K I

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DAY 137

I know why Nissan chose to test the Patrol in Australia.

Oh God, I hear Andy opening the zip on the inner windows of the tent; I think he must be letting the daylight in, too early surely? No, Andy confirms that it is 7.15!

Andy wanders off for his shower while I ease myself into the daylight, what little of it there is. However I need to get up and with it, so that I have time for a shower before breakfast. We are both looking forward to the adventure that today will bring, as we are off to Kangaroo Island, where we hope to continue our search for wildlife.

We pack the tent up while it is still dry, the weather over the see looks as if it is bringing rain with it. We pack up without any dramas and wander off for a very quick breakfast of tea and toast.

We freshen up our water tank with drinking water, hook up the trailer and we are away from the campsite just after 9.00. We need fuel and groceries before getting to Cape Jervis and the ferry terminal, so we head to Normanville town centre. There are no major fuel stations or supermarkets but we manage to fill up with fuel and groceries, not too much pressure except that the lady in the fuel station could have been a little bit more helpful when she said there was a supermarket just down the road, she missed out that just down the road meant Yankalilla the next town along. We checked with her and she said, “I didn’t think you were listening”, not listening!! She could have been more descript. She also asked “are you going to K I”?

Well we are on the road heading happily across the Fleurieu Peninsula with its beautiful South Australian views and down to Cape Jervis for the Sealink Ferry Terminal.

South Australia definitely has something, but as yet I am not quite sure what.

Arriving at the terminal we check in, only to find that the passengers in the vehicles have to walk onto the ferry and the vehicles are only supposed to have the driver. They also assumed that because I booked the ferry that I was the driver.

We also find that there are the usual quarantine restrictions, you are not allowed to take over to Kangaroo Island the following, Bees or Bee products (such as Honey), Potatoes to consume or plant, rabbits or foxes. Well, we have none of those listed so we are ok. I do have to say though that there is no one checking on arrival and I wonder if they spot check cars for prohibited goods?

At 11.30 Andy disappeared to the truck and I waited in the passenger terminal, it was now pouring with rain and the sea was looking quite choppy. I see Andy drive onboard, it looks as if he was the first, then I start to see other cars moving, but the amazing thing is that some of them were turning around and then they were reversing onto the ferry. There were only two vehicles with trailers, ours was one and the other was a car and boat.

I finally board the ferry to find Andy sat comfortably by a window and of course a power socket, we always try to find those so that we can plug the laptop in and keep it charged up.

Andy tells me that when he drove on board he had to drive round the pillars so that he was facing in the opposite direction to the way he drove on.

I get us some coffee and a snack for lunch, I have a Cornish pasty, but I did check to see if it was genuine, you see coming from Cornwall myself I know a good Cornish pasty. Of course it wasn’t genuine, it was nothing like the pasties from Trewoon Bakery where Mum used to sometimes go and buy them (yummy I can taste them now). To add insult to injury on this one, there was actually no meat in there just potato, carrot and some green stuff. I told the woman behind the counter but all she said was that they were made in a bakery in Normanville. Well Normanville bakery you got it wrong!!

What made it even worse was that Andy had a meat pie and his pie apparently tasted lovely with lots of juicy meat.

We are underway and we are bobbing from side to side on this choppy sea, if you look at the horizon, now you see it, now you don’t. We are crossing the Backstairs Passage, not as bad as the Bass Strait but I always look suspicious when I see big piles of sick bags lying around for people to use.

52 minutes later and we have docked on Kangaroo Island, Andy disappears to the vehicle deck and I wait to get off via the passenger ramp. I am off first and walk up the slope to the passenger pick up area and await my lift. Andy comes up the hill, I jump in and we are away.

We decide to head to Western Kangaroo Island Caravan Park, it has been recommended to us. I must tell you though that there are not many bitumen roads on K I and not long after we are now heading down a dirt corrugated track for several kilometres.

