Kingscote, KI

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Desert Ship Territory Log Day 14.

The day commenced with yet more rain and I waited for a break in the showers to head back down to the koala walk they have here to see if I could spot my own koala in the wild. I was duly rewarded. They can be difficult to spot as they go really high. I had a set of binoculars with me and this one was fast asleep and its fur was all wet. I don't know how they get much shelter in this weather. I also saw some Tamar Wallabies that let me get quite close as they are normally quite skittish and once again I was rewarded with a mother and its joey in her pouch. Today we drove to Kingscote where we are staying for our final night in KI. Our first job was to get some more food as we had nothing left after 3 days in the wilderness. We then checked into our accommodation which was right on the beach and looked like a quaint older style motel. It almost needed some pink flamingos out the front. I was told that because the weather was awful all customers who booked rooms with the shared ablutions (which involve a walk outside) have been upgraded to a normal motel room. I think I would have just paid the extra anyway! We unpacked our stuff and checked out some souvenir shops. I really wanted a jacket with "Kangaroo Island" embroidered on it but there seemed to be nothing but black, grey and brown colours which I hate and it was all quite over priced compared to the Visitor's Centre yesterday. Unfortuneately no where else sells anything like this so I had to make do with a beanie instead. We then went to a National Trust building which was a museum. Kingscote is the first settlement in South Australia. We then went to see American River which was named after the American sealers who used to frequent this bay and other places on the WA south coast. There were loads of pelicans there which also excited the photographer in me. It rained the whole way back to Kingscote and when it started to get dark we decided to have an early dinner at the local fish and chip shop which has got rave reviews. They weren't wrong. Quite possibly the best I have ever tasted. We then treated ourselve to a tub of icecream from Foodland on our way back to the motel. It's unfortunate that we didn't get here in our first week as we would've missed all this bad weather, but apart from the incident yesterday, I guess the island really showed us her rugged unspoilt beauty.

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