Starting my Roadtrip - Adelaide

April 08, 2017 - everything starts at the most inhumane hour: 4 a.m.

I set off in our rental car to pick up the other girls from Surfers Paradise. It's only a 10-minute drive by car, but due to a closed road and the unknowing Google Maps, it took me a total of 20 nerve-racking minutes. Well, that's a good start!

Thanks to the detour, we finally left around quarter to 5 in the morning and headed towards Brisbane Airport. The drive itself was unusual but pleasantly relaxed. Not only was it my first time driving on the right side of the car, but it was also a large family car - luckily, the roads in Australia are wide, so I had enough space on both sides and didn't have to worry.

Almost 1.5 hours later, we arrived at the address given to us by the car rental. As luck would have it, there was no one there. After trying several numbers I had, I finally reached someone from the drop-off location. They gave me another address, which was only a few car rentals away from the previous one.

We got lucky again - the transfer was just enough for all of us, so we could all go to the airport together and didn't have any problems with check-in and boarding. The departure was on time at 8 o'clock and we arrived in Adelaide (local time) at 10:20 am. There is a 30-minute time difference between South Australia and the Gold Coast.

After picking up our rental car in Adelaide for the next 8 days, we headed to the city centre. It was sunny and 27 degrees, so we were able to walk in short clothes towards the Botanic Gardens. We spent a short stopover in a small restaurant and treated ourselves to a $13 menu: a burger with fries and a soft drink. For Australian standards, it's a very good deal!

We continued to the Botanic Gardens, stopping here and there to take photos and spending a few minutes in a museum. The Botanic Gardens are beautifully landscaped. The weather certainly contributed a lot to that ;) The birds were chirping and everything around us was green. As soon as we entered the park, we had already forgotten the noise of the city. We saw some lorikeets bathing in the water of a fountain and were cautious of some wasps. By the way, they were the first ones I've seen here in Australia.

Unfortunately, we couldn't spend much time in Adelaide as we had to catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island in the evening. So we bought some groceries for the next few days and drove for about 1.5 hours to Cape Jervis. The scenery around us was incredible. The ground was a light to medium sandy color, with small dark green trees and bushes here and there, and we spotted some herds of kangaroos. We realized that the colors and the type of landscape reminded us a little bit of Africa.

We arrived in Cape Jervis just in time to pick up our tickets. We were there at 5:20 pm and the latest pick-up time was 5:30 pm, which probably doesn't mean much in terms of Australian punctuality ;)

The ferry ride was very bumpy - definitely not for those prone to seasickness! We were sitting in the front area and even for us, who usually don't mind, it felt dizzy with all the ups and downs. The suffering of the others was hard to ignore...

When we arrived in the evening, the hostel was just around the corner. So we could check in, have dinner together, and discuss our plans for the next day.