Hi readers :)
I know I haven’t posted in a minute, but I have a trio of posts to hopefully make up for that. The first will be about the first half of my mid-semester break, when I spent some time in Adelaide and Kangaroo Island.
For spring break I knew I wanted to explore a different side of Australia than the city, so I decided that Kangaroo Island would be a nice and removed enough place to stay for a few days.
And I was right :)
I suppose a nice place to start this story would be the night before, when I was too excited to sleep. I ended up facetiming my mentee/little and getting some good catching up in. Although I did miss out on some good sleep, I was happy I stayed up because I got a text at close to midnight from Jetstar letting me know my flight had been cancelled.
A mini meltdown later, I called Jetstar and they said they could put me on a Qantas flight that planned to leave ten minutes later. Sounded good enough. I got to have some biscuits and watch some modern family on the flight over!
Adelaide is such a beautiful city. Definitely livable and the public transport is so much more affordable and extensive than Melbourne’s. Could see myself living there in the future.
I spent the arvo strolling through galleries and museums until I had to catch a bus to Cape Jervis. The drive was amazing. We went through the picturesque Fleurieu Valley and I had two hours of views that I couldn’t possibly capture with my phone but so glad to have the memories of. Rolling hills, vineyards, sheep, and the greenest greens I’ve ever seen.
Arriving at Cape Jervis, I hopped on the most expensive ferry in the world (per kilometer) and had a 45 minute trip through the Backstairs Passage.
My first time on a ferry and I was frozen for most of it. I couldn’t look back and see how far from land we were getting. I couldn’t look down and see and endless sea. So I just stared, frozen, at the sun. From when it was so bright I could only see it’s outline, until it was like a thin line of fire beneath the clouds and on the ocean, and until it disappeared into a lavender blur. The ferry ride was magical. At this point I was convinced this island would be magic.
Kangaroo Island is Australia’s third largest island, not even 100 miles in length and 50 miles in width, and has a population in total of 4600 people.
I checked in to my accommodation that evening and cooked a little dinner, and was invited by the lady who checked me into sit around the fire with some others that night.
Her name was Sri Tan, and she came to Australia with a desire to do something more than stay in her home country and have a traditional marriage and job. I also met Paco and Pete around the fire. Paco was this French boy taking a break from uni, on a working holiday visa trying figuring out his life, and Pete was somewhat of a local who did construction around the island. The three hour conversation among us, made up of four distinct accents, a good bit of broken English, and years of diverse experiences was revitalizing.
I had a “Remarkably Wild Day Tour” planned in the morning but I overslept and was relegated to the “Highlights of Kangaroo Island Day Tour” and had a decent enough time. I had a full day of hitting all the tourist attractions on the Island and being dazzled by God’s creations on this side of the world. I saw Remarkable Rocks, the Admirals Arch, walked with some seals on Seal Bay, had a nice lunch, talked to some kangaroos, and observed some koalas in their natural habitat.
Returning to my accommodation, the four of us huddled around a bonfire again. Not for too long though, because Paco had promised to take me fishing at sunrise (I had an 8:30 ferry to catch back to the mainland and he had work at 7:30).
So I woke up at 5:30 the next morning, with the help of the red and green parrots fighting and playing in the blossoming bottle brush (goupillon, as Paco calls it) tree right outside my window. Paco and I made the 3 minute walk to the jetty and I fished for the first time. The water was so clear we could see squid and crabs and fish and everything in the sea. I absolutely fell in love with the waiting game of fishing and actually got a little tug! I couldn’t reel the line back up in time before the fish swam off with my bait, but I got myself hooked on fishing!
I left the island that day wishing I could stay longer but so pleased with my experience.
Thanks for reading and stick around for part 2 :)
Court
Check out more from Courtney's travels here: courtinpz.tumblr.com