Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.

In 1962, Neil Sedaka sang ‘Breaking up is hard to do’… well that was how we felt the morning that we loaded the car and drove back to Penneshaw for the ferry back to the mainland. Kangaroo Island has certainly captivated us and enthralled us with her natural beauty. We’ve loved the action we’ve encountered on land, sand, water and quad bikes. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed every corner we’ve explored and apart the one grumpy ranger, the locals have been warm and friendly.

This mosaic is in the wall at the Penneshaw Ferry Terminal

Gemma  had picked some flowers from the garden of the house we’d rented and left them in the kitchen with a lovely hand written note on a napkin! We signed the visitor’s book and complimented the owner on their lovely home which was presented so well for us.

In Penneshaw, we watched the Sea Lion 2000 come into the bay, and then reverse up to the dock to release the next band of lucky tourists about to explore what had come a special place for us…

We got our boarding passes, picked up a couple more souvenirs in the form of local produce and boarded the ferry. 

I had to reverse on this time and manoeuvre the car to the rear of the car deck… which was actually the front of the vessel. Did this and managed to park within 5 cm of the yellow pole! Precision!

Once on board, we went up on the deck.

So it was, with almost a tear in the eye and more of those Neil Sedaka words ringing in the ears… “Don’t take your love away from me… Don’t you leave my heart in misery… If you go then I’ll be blue… breaking up is hard to do.”… that the Sea Lion 2000 slipped from the Penneshaw wharf and began powering her way across the Backstairs Passage.

The vessel again rocked from side to side but it was not as severe as the journey over. Forty five minutes later we were back in the small port at Cape Jervis.

Back in the car, we drove out and up the hill out of town. I stopped to photograph this 3D ad for the local caravan park… Took one more look over the shoulder and then Kangaroo Island slipped from our view as we drove on.

We took the turn off towards Victor Harbour where we planned to have fish n chips for lunch. The last, in fact the only other time we’d been to Victor Harbour was in about 2009 on a 40 degree summer’s day. We’d ridden the horse drawn tram out to Granite Island on that occasion, then spent the rest of the day (we were on a day trip from Adelaide) swimming in the calm waters keeping cool. Today was the opposite to that – the wind was so cold, we had to sit in the car to eat our fish n chips!

The afternoon focus was on driving almost 300 km’s to Bordertown where we had booked a cabin for the night. The trip was pretty straight forward and after refuelling in Strathalbyn we quickly found ourselves back on the Dukes Hwy.

Once checked in to the cabin in Bordertown we went for a leg stretch around a small lake, which was quite picturesque and made even nicer with this mother duck and her cute little family!

The following morning, we packed up and moved on out – the journey home in front of us. It was exactly 500 km’s. We paused in a couple of the lesser known highway towns, Pimpinio and Great Western. Each town had just one solitary geocache each, so we thought we’d tick them off our bucket list. The one at Great Western was behind a cute café, well disguised as a lantern.

The café’s sign was inspiring and reminded us of a real coffee need! The other sign suggested that not much else has happened here...

We were home by mid afternoon… we set out on this trip knowing it was a bucket list destination and there is no doubt, it lived up to the expectation. There is another tick off the list, but yes, breaking up is hard to do!

Last Day on KI

I’ve said it before and I’m about to say it again… geocaching can sometimes take you to some amazing places that otherwise you might not find. This morning this was one of the best examples of this phenomenon that we have encountered in all of our 1300 caches.

A lonely cache was on the map just north of our home at American River called ‘Redbanks’. Nothing else on the map led you to believe there was anything worth seeing. In fact the road into the coast where the cache was hidden was called Flea Castle Rd… if anything that name suggests that you avoid the place at all costs.

Flea Castle Rd was wrong on two accounts but right on one. First, it was wrong in that we encountered no fleas, second it was wrong in that it wasn’t a ‘road’ more a single lane track that felt more like someone’s long driveway. Where it was correct was with the word ‘castle’. The red coloured cliffs rising like castle turrets from the calm bay we found along this stretch of coast were spectacular! Like no other cliffs we’ve seen anywhere.

We admired them from the top before finding a rough track down to the small beach. From here, the turquoise, clear waters took on a red hue as they reflected the cliffs.

While standing on the rocks by the water admiring the views, Zac called out ‘look’. Just a metre or so away in the calm water was a dorsal fin. A lone dolphin looked like it was fossicking in the shallows. It took no notice of us and methodically made its way along the coast before disappearing to deeper waters.

Leaving Red Banks via Flea Castle Rd, we continued around to Hog Bay Rd – the main highway from Penneshaw towards Kingscote. A little further along we turned off to Nepean Bay. A small community of holiday shacks on a sweeping bay. Nothing to dissimilar to other places we’d seen over the past week or so. The difference was – and it was another geocache that got us on to this – was the stretch of land along the beach.

It is known as ‘Ron’s Garden’ as a guy called Ron has planted all manner of banksias and grevilleas and other native plants along the strip of land between the sand and the road.  Being spring we were treated to a smorgasbord of tremendous colour. Thanks Ron, job well done! 

Looking a little sad, up on bricks was this poor old, previously loved kombi:

We followed Hog Bay Rd back towards American River, but decided to do a quick detour to Pennington Bay again – still one of my favourite beaches on the island.

For the first time in the last ten days we went back to the house for lunch.

After lunch the weather turned cooler and a bit rainy. We went for a walk down to ‘down town’ American River where we looked at the variety of vessels at the jetty, had a peak in the little oyster farm shop. Not being oyster eaters we didn’t get as excited as someone who loves to swallow slimy bivalve molluscs whole might do!

In the big boat shed was a small museum with pictures and stories of the original inhabitants of American River – namely the American’s who stayed for 4 months and built the schooner ‘Independence’ to help with their seal cull. The locals are trying to fund raise to build a proper replica of the ship. Some of the frame has been made and is in the boat shed. 

From there we walked back home and with the weather getting wetter it was a good excuse to stay home and pack up / clean up a bit ready tomorrow’s departure.