South Australia you’re actually 💯
We’re officially deep enough into the Half Lap that none of us know what day it is anymore, and Papa K and I have mastered the ‘two-finger steering wheel salute’ 🫡 to passing traffic…safe to say, I’m finally switching off and becoming one with the road (translation: I’ve stopped feeling the need to brush my hair and just proudly chuck a hat on every morning).
Picking up where I left off last time, I’m low-key obsessed with Robe. It’s a tiny little coastal town with awesome flat beaches and coastal walks for days. We got lucky enough to have entire beaches to ourselves at sunrise and sunset. One of those places you like so much, we decided to stay an extra night just to chill.
Robe was our last stop on the Limestone Coast, from here we headed to Tailem Bend in the Murray River, lakes district and Coorong National Park. It should have been a 2hr drive, but realistically ended up taking us about 3.5hr between stopping for lunch and scenic lookouts, not to mention the mental 45-55kmph winds on coastal roads.
💨Vanlife factoid: Nigel in cross winds is like driving a giant wind sail! It’s best to slow down and steer a legit 10 and 2.
Admittedly, Tailem Bend was a rando place to stop geographically. But this stretch was a little weird in finding campgrounds because of the national park spanning 150km along the coast. That said, the spot I found in Tailem was a stunner! The campground butted right up onto the Murray River which made for some stunning sunset views for a couple nights.
Singular highlight of this stretch was the day trip to visit Coorong National Park. But rather than drive around, we booked ourselves into a boat cruise on the Spirit of the Coorong. Honestly, this was one of the coolest ways to see the wildlife in the park. As an official RAMSAR wetland, the birds around here were crazy; big, bold, different and made the most bizarre sounds. I honestly can’t tell you specifics of what any of them are species-wise😬, but I’ve never seen so many different kinds and were I a bird watcher, this would have been paradise. Extra special treats were spotting seals in the wetlands, and taking a walk through the park sand dunes and fishing for fresh pipi on the beach. Unfortunately didn’t get to eat any of them in the national park, but if you head to Goolwa beach when you get off the boat there’s an allowance of 350 per person per day as long as they’re 3.5cm wide.
Victor Harbor also acts as the gateway into the Fleurieu Peninsula, which is prime wine country (south of Adelaide) with beaches galore. We had a tactical break from campgrounds and sleeping in Nigel here to avoid the multi-day 40+ degree heatwave that blew through SA. Having an airbnb also meant Mama K was a gun and meal prepped for the upcoming week on Kangaroo Island (KI).
Hiding from the heat in the Aussie summer meant seeking out indoor activities, and given the criticality of hydration we headed to a couple wineries and inhaled a few degustations…because when in McLaren Vale 😉
Overall we had a few really chill days in wine country, exploring places like Hahndorf, Aldinga beach and hitting up all my favourite wineries in this region. The new discovery worth (literally) writing home about is called Down The Rabbit Hole. They have an Italian restaurant with an EPIC set menu, that honestly could have fed 5 people rather than just 3. Awesome service, great pour and food for days- truly, we opted to take away left overs. Highly recommend to any foodies or winos for their next trip!
Kangaroo Island: 6 Amazeballs days + a disastrous 24h
So we had a glorious first day on KI. A place I’ve been super excited to visit, to the point that I actually booked our ferry spot to take Nigel over in December last year (keep in mind, this is coming from the anti-planning person. So I was amped for KI to say the least)!
We were going really well…until the morning coffee stop on day 2 turned into a shitshow when a parked Nigel rolled backwards into a 4WD.
Firstly, everyone is safe - us and the people in other car. So this is just a story of a roadie mishap that’s unfortunate, but also one where we got REALLY lucky.
This is about the time you’d be fair in imagining me saying every profanity I know. On the side of a rando highway. Literally in the middle of no where. On an island. With no reception.
When I got done with all the swear words I know in English, I exhausted the ones I know in Tamil too.
🛑✋🏻 Vanlife factoid: when you drive a 3+ tonne van, it helps to pull the handbrake the WHOLE way when you get out of the car. 🤦🏻♀️ Lessons learned (🙄) the ultra bloody hard way.
