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| Glenn feeding the little roos at Paul's Place on Kangaroo Island |
| Glenn's Journals 12-05-02 South Australia We slept in this morning until 9:00 am mostly due to our late night last night. By the time we awoke the parents had left for the day and Kylie had also gone. Andrew provided us with breakfast before we had to take off ourselves. We had to drop the rental car off by 11:15 am and meet Geoff and Fran Low by noon to purchase the car. We left Andrew's by 10:30 am and, after getting a little lost, dropped Erin and our backpacks off at the Low's so I could return the rental car. They were nice enough to allow Erin to drive our "not yet purchased" car to the rental place to pick me up. We promised that we would return. We were running late by this point and after stopping to fill the gas tank in the rental finally returned the car around noon. We returned to the Low's around 12:30 pm. We had agreed to go to their bank and I would get a cash advance off of our visa card which could be transferred directly into their bank account. Well, the cash advance had a few hitches which required many phone calls back to the states to clear up. Finally, after a few frustrating hours, everything was taken care of and the cash advance went through. After the bank we stopped to transfer the registration of the car and pay any fees required. Lo and behold the visa card still had problems, so I had to pay cash (and deal with visa again later). Now we were ready to go!! We dropped Geoff and Fran off at the mechanic's where their new car was waiting for them before we said our goodbyes. Geoff and Fran were really good people!!! We even took their address so we could write to them occasionally and even send them a picture of the car during its travels. It was now after 3:00 pm and we were hungry for lunch but also had a few hours to get to Barossa Valley. We stopped on the way out for a quick lunch before making our way up the A20 to Nuriootpa. We stayed in a basic cabin in a campervan park which ended up being very nice. The cabin came with a double bed, refrigerator, television, and all of the basic eating and cooking utensils required. We were pleased and would have to try this again. It was also as inexpensive as a hostel and private. After finding accommodation, we toured through a "scenic drive" of the region until we figured we'd better head back into town for dinner. One of the things that we are still learning is that everything, except the bars, closes at 5:00 pm. This is even in the bigger cities of Adelaide and Perth. You also need to be careful driving at dusk or dawn since that is when the kangaroos are more active. You definitely do not want to hit a kangaroo with your car because both will lose. The kangaroo will get hurt and the car will take some damage as well. We usually are home by dusk for this reason. We stopped into town at a take away pizza joint and while we were waiting walked down the street to the bottle shop for take away beers for Erin. Oh yes, you can not buy beer at the grocery store but must stop at bottle shops (like the Sip N Save) for your alcoholic beverages. We still forget occasionally but are learning. We even learned in Western Australia (in the smaller towns) that most restaurants are BYO (or bring your own) alcohol as they can not afford to carry enough selection to satisfy every customer, plus the liquor license would be expensive. After the bottle shop and picking up the pizza we headed home. Tonight was our night to relax as we had worked hard all week buying the car and working on the website and other projects. Erin and I enjoyed dinner and then vegged on the bed while watching television. We fell asleep around 11:00 pm so we could get an early start in the morning. Tomorrow we will drive through Barossa Valley, take care of a few business things in Adelaide, and then off to Cape Jervis by 2:30 pm to catch the 3:00 pm ferry to Kangaroo Island. |