Even though this article was posted by Jaz, it was written by both of us again. All but the last three paragraphs were written by Jaz, the end is Jill’s.

Australia is one of my favourite countries in the entire world and it took me barely a week to realise it. It’s been one amazing sight after another and Jill and I saw plenty more during our visit to the world famous Kangaroo Island. Up until this point, we’ve been driving around going wherever the wind (or Jill’s ridiculously detailed planning spreadsheet) took us but since Kangaroo Island is so big (seven times the size of Singapore), we decided to book a day tour for that part of our trip.

It was an early start with a one and a half hour bus ride to wake up for but it was what came after that that I was dreading. We needed to catch a ferry to get to the island itself and since I’ve seen Jill throw up on this trip several times already (that boat ride to the sharks was REALLY messed up), I wasn’t keen on a repeat performance. Luckily though, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be and we got to the island barf free. For most of the day we were in a tourist coach with our driver Daniel acting as the tour guide and onboard stress relief, his voice providing smooth dulcet tones throughout the journey. The first place he took us was Seal Bay. Unsurprisingly, it reeked of various seal juices, an especially bad set of animal odours that Jill and I first encountered when we were in South Africa. It was a lovely beach though, animal smells and all. I hadn’t really thought about it before since seals are always the ones getting eaten or screwed over but they can be quite vicious when they want to be and even with their clumsy looking movement on land, can run 3 to 4 times faster than people can. We were told to keep our distance. Being warned about things has been a bit of a recurring theme throughout Australia, apart from the obvious stuff that can all kill you like spiders, snakes and jellyfish so small you can barely see them (scuba diving here is going to fun!), the sea and cliffs here are very dangerous too. A surprisingly high number of people die here every year because they don’t give Australia’s awesome natural wonders the respect they deserve. Also, I’ve found that with such long stretches of wide open road (I’m sure the high campervan didn’t help either), the cross winds here are deadly. Even a one second lapse in concentration is too much. But back to the island, after seal bay and lunch, we went to see a birds of prey show. The birds that featured were a tawny frog mouth (cool looking), Australian kestrel (it can do cool stuff like dive down really quick but it looks a bit shit), barn owl (shit), kookaburra (cute!) and a badass peregrine falcon. I didn’t know this before the show but since they’ve been recorded at speeds of up to an insane 246mph, peregrine falcons are the fastest animal on Earth.

Daniel drove us through Flinders Chase National Park next. Matthew Flinders was an English explorer dude that lucked out big time and found a bunch of stuff in Australia, stuff like Kangaroo Island. His name is everywhere in Australia, I’ve lost count of the number of roads, buildings, parks and general shit named after him. The English have definitely had their fingers in a lot of pies throughout history; old English dudes had their names all over stuff in Singapore and Malaysia too. Next we saw Remarkable Rocks, a cluster of large granite boulders shaped by thousands of years of unforgiving Australian weather. With the rocks sitting on a large granite dome rising steeply from the ocean, the views were fantastic and climbing the rocks was pretty cool. The $4 flip-flops I picked up in Thailand have been serving me well but in hindsight probably weren’t the best choice for footwear that day. The wind was pretty strong when we were up there, it didn’t feel particularly safe and it made everything really chilly too. I’ve been amazed by what I’ve seen in Australia so far so I’m not complaining, but I really wasn’t expecting to bust out my winter wear until New Zealand a couple of months from now. Who knew Australia was so bloody cold in spring? Next we had a brief stop at the eerie Cape du Couedic Lighthouse (the place gave me the willies) before heading to Admirals Arch, a stunning natural arch formed by coastal erosion. Words can’t really do it justice, so check out the pictures of it in the Kangaroo Island image gallery!

We had time to spare at the end of the day’s scheduled events and since we hadn’t really seen any kangaroos yet, Daniel kindly offered to take us to a kangaroo and koala reserve. The animals were just as cute as you’d expect up close but one thing I was surprised by is how big the koalas are. Most of them were pretty solidly conked out high in the trees. If a sudden gust had caught one of them while they were sleeping high up in a branch and someone happened to be walking under that branch at the time, that falling koala would have done some serious damage. Almost as interesting as what we saw during the day was hearing Daniel’s take on everything as he was showing us around. Towards the end of the day he was talking in general about life on Kangaroo Island, the hardships of being so isolated from the mainland, how important water conservation is (if there’s no rain, there’s no water), inflated prices because of the captive market and so on but also how much simpler life is there. Luxuries you might not be able to live without were you in Sydney or Melbourne seem unimportant when you’re living on a place like Kangaroo Island. There are only a few thousand people living there so practically everyone knows everyone and because of this there is near zero crime on the island. There is no need for a legal system because whenever someone commits an act that is deemed unacceptable by the community, they are simply asked to leave the island. They can try to stay if they want but because of how close and dependent on one another everyone is, life would just be made too difficult for them if they stayed against everyone else’s wishes. They would in effect be exiled. Learning about the island was a very interesting experience and I’d definitely recommend a visit there if you’re ever in Australia.

After returning late and exhausted from our long day on Kangaroo Island (after the ferry, bus and city bus rides, we didn’t get back until after 11 pm), we were happy to not have to get up real early the following day. In a slight change from my not ridiculously overplanned spreadsheet, we decided to drive to Mt. Gambier on the way to start the Great Ocean Road. Getting out of Adelaide was not as complicated as our arrival since we left after rush hour, and we were on our way relatively quickly.

The reason I suggested switching our route to include Mt. Gambier was to shorten our drive time by a bit, but also because of its’ famed Blue Lake. On our way into the town, we first stopped at the “I” (the information center and my favorite place to stop in every town and collect maps), where we discovered the other local attractions. The first stop was the Umpherston Sinkhole, a large sinkhole on the eastern edge of town that had been turned into a garden. Back in the late 1800s, the sinkhole (and surrounding property) was owned by a man named James Umpherston who even then promoted the site as an attraction for locals. It was neat to be able to walk down into it and see all the greenery. Since it was a Saturday, on the way out we also saw wedding photos being taken (the first of two that day). Next up on our Mt. Gambier sites was the Blue Lake, which is known for its’ ocean blue color in the summer months. Luckily for us, we got there a week or so after the lake had changed, the lake is a steel blue color in the winter, and then over a couple days it switches its’ color. The lake was very pretty, although the site was slightly marred by the fact that the town uses the lake for its’ drinking supply and consequently has built a plant right on the waterfront. Last up was the Cave Gardens, situated right in the town center, and it looked like a smaller version of the Umpherston Sinkhole. The only redeeming quality was the huge rose garden surrounding the sinkhole.

Leaving Mt. Gambier, we headed off to Port Fairy to start the Great Ocean Road. Along the way though, we stopped near Portland at Cape Bridgewater, where there was supposed to be a blowhole (not that I saw it though) and a petrified forest. Not much is left of the petrified forest due to local and tourist damage, but what was left was cool to see. The scientists speculate that a long time ago, there was a forest that got covered by a sand dune, which subsequently hardened to stone around the tree trunks. Once the tree trunks rotted away, the hollow sandstone pillars were all that was left. This detour was much appreciated once we got to Port Fairy, because we ended up making friends at our caravan park and didn’t head into town until the sights were closed. Since it was the first group of people we had chatted with at any of caravan parks, we didn’t mind the diversion though. We were the youngest people by at least 40 years, so we were the only ones on a limited timeline. One of the couples had sold their home and bought a converted truck to drive around Australia in. The helpful part was that several of them had just driven the Great Ocean Road and were able to give us a couple tips about driving (the roads are quite steep and curvy) and campgrounds to stay at!