Adelaide to KI Tuesday 2/5/08

Some hot coffee and cold breakfast gets us up and rolling this morning. Our hotel, The Richmond, has us on a package that includes continental breakfast in the restaurant which also happens to be the only place with wi-fi. It gives us an opportunity to nibble while checking the rest of the world. The front desk guy gives us a 10 minute parking pass to use the loading zone near an entrance to the mall and we head out to find the Hertz office which he described as "real close." It turns out to be about a half hour hike that seems longer because we are never sure we are going in the right direction. The Hertz lady gives us the sneaky route back to the loading zone and we're off on the next adventure. Almost.

It is a typical warm morning in Adelaide and the air conditioning in the car doesn't work. The passenger who invisions a 10-minute delay says it is no problem; we just take it back and either get it fixed or get another car, while the driver, envisioning a three hour fiasco, says there are places we have to be and there is no time for this. It is heating up rapidly now. We find the loading zone, hustle across the mall for our luggage, and that all actually works. We can't go back to Hertz the way we came but we do manage to find an alternate route and pull into the Hertz return bay and brace for the bad news. Our passenger beats the driver into the door and makes eye contact with Debbie, our original agent. They whisper a bit and head out to the car while the driver is inside rolling his eyes saying, "oh jeez, here we go." Debbie hops in the car, starts it up and presses the cleverly disguised A/C button on the dash and the car begins to cool down the entire garage. The passenger and Debbie shake hands with a "well done mate," and the driver gets in and says, "you got the map?"

We leave Adelaide the same way we did the day before, heading south along the coast. We are in the bottom center of the Island/Country/Continent and the land to the north turns back to the west and runs along for another 1500 miles. The route we follow heads south for another couple hundred miles and then turns to the east for 1500 miles to Sydney before curving north to Queensland. Our plan for the day is to drive two hours to Cape Jervis, check in for the 3:00 PM ferry to Kangaroo Island, and then wander around town for a while grabbing lunch along the way. At the ferry office we ask about lunch and the lady tells us the best place is the general store which is attached to the tavern. We see houses to our right as we leave the ferry and assume town is that way but don't see the main road in. We pass a tavern on the highway with a gas station and convenience store but still no way into town. We have obviously missed it so make a u-turn and find a little side street that seems to go the right way but still no business district. After looping around we are back out to the highway and see a sign on the convenience store that says "Cape Jervis General Store." We are downtown.

We get a fish and chips for two wrapped in a square yard of butcher paper with a diet coke on the side. The day has turned chilly, cloudy and windy so we sit in the general store, eat our lunch and read the paper until almost two. We get organized with our luggage, secure the car, get back to the dock and get on board at 2:30. Kangaroo Island is a 45-minute sail from the mainland and is well known for a lack of population and an abundance of native wildlife. There are a couple little towns on the 2500 square mile island that house most of the 4100 island residents, and there are 1000 miles of road to get you to the wildlife protection areas that make up a third of the island. It is a choppy crossing and we are happy to see one of our hosts, Malcolm, waiting for us at the dock.

Malcolm Kleemann and Peter Walker have a 6-acre property, The Lookout, overlooking the passage back to the mainland a few miles out of Penneshaw where we landed. Malcolm had been a guide on the island for many years and at the encouragement of his tour company employer, he and Peter opened a little B&B nine years ago. Since then, the tour company was bought out and the new folks built their own motel in Penneshaw leaving behind the relationship with P&M. The guys went out and bought the big Toyota Landcruiser and started offering private tours coupled with meals and lodging at the Lookout. The lodging is a spectacular low-to-the-ground apartment overlooking the strait and an acre of unbelievable gardens surrounding the house. Peter handles the cooking, gardening and paperwork, while Malcolm is the driver, nature expert and tour guide. Malcolm gets us settled in to our gorgeous suite of rooms (2-bedrooms, bath and a half, living/dining/kitchen and patio) a little after 4:00 and we take an hour hike on the nearby roads and back around the gardens. We meet Peter in the garden and chat about their adventure for a while. He tells us that they will be serving dinner in out suite at about 7:30.

Malcolm marches in at 7:15 to set the table and take a wine order and returns at 7:30 promptly with some warm rolls, a bottle of Aussie red wine and an appetizer of warm shrimp on wild and basmati rice. The dishes are whisked away and our main of stuffed chicken with steamed veggies and roasted potatoes appears with Peter. About 25 minutes later Peter returns to tidy up and bring our ice cream on warm crepes stuffed with peaches he picked that afternoon from the garden, along with tea or coffee. We should say that this level of service, this type of property, and the luxury of private wildlife touring is not something that normally fits into our budget. Everything on Kangaroo island is pricy and when we compared the usual busload type of tour and motel stay with this experience, the price difference was certainly minimal. Good for these guys, and really good for us.

Peter tells us he will see us at 8:00 AM for brekkie and Malcolm will be ready for touring at 8:45. Peter will also confirm our 7:30 ferry booking for the evening return. All is right with the world and nobody cares about car air conditioning.

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Today's local headline: 1000 jobs threatened as car plant faces closure The Australian (Mitsubishi will announce today that they will closed the Adelaide plant)