First things first: Tasmania is bloody cold! Please note that it is summer here and its about 15 degrees out. Summer!

Moving on. The rest of the roadtrip was a great time. The hostel we stayed at in the Grampians was fantastic, and we enjoyed ourselves with a not so lovely box of wine and some jenga.

The next morning we were feeling somewhat worse for wear, but decided to do a six km hike with an English guy we met. Sadly, the trail was closed, so we did a bunch of short walkabouts, and then drove all over trying to find something better till about 4pm. Eventually we settled on lunch, and then headed for Beachport, population 407.

We wanted to stay at Mount Gambier, which has a crater lake and a sinkhole, but the hostel was full. Beachport was... well, it was small. The restaurant was really good though, so that's something. We thought we'd drive back to Mount Gambier the next day to see the sights, but it was cold and cloudy out, so we decided to head for Adelaide instead. We didn't really see much of Adelaide, because we got there after 5pm. Apparently everything closes very early in South Australia, which is massively inconvenient. Especially because things don't open particularly early the next day.

So we crashed Sarah's 21st birthday party in the downstairs of our hostel and scored some free sandwiches and cake, which is always a good time. The next morning we just managed to catch the most over-priced, badly organized ferry ever. For the four of us and our car, the return ferry was $470. I know! But, we thought, Kangaroo Island is supposed to be a truly unique and beatiful place! So of course its worth it!

We got to the island about 1, and after checking into our hostel, headed for the information centre. Where we were informed that everything costs money. When we asked about free things to do the woman almost laughed at us! So that day we went to an organic honey farm and had a look around, and then I bought some really good honey. Then we hiked up a big sand hill on really annoyingly small steps. When we got back to the hostel we drank some beers and watched some tennis, and then when it got dark we headed to the beach to try and find penguins. We could've paid $10 for a tour, but we figured we could see them ourselves. We did see a few, but they're black, and it was black out, so it was tough. I did get a picture of some penguin tracks, but the penguins themselves don't photograph well.

The next morning we woke up early to drive to the other end of the island to check out the national park. $7.50 each, and then we went off in search of platypuses (I can't figure out the plural). Sadly, they remained unseen, but we did see a million kangaroos and also a koala and some pelicans.


Next we drove to the Remarkable Rocks, which are acutally very well named. It kind of looks like somebody just placed a bunch of really big rocks on top of a bluff. Very cool.

I should also note that as we drove all over the island, we saw more roadkill than I've ever seen in my life. Really, I'm sure we saw at least 50 kangaroos and wallabies by the side of the road.

Anyways, after an emergency gas stop we headed for the return ferry and made our way back to Adelaide that night. We all went to bed pretty early as all the walking around had tired us out.

Next morning we drove ourselves to the Barossa Valley, which is Australia's most famous wine region. We got to Tanunda about noon, and booked ourselves an afternoon wine tour. For $25 we got driven to three wineries, and learned a lot about the local wine industry from our guide. We checked out Wolf Blass (very big and corporate-ish with okay wine), Gibson's (small, picturesque family run winery, with too much red, if you ask me), and lastly Peter Lehmann. The last was by far the best, with a really fun and interesting wine guy serving us. The bus dropped us back in Tanunda, and we headed for the local pub to kill time. After variously laughing at the locals and eating deep fried fish we headed out on our overnight drive. Since the car had to be back by 10am the next day, we decided we'd drive through the night, which would also save us money on accomodation. It was brutal, but we did it, arriving in Melbourne about 6am. The four of us went our separate ways for some sleep and showers, with me heading for my friend Laura's place.

After not doing a whole lot all day, we all met up again for my last night in Melbourne at the Espy and heard a couple of live bands, and got rather drunk. Which meant that my six am alarm was not very welcome. But because I am tough, I managed to get myself to the airport by 7.30 am, and have now arrived in Tasmania, where I expect to freeze to death.

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving on a six day tour of the state, and I suspect I won't be checking my email, so I hope everyone has a good week!