Up very early and off at 7am. We drove the 58km to Cape Jervis and arrived with plenty of time to spare, in fact, prior to the opening of the ferry office, but we were not the first.in line. Once open, we booked in and got our tickets. When the ferry arrived and disgorged its previous cargo of cars, trucks and people, I drove on as Ted boarded by walking. They packed the cars in very closely, and after all the cars, vans, 4wds and utilities were on, came the semi trailers, pantechnicons and large motor homes. We relaxed with coffee in the passenger lounge until it was time for me to return to the car and eventually drive off.
Once Ted was on board, we headed to the local IGA for some lunch food, and then we took the Cape Willoughby Road and arrived there about 11am. We found there was a guided tour of the lighthouse to commence around 11.30am. The Ranger was extremely helpful and friendly, and after walking around for a while, we went on the tour. It was 102 steps up the lighthouse, and by that time, the wind was gusting to 30+ knots, and the forecast 36 degrees seems very unlikely - the sky had been overcast for most of the morning and looked threatening of a thunder storm.
We heard all about the conditions of the light keepers, and the history of the light house - it was all very interesting. Finally, after seeing a huge lense and the weather station, we left Cape Willoughby to head west across the Island.
I had certainly underestimated the distance between places on the island, and hence the amount of time it would take to get to all the places I wanted Ted to see. I decided we would go to Seal Bay and Vivonne Bay today, and then get up real early and go to Flinders Chase National Park to see the Remarkable Rock and Admiral's Arch on the morrow.
We got to Seal Bay about 20 minutes before a tour was due, and after having a look around, we took the tour and proceeded down on to the beach to view the sea lions at close quarters. There were many small pups gamboling around, and mostly the adult sea lions were just lying asleep on the beach. The colony has been there since before white settlement of the idland and is well protected by the National Parks folk.
Leaving there we made our way back to the main road, and then one to Vivonne, which is just a general store, and there is a beach and bay. We went to have a look at that, and by that time, it was about 3:30 and too late to try to get to Flinders Chased National Park. We headed back east. For the previous 45 minutes or so, we had been surrounded by lightning and we could now see the smoke from 2 grass fires. After traveling about 20km back, we passed close by a grass fire to our right, and not far from the road. We kept going of course, and another 30km or so up the road we crossed a fire truck heading west.
We arrived in Kingscote around 5pm. I filled up with petrol in preparation for our travels in the morning, and we drove around having a look around the town. We was what appeared to be a ferry arriving, and apparently there is a new service coming into Kingscote a couple of times a day.
We booked into our motel, and then later went to a local pub - The Queenscliffe Family Hotel, quite an old building - to have a very nice meal. We went to bed early, wanting to get up around 6am so we could get a good start on the 125km trip in the morning.
Next day we were away about 7am - we wondered about the fires, as we had heard on the news the night before that there were 5 fires and not all under control, also that one person had died. We expected one of the roads to be blocked and had planned to go by the northern route down to Flinders Chase. We got as far as 12 km on our 125km journey before stopped by a road block. No entrance at all to anyway west of that point, so nodding understandingly, we turned round and headed back to Kingscote.
It was still only about 7:30, and we had 12 hours to fill in. First we went to Emu Bay - a pretty little settlement north of Kingscote - we also called into another little bay - the Bay of Shoales. When we headed back to the main road, we notices a police road block now on the main road at the Emu Bay intersection. This was wise because if a tourist had headed off down the Emu Bay road, they could have easily headed down any of the roads back toward the centre of the island, and bypassed the road blocks.
Back in Kingscote we visited the Honey factory and read the fascinating story of the bee hive - we stayed there about an hour. Then back to Kingscote and visited the Town Hall to view 2 tapestry murals - both detailing the history and story of Kangaroo Island in different ways. We found the museum would not be open until well into the afternoon, so we headed off toward American River. Her we found a nice picnic spot near the lagoon, and had lunch after which we found the general store and had an icecream. We drove around the "town" for a bit and then headed generally toward Penneshaw.
We drove down several side roads and found some beaches - not pretty, but we reckoned that several places would be visited by tourists that day, that had never before or would again be visited by tourists - as there must have been many people wondering around this end of the island waiting for the time to go back to the mainline on their scheduled ferry.
We arrived at Penneshaw, and went directly to the ferry terminal, where a ferry wasw about to leave. I was able to change my booking from 7:30 to 5:30. At this stage, it was still only 2:30pm. We found a nice spot over looking the harbour, and had a cool drink. At 3pm we went to the local museum - here we found a very interesting man to talk to, and displays of the marine history of the island - can't believe how many ship wrecks there have been around the island!!
After staying there before about an hour, we went away, and visited the rock which was the sight of the landing on Nicholas Baudin on the island. Finally it was time to line up to board the ferry. In due course, the ferry came along, and soon it was our turn to drovie on - Ted walked of course. On board, we had coffee and relaxed as the ferry returned to Cape Jervis. Then we drove back to Victor Harbor, where I found that my card again would not open the gate. As I went into the office to report this, I found the man on duty to be extremely rude and accusing my of breaking the rules re tailgating out of the park, which of course I had not done. He actually said "don't tell me about the card - I see thousands of these each year and you have got it out of synch". When I tried to tell him that I had not done the wrong thing he just continued to be quite rude. Those folk whose report I read on the internet were quite right.
Now we have had dinner, and I am just writing this up. I will have to do some washing tomorrow and a few other chores. Now, though, I am off to bed.
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