If you have ever driven on corrugations you will know what I am talking about, we thought the Patrol would shake itself to pieces. This is why we think it fortunate that Nissan did all of its testing in Australia. We need to check if we have any fillings left in our teeth too!

It is now pouring with rain, we drive through the rain to find our campsite, the weather is now somewhat different to the 30+ temperatures in South Australia yesterday. However this is what our adventure is all about, we cannot have it just to suit us.

We see what we thought was a dead Tiger Snake in the road, but it turns out to be a dead Heath Goanna, its long tail was striped. Kangaroo Island has Tiger Snakes and Pygmy Copperheads.

At 3.30pm we arrive at our campsite, we don’t put our tent up as it is still raining so we grab the tea kit and retire to the camp kitchen for a cuppa and keep dry.

A while later we see that the rain has subsided so we set off to put the tent up. Very quickly we have the covers off the tent is up and the pegs are in, before we had chance to do anything else a girl wandered over to our site and started to look up in the tree. I followed her gaze and found a Koala sat in the tree, which is right next to our pitch. Andy comes round to have a look.

This Koala looks unperturbed by our presence as we stand and watch him. However with that break in concentration it suddenly started to rain again so we went and sat in the car. After a while we decided that the rain was not going to subside so we went and sat on the bed in the tent were it would be more comfy.

It became obvious that the rain was not going to subside anytime soon and we needed to get some dinner on the go. So we braved the rain to pop open the trailer and retrieve what we needed for dinner and bits and pieces that would give us a comfy evening. There won’t be anything else to do except sit in the camp kitchen drink tea and play cards.

We looked up at “our” Koala, he was still sat there, not looking too soggy, but obviously not enjoying the rain. Andy had decided to call him Dennis. I did notice however that he started to lick the bark of the tree. I don’t think Koala’s actually drink a lot of water, probably because there is not a lot of water for them to drink.

We go in to the camp kitchen and it is packed, full of people who are trying to stay dry, the log fire is burning and its nice and warm inside.

The evening meal is cooked in the camp kitchen it is still pouring outside. Thankfully as most people finish their meals they vacate the camp Kitchen which leaves us room to spread out.

The lady whom we assume is the camp host has had rather a lot to drink, I had noticed that she was drinking wine earlier this afternoon, it looks pretty much as if she has carried on drinking the wine. She is staggering around trying to look respectable amongst the clientele here, but she is p*ss*d. She keeps waving her cigarette around and it was getting on my nerves (Andy’s nerves that is).

The weather has been horrible, but we have had a full exciting day, our bellies are full and we are warm and dry.

Just before we get in to the trailer, we went to see Dennis in his tree to say good night, its quite a novelty having a Koala about 4ft from where we are camping. He must have been in a bad mood as he looked down at us, positioned his tubby little body to hang a little bit off the branch and just wee’d. I have to say I didn’t think he was a very good shot if he was trying to warn us off from his tree, thankfully he missed us.

So until tomorrow we will bit you a good night.

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Photos

Cape Jervis
This is where the ferry leaves for Kangaroo Island.

Dennis
This is our "Camp Koala" He sat in this tree until we went to be, then at some time in the night he changed trees.

The Ferry
This will take us across the Backstairs Passage.

Corrugated Roads
These roads are rough, functional, shake your fillings out. The soil/sand is very red.

Camp
You may just be able to see Dennis in this tree, right next to our campsite.

Camp Koala
This is Dennis.

Comments

[Mum and Dad]

Pasties and snakes
We remember those days in Trewoon and the delicious pasties but also I remember that when I was walking up the hill to your school to work on dinner duty when I saw what I thought was a very large snake on the path in the distance......as I approached it I realised that it was a leather belt that had curled in the hot sunshine and looked like a real snake...thank goodness it wasn't. We have had corrugated roads in the USA......all shaken up at the end of the journey...we behave like kids and become vocal as the car judders and shudders over the bumps. xxxxx