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It rained during the night. Not a very hard rain, but it did rain.
It was definitely colder, too. It got down to as low as 57 degrees
inside the tent, with the rain fly on (it would have been much
colder and wetter without).
Today we had another tight schedule. We had a ferry to catch and
then a plane. We woke up at 6am and managed to get out of the
tent at 6:10am. We then worked with clockwork efficiency to put
everything into the car by 6:35am, whereupon we drove back to
our dining spot -- the picnic area near the visitor's center.
It was still quite cold and gray as we cooked breakfast and spread
all our stuff out to pack everything to have it ready to board
the plane. Crows watched us intently, forcing us to keep an eye
on our belongings. We had to scare them off a few times.
Eucalyptus forest outside the picnic area
By 8am, we were on the road. On the drive back we saw multiple
kangaroo road kill, all on the opposite side of the road. Most
likely some cars had driven in last night, probably too fast on
the open road, too. The road before us was clear, even if the
sky wasn't -- it started to rain on us on the drive to Penneshaw.
Jean made great time and we had plenty of time to gas up the car.
Only partway, though. I wanted to bring the car back to the rental
place running on fumes, since we'd already paid for the gas (we
didn't expect to have time to find a gas station before turning
it in).
We also stopped into a snack shop. They were selling gift jars
of Kangaroo Island honey, slightly different than the jars we'd
seen earlier. It came in several different flavors, so we picked
up a few to bring back home.
We then boarded the 10:30am ferry. There were quite a few older
(probably retired) people on the ferry. There aren't a lot of
great places on Kangaroo Island to swim or go to the beach for
sunning, which is what most young Australians seem to want to
do.
The ride back to Cape Jervis was much rockier than the one going
to the island. Obviously the seas were a little stormier with
the bad weather. I sat down the whole time, watching an Australian
blooper show followed by Mr. Bean.
Soon enough we were on the other side, and we started off on the
drive to the Adelaide airport. The weather started to clear up.
By the time we reached the airport 90 minutes later, it was mostly
sunny. We turned in the rental car and checked in for our flight
and had an hour to spare before boarding.
We walked out the door and up the ladder to our plane for our
direct flight to Sydney. We now faced a one and a half hour time
difference because of the half hour time zone difference and the
fact that Sydney was already on Daylight Savings Time and Adelaide
was not. We landed in Sydney at 5:40pm local time after a 100
minute flight. It was overcast in Sydney, just as it had been
when we'd landed there two weeks earlier.
We picked up our rental car. We started driving toward downtown
Sydney and somehow ended up on the right road in the wrong direction.
After a couple miles we realized the mistake and turned around.
This was a blessing, because traffic going in the wrong direction
was horrible, whereas traffic going into Sydney wasn't that bad.
If you ever have the opportunity to visit downtown Sydney, let
me give you these words of advice: don't drive. We were looking
for our hotel at 1 Martin Place. Unfortunately the maps we had
didn't tell us that you couldn't actually drive on Martin Place
-- it was for pedestrian traffic only. Not only that, but the
street numbers were confusing. We passed by what we thought was
1 Martin Place, but could see no sign of our hotel. Because of
one-way streets everywhere, we had to make a big circle before
trying again. This time we asked a pedestrian if they knew where
the hotel was, and they had no idea. A block down the street,
we found the hotel. Two things made finding the Westin Sydney
difficult. First, the entrance is on a one-way street, so you
can only approach it from one direction (and the surrounding one-way
streets make it even more challenging). Second, 1 Martin Place
refers to a huge building -- GPO, the former central post office.
In fact, the building spans the entire block so there's no way
to tell where the hotel entrance is just by knowing the address.
In addition, the hotel is relatively new, having been completed
within the past year, so pedestrians weren't any help either.
We parked our car, completely missing the valet service. We lugged
all our heavy bags up the stairs only to find out they had no
record of our reservation. Apparently they had the wrong date
-- they'd expected us two days earlier. After straightening things
out, we finally collapsed in our room at 7pm. At least it was
a beautiful room. Lots of glass and frosted glass in the bathroom.
A big king bed with fluffy white down comforter. Everything shiny
and new. And here we were, spreading all our dirty laundry and
camping equipment all over the place.
One thing we immediately agreed upon was that we would stay an
extra night. Originally we had intended to stay only one night
before heading off to the Blue Mountains for two nights. But we
still had to do some shopping for our stay in the Blue Mountains,
we were tired, and the weather forecasts called for possible thunder
storms the next day, clearer the following days. I figured if
we left early in the morning a day late, that would still give
us enough time to enjoy the Blue Mountains.
We needed to do our laundry, but the prices were ridiculous. They
charged per piece, rather than per load. So we only gave them
the eleven largest pieces to wash and bought new underwear and
socks and saved money that way. (yes, they would have charged
us per sock!)
We showered and went out to find dinner. We walked around a bit
before deciding to take a taxi to Chinatown. We stopped by the
7-Eleven to buy some snacks for later, then had dinner at a Chinese
restaurant. After dinner we stopped at a Chinese candy store and
got some beef jerky. That was Jean's idea, but I have to admit
it was yummy.
Back in the hotel, I turned on the TV to find the Mets and Yankees
playing in the World Series. That was the first baseball news
I'd heard since the Giants lost to the Mets. I tried using the
Internet TV service in the room, but it wouldn't let me login
to my Excite home page. Plus, it cost a minimum of $5.50 per session,
so I gave up after two tries.
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