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!