Adelaide and Kangaroo Island

Thursday, November 8, 2018

In Adelaide, it was time for another city tour. At some point, you've seen these cities and have to say so... It's always the same, shopping, eating, and walking. And Adelaide wasn't that interesting 😬.

It didn't get any better when we picked up our new camper. Completely dirty and with the previous owner's lady razor.. mhhhm! Besides, the gas doesn't work and we were given a portable hot plate. Overall, this camper is not as comfortable and practical as its predecessor, which accompanied us the last few weeks. Especially Gianna was hit pretty hard and once again we lost interest in everything. As always when a new car is picked up, the first stop is the supermarket. I had to start shopping ALONE, imagine that!!

When Gianna doesn't even want to do the grocery shopping, she's really not feeling well.. Fortunately, she finally went to the store and criticized my purchases. Phew, I was relieved! Otherwise, I would have to constantly hear what I forgot. And yes, shopping is not my specialty.

I'm better at eating and finding animals.

And I finally found it!!! How many times have we worried about it and now it finally appeared!! The llama! Apparently, it didn't catch its flight to Yokohama and instead landed at our campground in Adelaide. 😜 (For those who slept through the last blog: The song "Das Lama von Yokohama" is sung by Gianna throughout the whole trip, more or less well!)

With caution, I even stroked it, but it was a bit musty and immediately wanted to spread its saliva on my beautiful hairline.

So I left Gianna alone with her big idol and went in search of other creatures. 😃

There were rumors that some bears had been spotted, and of course, I didn't want to miss that. On my travels around the world, I have fought with numerous bloodthirsty bears and I know how to deal with such dangerous animals. 😉

When I felt a fleeting touch on my shoulder, my senses were on edge, and I was already expecting the worst and seeing my life pass before my eyes 🙀. Leaves were falling, and my gaze moved up the whitish trunk of the eucalyptus tree. And behold, a koala bear and its baby were peacefully feasting in the treetops! 😃 🐨

And on our campground, we were able to spot a small fur ball on a tree, 15m away from us. Finally, a non-toxic animal!

The constantly changing weather is a bit annoying, we haven't been able to swim for several weeks.. :( Nevertheless, the drive down to Cape Jervis was very beautiful, and the landscape is completely different from the west coast. Here, there's a lot of green and even more trees. An extraordinary number of eucalyptus trees are home to countless koalas.

But the koalas were not our destination, it was Kangaroo Island. The island doesn't have much in common with its name, as we only saw 4 wild kangaroos!

But first, we had to shell out $380 (return) for the 45-minute ferry ride..😡 After hesitating for a long time, we finally booked and enjoyed the crossing. We quickly found out what the white bags were for because the sea was quite rough and the whole boat rocked like crazy!

We spent the 5 days on Kangaroo Island surrounded by nature and even more animals.

You're probably wondering if it's worth visiting these animal parks all the time? YES!! 🐨😃 Because the animals in Australia are just amazing, and once you've fed and petted a kangaroo, you only want to do that for the rest of your life. That's how Gianna feels too. While she was very preoccupied with herself and her fear of all the venomous animals in the north, she is now fully enjoying the small animals. 😎

But actually, we don't even need to go to such parks.. On the same evening, while cooking, a koala surprised us as it strolled through the campground... Next to the campsite, there's a Koala Walk through a small eucalyptus forest where the animals can be found. Mostly sleeping (for 19 hours a day)! But our colleague was in a pretty rutting phase and roared all evening. Overwhelmed by so many impressions, we usually sleep pretty well, even though the temperature at night drops below 10 degrees.

At least during the day, the weather has mercy on us and the sun shines on our well-nourished bellies again!

However, when we made a stop at the beach of Seal Bay, despite the sun, we froze our butts off once again. As the name suggests, you can visit the third largest colony of seals in Australia on this beach. Sounds exciting, but the animals don't really do much except sleep and occasionally turn around 😅. Still, it's amazing to see how intact nature seems and is in Australia!! Where there are seals, there are also orcas and especially great white sharks that are often sighted off the coast. The seals are the favorite food of the sharks! 🦈

We (well, at least I) want to find the sharks in the South Seas. We have now also planned/booked our tour in Fiji and will do a bit of island hopping in the Yasawas (group of islands). Hopefully, with pleasant temperatures and without rain, as the rainy season starts in Fiji! 🌧

But for now, we will be driving along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne in the next few days!