Sunday, Feb 14, 2016

It had rained at night, so when I got up, I wiped down the tent and left the tent out to dry a bit more in the cool breeze, while I went to brush my teeth. When I stepped out from the washrooms, it was raining again, so I had to gather my tent, which had blown over from the wind ( even though I had staked it down ) and then dry it as much as I could, before leaving.

It was cool when I left Port Campbell 9:30 am, for the 8 hour drive to Cape Jervis where I hoped to catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island the following day, or so I thought. My life is anything but boring. If I don’t have opportunities, I tend to create them.

The temperature was 18 C ( 64 F ) when I left Port Campbell and it got a little warmer, but it didn’t get higher than 24 C ( 75 F ).

I continued my drive along the ” Great Ocean Road ” and I enjoyed the many ” lookouts ” with spectacular views along the coast.

Among the unique coastline, there were grottos,

and crags.

While I was walking along one of the paths to take pictures of the landscape, I came upon these large ants.

They were quite large and I couldn’t believe the size of their pincers. I checked it out and they look like the ” Bull Ant ” which is apparently the largest ant in the world.

After I left the coastal highway to go a little more inland, I saw several unfortunate kangaroos and koalas that had not made it safely across the road. But I did see these emus walking just outside a wooded area along the highway.

I had gained another 30 minutes and I am now 15 1/2 hours ahead of the time back home. I have never experienced a time zone that is only 30 minutes difference until now.

There were large sections of vineyards that stretched on for kilometres, which was not unexpected, knowing Australia’s reputation for making wine.

I still couldn’t get over the large number of eucalyptus trees. They seemed to be everywhere and a lot of the roads were lined with them. A lot of them dwarfed the one I saw at the park in Hamilton.

It was taking a lot longer than expected to get to my destination, Cape Jervis, so I decided to try to get a campsite at a Big4 campground in Aldinga Beach, 50 kms north of Cape Jervis. I was almost there when the sun was setting.

I reached the campground by 9 pm and there were rooms and sites available, but no ” innkeeper “! There were some instructions for assistance if you were a registered guest, which I wasn’t. I called anyways and the camp manager said that he couldn’t help me if I didn’t have a registration. What now? I checked on the internet for a few options and then drove back to Willunga and stopped at a little food mart and called a B&B but they were booked for the night. I decided to continue driving, however I was getting very tired, so when I saw a public washroom in a small town along the way, I parked the car, bundled up and went to sleep in the car because I was too tired to update my blog or answer any emails. It had gotten a lot cooler by the time I went to sleep, but I didn’t realize how cool it would get!