Day 26 – September 26 2012

The part for the car was due to arrive around 10am so I was in at the repair place by then & waited for the part to arrive & be fitted.  I stayed around at the dealer showroom looking at new & used cars, chatting to a salesman & reading a few magazines & papers.  They had good coffee on tap & supplied lunch for clients waiting in the lounge, it was very pleasant.  The work was finished around 1.30pm, so back to camp, repack the car, hitch the Karavan & then off to Port Jervis.

It was around a 2 hour drive through some pleasant scenery, once we found our way out of Adelide & onto the freeway south.  This must be the greenest part of South Australia, it has to receive a fair amount of rain to look so lush.  The rolling hills & mountains are covered in green with fat sheep all over the place.  There are a number of vineyards this way as well, with the grape vines just starting to get their first green leaves.  The view of the sea as the road twists & winds its way south is also special.  We arrived at Port Jervis with an hour to spare before the ferry to Kangaroo Island was due to leave.  We were a little concerned while waiting for the repairs that we wouldn’t make it in time.  The car & Karavan had to be reversed onto the ferry in a very tight squeeze between other cars, the ferry was full this trip.  The short trip across Backstairs Passage was uneventful with a northerly breeze flattening the waves out, but the westerly swell made it a little rollie, however, the ferry was only motoring along slowly, so it wasn’t too bad.  We watched the sun set over the Southern Ocean & docked at Penneshaw in the dark.  Unloading the car was easy, I just drove straight off, then finding the caravan park was a little harder.  There was very little signage & the sign at the front of the caravan park was not lit, making it difficult to spot in the dark.  We set up camp in the dark & have now settled in, planning what we will see on Kangaroo Island in the two weeks we will be here.