Travel Location: North-Ryde,Australia

We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to embark on the journey!

That means planing and preparation have to be fast. The first choice was the vehicle to travel. We decided to go with a 4WD Bushcamper for two. The advantage is we can drive it through the Oodnadatta Track and the Red Center. It also offers the comfort of proper bed and does not require long time to setup once we reach a destination. Especially important as we stay only a night at most places. Additionally we bought a sunshade that has fly nets on the side. This gives us a place to sit outside protected from sun and bugs. This assembles within 5-10 minutes although the first time it took us 20 minutes.

Adventure is just bad planning. – Roald Amundsen

For navigation, we will rely on the GPS and as a backup on good old fashion maps and compas (especially in the outback). That’s at least the plan. We have in the meanwhile mapped our route and places we want to see. The trip will us take in 42 days to 35 different overnight stays and we will drive approximately 11,000 km of which 4,000 km will be through the outback.

Related Travel Entry

• Day 48 – Toowoomba to North Ryde
  Last day of travel. We seem to be done we camping and sightseeing for the moment. For the last time we checked out of a caravan park and started to drive the roughly 900 km along the New England High...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...
• Day 2
  After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours...
• Day 3
  We reached Seaspray on the 90 Miles Beach safely. That seemed today not a certainty at all times, but that is the end of the story, let’s start at the beginning. We woke up on a sunny morning after s...
• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...

Travel Location: Jindabyne,Australia

Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day started very slow so far. However, we packed all our stuff within the hour and were ready to leave by noon. We meet Sarah & Wolfie for lunch (yummy Malaysian food). As usual, we forgot some stuff at home, but lucky enough de Malaya is close enough and we returned home again after 1 hour, instead of 43 days. We actually forgot happy inside the house (btw Happy is our plant).

Finally on the way, we drove from North Ryde towards Canberra on the Hume Highway, it was stinking hot (36 degrees), the hottest day in Sydney in 20 month. It was very windy and we were affraid to be blown off in our big high top campervan. But, that was not all the excitment we got. The campervan decided to get jiggy with it. It made funny sounds, like the wheels come off. Just about 20 km before Canberra it got too scarry and we decided to stop and call Britz. The lady was helpfull, but the guys in Canberra were not able to have a look at the car today, earliest was tomorrow or with Toyota on Wednesday. The third option was to risk it and drive to Snowy Mountains (another 150 km)… Guess what we choose.

Hello Snowy Mountains!!! We are in a bushcamper and so we risked it. Worst case we camp by the road side. Guess what, the noise came back again, louder and longer than ever before. So we decided to stop and put on our mechanics hat and decided to switch to four wheel drive. And voila! It worked, no noise, smooth cruising and it didn’t sway. And then, we saw a very beautiful sunset. We drove straight into it, through the valley of Snowy Mountains with the peaks on the horizon, the sun setting and shining through the clouds. (Watch the pictures).

After 474 km at an average speed of 81 km/h and using one of our petrol tanks we reached Jindabyne. We are camping at Snowy Line Caravan Park. We cooked Laksa for dinner and enjoyed a beer under the night sky. We look forward to the walk on the lake tomorrow and yummy pan cakes from Mrs. Heidi in Cooma. So, this completes our first day of travel. Now we need to put the bed up and see how we survive the night. Oh, it is cold here.

Related Travel Entry

• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 2
  After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours...
• Day 3
  We reached Seaspray on the 90 Miles Beach safely. That seemed today not a certainty at all times, but that is the end of the story, let’s start at the beginning. We woke up on a sunny morning after s...
• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...
• Day 5
  We stayed another day in Melbourne and in the morning we were greeted with blue sky and sunshine. The wind still made it a bit cold, but a great improvement to yesterday.Today is Melbourne Cup, the m...

Travel Location: Beechworth,Australia

After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours, Adelina decided that it was too claustrophobic. She got out of the van to breath and decided to sleep on the downstairs bed. Yeap, we have now a two bedroom camper. Next time, we try to sleep both downstairs and if that does not work, Adelina will sleep down and me on top.

This morning we got a wakeup call from Britz. The lady was able to organize a mechanic. However, after talking to him, he was only able to look at the camper in the afternoon. That of course conflicted with our travel plans. Guess what, we decided to drive on. So far, the camper has not make the same noise, but it seems the gear box does not sound that good either. We most probably let the campervan be checked in Melbourne.

