Having left Adelaide on the Tuesday after Easter we headed down the Fleurieu Peninsular. What a pleasant surprise! The scenery was fabulous. It resembled Wales and the Lake District. The flat redness of the earlier road journeys had been replaced.The sun was warm but the southerly breeze was cool so we often wore our fleeces, a bit of a change from the 40+ degrees in the week before!!! The van had recovered from its expiry on the empty road 40Ks from the nearest town, and so had we!!! The van had just lost power and petered out all of a sudden leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere, in very hot weather. surrounded by flies. We tried to flag people down but they did not stop. Lee tried the vehicle twice at 15 minute intervals and, although it revved it would not engage. We had water and food but no phone signal. Eventually two women stopped and, having explained to them our predicament, we tried it once more. It kicked into life!!! We hoped in and put our foot down for Port Augusta where there just happened to be a Mazda agent within walking distance of the camp!! How good was that??? (Australian phrase!) We had arrived on Friday afternoon so we booked her in for the Monday. We had filled up the petrol tank in Ceduna where their tanks were low and condensation had got into their petrol, which had caused our problem!! We were the third vehicle they had had in that morning from Ceduna! We joined the RAA there too!!!! The van was ready for 1pm so we went on our way, heading for Kangaroo Island. We had a shiny new bit on our exhaust so it was no longer blowing either! We set off in a more relaxed mood.
On our way we found a ferry sign before we expected to so we did not have to go right down the peninsular, which was good. We stayed a Second Valley, a deserted camp, for a night and caught the 11.30 ferry the next morning
The ferry left from a tiny harbour in glorious sunshine. It was a rough crossing and lasted 2hrs. Neither of us were sick, but it was close. As soon as we landed we headed for the campsite in the bay. We spent a happy few days here exploring the beaches and seal bay, where we had a guided tour down on to the beach amongst the rather huge Australian seal colony that resides there. We went up to Pennishaw, in the head of the kangaroo and down to the west campsite, where we met the fabulous Ross and Helen. We spent a happy evening chatting away in the camp kitchen. They left their driver window open and a very lucky possum helped itself to a banana and some weetabix before leaving its calling card! The signs said, 'Please do not feed the local wildlife.' I was tempted to add a postscript along these lines,'They will quite happily help themselves!'
We ventured out into the spectacular scenery of the Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch. The rocks have been weathered into the most fabulous shapes and the Arch lies off the edge of great slabs of rock where a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals live. I was so busy looking at their antics in the sea and in the rock pools that when I turned and viewed this magnificent weathered arch of rock I was quite 'blown-away.'
We viewed koalas in the wild, bush turkeys and yellow beaked geese,from the area. It was all a quite fabulous wilderness. There had been a big bush fire in the forests in the west and I wondered about the local wildlife as it had been quite extensive.
We left on Monday morning and headed to Goolwa, where Ross and Helen lived in a fabulous bungalow. We had the best time in a real house with a lounge etc. It was quite bewildering after our time on the road.
We have been invited to visit Ross and Helen in the centre where they run a store in an aboriginal community, just north of Ayers Rock. That will be another story and I really look forward to it. They were fabulous hosts and fantastic people.
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