We started our travel with a pancake breakfast at Heidi’s Austrian Teahouse in Cooma. The pancakes were rich with fruit, cream and sugar… absolutely delicious, recommended if you drive through Cooma. It’s at the end of Cooma direction towards Jindabyne. After the healthy breakfast, we headed from Cooma to Beechworth via Kosciusko National Park. We crossed the Park in about two hours. The views were just phenomenal. Parts of the park contained the remainder of the big bush fire. The trees were all white and without leaves. Some bend towards the street and it looks like claws that try to reach the car. We think that the trees will come alive at night and move in search for prey of poor lost drivers.

We saw two dams, one of which was Tooma Dam. The dams are surrounded by the mountains and from the drive through the windy roads over the peaks and down the valley many pretty views can be taken. We crossed the Murray River, which is at least in part the border between Victoria and NSW. The river here is still rather small, and we hope to see a bigger part later in the journey.

We reached Beechworth around 4.30 pm and after shopping for our dinner, we headed to the Lake Sambell Campervan Park. We got an unpowered site for tonight at the border of the lake. The weather is sunny and no wind, ideally for a glass of champagne and a bottle of red later on. Today we put up the tent. That means a sunshade with a fly net on the side. The flies were annoying us as soon as we got out of the car.

Related Travel Entry

• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...
• Day 3
  We reached Seaspray on the 90 Miles Beach safely. That seemed today not a certainty at all times, but that is the end of the story, let’s start at the beginning. We woke up on a sunny morning after s...
• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...
• Day 5
  We stayed another day in Melbourne and in the morning we were greeted with blue sky and sunshine. The wind still made it a bit cold, but a great improvement to yesterday.Today is Melbourne Cup, the m...

Travel Location: Seaspray,Australia

Travel About: historic

We reached Seaspray on the 90 Miles Beach safely. That seemed today not a certainty at all times, but that is the end of the story, let’s start at the beginning. We woke up on a sunny morning after spending the night in the downstairs bedroom. After a walk along the lake we packed up our gear and drove towards the town centre of Beechworth.

Beechworth is famous because of its place in history with Ned Kelly. Ned Kelly and the Gang were infamous bushrangers best known for their armour. The town was the showplace where Ned Kelly was sentenced to hard labour and later where he had the last stand off with the police and where his preliminary hearing was held. We joined a Ned Kelly tour which was telling the whole story in relation to the various buildings. The tour guide almost looked like Ned Kelly.

After the tour, we drove on Gorge Road which is a scenic drive around Beechworth and then drove on the Great Alpine Road towards Sale. The Great Alpine road climbs up the Mountain and is very windy and had to be driven in low gear. On the top, Mount Hotham, we could see snow and we could see the ski lifts; truly an amazing view and absolutely to be recommended to drive.

On this drive is where our problems with the car started. Having had problems with two wheel driving on the first day, now we had squeaking sounds on the left wheel while driving slow and in four wheel drive (like the axel is loose). After a couple of stops we wanted to change back to two wheel drive, but couldn’t change the mode. After we reached a spot with Mobile phone reception, we called Britz and asked for help. We asked to change the car as soon as possible as we were no longer comfortable with ours. We drove on, now downhill and faster and didn’t have the problem anymore. After another 200 km, we reached Seaspray with 90 miles of beach. We put up our tent and started to remove the language while waiting for the replacement car arriving from Melbourne.

We ended the evening with the arrival of the new campervan and moving the stuff across. With the arrival of the car also came the rain. As they say, it’s Melbourne weather where you can expect four seasons in a day. We cooked the dinner under an umbrella and for the first time had to eat inside our bushcamper.

Related Travel Entry

• Canberra
  Canberra... think perfection, think blue skies, perfect clouds, tree lined streets, sunshine, kept parks, streamlined houses, roads that travel on perfect angles from each other, think smiling people,...
• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...
• Day 2
  After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours...
• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...

Travel Location: Melbourne,Australia

The rain didn’t stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what all was wrong with the last one.

Victoria weather was cloudy and every now and then it poured. We drove towards Melbourne on the highway and except for a car that has a tree branch stuck below there was not much worth mentioning. Today, we planned to visit Yarra Valley, one of the many wine regions in Victory and, at least for us, one of the better known. We arrived shortly after 1 pm in the valley and our first vineyard. Tallawara had a nice setting overlooking the vineyard with a restaurant and a tasting area. The wines were nice too, but with the limited space in our van we decided against buying it. The next winery was Coldstream Hills which was founded by James Halliday, the producer of the Wine compaion. We coudn’t resist the wine there and bought a nice bottle of viognier 2007.

The last stop was Chandon, famous for its bubblies and which is what we normally order in a restaurant. The setting was a massive building with a view over the vineyard through the floor to ceiling windows. The car park was full and many tour buses were parked. The park in front of the building was crowded with tourists taking pictures. We felt more like at a monument than a vineyard. Unfortunately for us, they only had two bubblies for tasting so we decided to purchase a range tasting ticket. However, as we wanted to taste a particular one, we ended up buying just a glass each. We got a complementary cheese, bred and dip plate which was tasty but small.

After having had enough wines, we drove to Melbourne and found a camping ground near the race course. With $45 a night most probably the most expensive on our tour. The facilities are good and the CBD can be reached with the 220 bus directly. Convenience has a price.

We spent the evening in the Melbourne CBD for a nice dinner in the Hardware St. We had nice italien food with a jazz band playing. We met up with friends and went on to the Kitten Club which is a quite nice little bar in Little Collins street.

Related Travel Entry

• Day 5
  We stayed another day in Melbourne and in the morning we were greeted with blue sky and sunshine. The wind still made it a bit cold, but a great improvement to yesterday.Today is Melbourne Cup, the m...
• Preparations nearly complete!
  It's amazing what you can fit into a few weeks! My preparations for South America were delayed beautifully by my decision to buy a property. That organised, now it's time to really prepare for my 7th...
• Familiar faces (Melbourne, VIC, Australia)
  (Day 595 on the road) Melbourne is easily the most agreeable and cosmopolitan city I have been to since I left home. Miles apart from the chaos and pollution of some Asian metropolises like Manila, Ja...
• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...

Travel Location: Melbourne,Australia

We stayed another day in Melbourne and in the morning we were greeted with blue sky and sunshine. The wind still made it a bit cold, but a great improvement to yesterday.

Today is Melbourne Cup, the most famous horse race in Australia and a public holiday in Melbourne. After sleeping in, we decided to go to the city to watch the race. Federation Square, so we are told, is the best place to see it, except for the race course. We took a walk along the river and decided to have one of the Melbourne Cup lunches at a nice little restaurant. It was pleasant enough to sit outside in the sun, although we were happy to wear our jackets.

There was a big screen at Federation square and everybody sat in front on the place waiting for the most popular race of the day. Race number 7, with more than 20 horses running over 3200 m. It was a photo finish, but number 10 won by half a nose length.

We spent the evening with a bit of gambling in the casino and watching all the dressed up people coming to the city after the race. It was good fun watching people (ladies) with all the hats and short dresses in the freezing cold of the evening.

Related Travel Entry

• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...
• Preparations nearly complete!
  It's amazing what you can fit into a few weeks! My preparations for South America were delayed beautifully by my decision to buy a property. That organised, now it's time to really prepare for my 7th...
• Familiar faces (Melbourne, VIC, Australia)
  (Day 595 on the road) Melbourne is easily the most agreeable and cosmopolitan city I have been to since I left home. Miles apart from the chaos and pollution of some Asian metropolises like Manila, Ja...
• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...

Travel Location: Rosebud,Australia

We were woken up at 3 am by a loud grunting noise. After opening the curtains of our campervan, we saw a Koala in the moonshine just climbing down the tree and walking on the path. We finally got up about 7 am and took a walk to the beach. The horses were with their jockeys were there, galloping on the sand and taking walks in the calm water. Just next to the horse swam a pair of dolphins, surfacing just beside the horse.

Today we explored the island, we took a costal drive from Belnarring towards Flinders where we had a lookout of at the West Head and drove then through the Golf course, with a cliff on the left towards Cape Schanck. Cape Schank has a light house and a nice walk down the cliff towards two small stony beaches. The amount of flies was incredible and we were constantly swapping them away. Only where the wind was strong enough they disappeared or rather hide on our back.

For lunch we drove to Arthur’s Seat, the highest point of the island. The lookout on top gives an amazing view of the north coast of the peninsula and the Port Philip Bay. The weather played it’s part with a cloudless blue sky. The lunch was excellent, although a bit pricy we thought. Unfortunately we did not have time for dessert as we had to rush to the south east coast for our 2 pm horse ride.

The two hours horse ride took us through the bushlands near Gunnamatta and then along the beach. The horses were well trained and followed the instructions of the guide, ignoring the riders efforts to make them speed up or slow down. My horse was Jordan and it walked well along with the others. We tried the trot and for this the rider has to stand up and bounce back on the seat so it is easier on the horse and the rider’s bum. However, I felt like just bouncing up and down and to try to stay on the horse. Well, we made it to the beach and we had a great view. The horses went into the water until about their knees and Jordan decided that this was all he is going to do during the break. No effort on my side could move him an inch until we made tracks back to the camp.

After having a sore bum and feeling all the muscles in my legs from the trot, we decided to visit the hot springs. The spa consisted of a number of pools feed by natural hot springs. The pools were just about half a meter deep and arranged in a small park on a hill. The temperatures ranged from 34 degrees all the way up to 42 degrees. That was really hot and we only managed a couple of minutes in it before we felt like a crab in a bowling pan of water. After soaking for almost two hours in the hot water we decided to call it a day and camped at Rye on the north coast, just behind the colourful beach houses.

Related Travel Entry

• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...
• Day 2
  After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours...
• Day 3
  We reached Seaspray on the 90 Miles Beach safely. That seemed today not a certainty at all times, but that is the end of the story, let’s start at the beginning. We woke up on a sunny morning after s...
• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...

Travel Location: Apollo-Bay,Australia

G’day and welcome to day 2. Not day 2 of our travel, but day two as in the second rainy day of our trip. We woke up to clouds in Mornington Pensinsula and after a short breakfast we were on our way. The trip took us firstly to Point Nepean which is located at the tip of the peninsula and encloses Port Philip Bay together with Queenscliff on the other side. The point is quite important to military history as the first shot in World War I fired by Australian forces was fired here to stop a German ship from leaving the bay and the first shot in World War II was fired by Australian forces to stop an Aussie ship which didn’t identify itself correctly. Although it was raining we thought it was worth taking the “people mover” to point Nepean. Point Nepean is now a national park and can be accessed by walking, with the bicycle and for lazy people by choo-choo train. It was an amazing ride through the national park and the former military base. Some parts are still to be cleared from undetonated bombs and ammunition.

In other to get to Queenscliff to continue our journey along the Great Ocean Road (more about that later) we took the 12 pm ferry from Sorrento. This is a 40 minutes ride across Port Philip Bay with a great view to Point Nepean and Queenscliff. A nice journey to skip the drive past Melbourne and saving us a couple of hours.

The drive along Great Ocean Road was amazing. It’s something that must be experienced rather than explained. However, we hope you enjoy the pictures. Windy roads along the coast of Victoria with views over the Ocean and the cliffs ahead to be climbed. The Great Ocean road was built in memory of the guys serving in the first world war and opened in 1932. The coastline is and was treacherous to ships as a grave inscription of the captain of a capsized ship in the 1891’s describes. The ship is still there, but because of high tide we didn’t see the remains.

We reached our destination just south of Apollo Bay at Morengo caravan holiday park (recommended). Just two minutes from the camping ground you can spot seals on a small stony island in front of the coast. Although it rained the whole day, we were rewarded with some sunset pictures and an almost cleared sky. We heard that Victoria needs the rain and thus didn’t mind to have a little bit on our trip.

Related Travel Entry

• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...
• Day 2
  After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours...
• Day 3
  We reached Seaspray on the 90 Miles Beach safely. That seemed today not a certainty at all times, but that is the end of the story, let’s start at the beginning. We woke up on a sunny morning after s...
• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...

Travel Location: Nelson,Australia

The night remained stormy with the occasional shower which lasted until midday. We made our way firstly to the Triple Falls which is located in the Otway National Park. The drive took us over unsealed road and we tried the 4WD on our car. The weather was a bit chilly, but we took off by foot through the scenic walk in the park. After about 40 minutes walk, we reached the bottom of the falls and took some nice pictures (see photos).

Next on our agenda was the Cape Otway Lighthouse, the most southern point of our trip. It was very windy. We had the wind against us and later right up our bums at the top of the lighthouse. We had some nice views of the coastline and the sandy cliffs. The rain came about just as we came down from the lighthouse and we had to run to the car.

From the lighthouse we drove west along the Great Ocean Road towards the Twelve Apostles. The clouds were fast moving due to the strong winds. We decided to take the walk to the viewing area. Just as we reached the first viewpoint it rained. We ran back to the visitor centre and decided to continue the journey. After a washroom break the sky cleared and we decided to take a second chance and walked again to the viewing area. This time everything was perfect and we got an amazing view on the Apostles.

Later in the drive towards Glenorie National Park, we stopped along at Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge and at Warranambul where there are Whales with their calves during July to September. Naturally we didn’t see any of them. We made it to the campsite just before sunset. We were greeted by wallabies and echidnas at the entrance and we saw later on possums. We were also told that there are black snakes near the toilet. Nevertheless, I gathered wood in the diminishing light and light a fire to warm us up.

One thing to remember when travelling through rural Australia: Take CD’s. There is not always radio reception. However, we found one radio station playing 60’s music from the twelve Apostels to Glenorie National Park. They played music like ‘you bring the devil out of me’ and ‘return to sender’. A lot of Elvis Presley. The best part was the weather update. It was read in a monotonous voice, repetitions and mistakes. We thought it was rather funny and different to the perfectionist commercial stations.

Related Travel Entry

• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...
• Day 2
  After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours...
• Day 3
  We reached Seaspray on the 90 Miles Beach safely. That seemed today not a certainty at all times, but that is the end of the story, let’s start at the beginning. We woke up on a sunny morning after s...
• Day 4
  The rain didn't stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what a...

Travel Location: Adelaide,Australia

We didn’t really know yesterday how the beach side looked we parked at night, but at 5 am we were woken up by some noises outside the car. We opened the curtain and were greeted by the first light reflecting in dark red by the scattered clouds at the horizon. The ocean was in dark blue and the sky just a bit lighter with the first sunbeams. A magnificent sunrise just started right in front of us.

We were not really allowed to camp on that spot. However, so far we did not camp, but rather just had a nap. We decided to drive towards Seal Bay and half way we stopped at a designated camping area where we got another hour of sleep.

Seal Bay is known for the seals (how else could it be?) that take a snooze on the coast. We arrived at about 10.30 am and it was already hot. Furthermore the flies, which are very friendly, were really getting to us. We took a walk on the boardwalk to the beach and there were hundreds of seals either laying in the sun, fighting with each other, or coming or going into the water. We even saw a seal to surf with the waves. There was also a skeleton of a baby whale that was stranded after a storm. This excursion we can highly recommend.

According to our ferry timetable, the ferry leaves every hour. Without a mobile phone connection we decided to drive the 100 km to Penneshaw to catch the 12.30 ferry. Upon arrival, we found out that the next ferry only leaves at 2.30 and that one was fully booked. So we were scheduled to leave on the 4.30 – So much for our plans to visit the wineries at McLaren Vale on the way to Adelaide. We mused the time to explore the western, smaller part of Kangaroo Island. We drove on dirt road towards the Eastern Cape with the lighthouse and on the way back stopped to cook lunch near a river. The flies seemed even friendlier and only thanks to our fly net tent we managed to keep them away from the food.

After leaving Kangaroo Island, we drove straight to Adelaide. We found a camping ground just outside the city and decided to take a taxi to downtown. We were told that the best place to go is Rumble Street and so we went there. The street has many small restaurants still where we had a Chinese dinner. Something different from the pasta we had. After dinner we strolled by the war monuments and crosses, the library, university and the parliament.

Related Travel Entry

• An afternoon in Adelaide Gaol…
  Yesterday I decided to check out the Adelaide Gaol. It was built on the outskirts of Adelaide in 1841 and as Adelaide is one of the only colonial towns not be settled by convicts, local people scoffed...
• A day out at Adelaide Zoo
  Yesterday was spent leisurely walking around Adelaide Zoo. The first animals you come across as you entre the zoo are the Barbary Sheep. Rather strangely, in the next enclosure are the alligators! The...
• Preparation & Planning
  We initially planned the trip for July 08, but had to put it on hold. Now, before the Christmas vacation and before our dogs arrive in Sydney, we decided it is the right time.. now or never.. to emba...
• Day 1
  Today is the big day! The alarm rang 6 am, but we kept delaying the getting up until 8.30. We picked up our campervan, which took two hours because we were stuck in rush hour traffic jam. So, the day...
• Day 2
  After yesterday’s blog, we sorted the bed out. The bed is on top and the room between head and roof rather tiny. We are not even able to crawl on all four. After trying to sleep for a couple of hours...