Outside of being mega annoyed, a bit freaked and feeling lucky it wasn’t worse, we got back on the road…only to make it about 50m before I realised Nigel’s back doors were open, and better yet, wouldn’t close properly anymore. And better still, the central locking doesn’t work when a door is open (logical, but so annoying). So you know, insert more multilingual profanity here.
So pretty much the rest of the day and following morning was stuffed in driving half way across the island back to Kingscote (the only “town” on the island with services and reception). I drove with Nigel’s hazard lights on, at a sensible 60kmph praying the back door wouldn’t fling open along the way. We burned the next 16hrs finding the only crash repair mechanic to get emergency repairs done so the doors would actually close, putting in an insurance claim, working out that I have to have both doors replaced in order for the van to reliably close and lock, oh and calling about 15-20 crash repairers in Adelaide only to figure out none of them have availability for 3-4 months.
Day two on KI was a ripper 😬👍🏻
Okay so whining aside, there were actually a few hero’s along the way!
Firstly, the lady we rolled into was a bloody trooper about it all. Not only was she mega chill given the circumstances and most concerned about everyone’s safety, she was “glad she stopped me rolling further”. Judy is a saint, and thankfully had no damage to her car!
Secondly, the dude at the crash repair that got the doors closing properly so that we could stay on the island for the rest of the week at least to salvage the trip: legend. Not only did Scotty squeeze me in, he only charged me $25! Seriously the best 25 bucks I’ve spent in a while. Not only can he take my money, I owe him a glowing google review at minimum.
Thirdly, good ole Arthur has come through in the clutch again. For those wondering, Arthur is Nigel’s normal mechanic in Melbourne (who I am now on first name basis with because I chatted with him that many times while I was originally buying Nigel). I called Arthur seeking a Hail Mary recco for an expedited crash repairer to properly fix the doors. Given crash repairers in Adelaide are booked out until May-July, driving 10h back to Melbourne is actually more time efficient than anything else to get this fixed. Arthur had a hook up in Melbourne who could fit me in within a week!
So, in a turn of events, ya girl is now fanging it back home after getting off KI to get new barn doors fitted on Nigel. Because you know, I figure being able to consistently and reliably lock Nigel while he’s my house and home seems like a sensible thing to prioritise? 🤷🏻♀️
It’s taken a few days for me to be this tongue and cheek, but the silver lining has helped:
✅ Everyone is safe.
👏🏼 No one was in Nigel or standing in the back when he rolled. Which would have been WAY worse.
🚧 Weirdly, rolling into a car was great news! The alternative would have been rolling into the bush across the road. Nigel would have been proper stuffed.
📝I have insurance. Turns out it isn’t a scam after all.
🦭 🦘 🌅 🥾🏖️ KI IS STUNNING, and I still got to see it all! Once we got the doors closing, we stayed for the rest of the week and still got to see all the sights. And wow, is it every bit as beautiful as you read about. It’s just incredible to see all this natural bush come back to life after bushfires wiped out 96% in 2020. Emu Bay is maybe one of the best beaches I’ve gotten to swim in ever, they have really interesting flavoured honey from the world’s only Ligurian bee population, loads and loads of animals that spring out during dawn and dusk, and some epic hiking trails. It’s one of those places that you can’t really take a shit photo of, and at the same time, none of your photos do it justice. We got to see some of the most amazing sunsets at the Remarkable Rocks and Admiral’s Arch that truly took my breath away - a couple moments where you can just ‘be’ given the craziness of everything else happening.
The smattering of pics below is just a small sample, but I reckon this island will be one of the best places I get to visit on the Half Lap overall.
Overall, KI put a small dent in the Half Lap (pun intended), but was totally worth it! And hey, the plan isn’t ruined because the plan was to not plan 😉 Or so I’m telling myself lol
That’s it for this edition of the good, the bad and the hilarious.
Total kilometres travelled: 3,848
Total days on the road: 26
Total roadie mishaps: hopefully one and done 🤞🏼
Hoping this is all 100% hilarious in another week,
Div
Glad to hear only slight damage and a great story. Life rolls on just like you will when Nigel is sorted.
Hope you escape Melbourne door episode quickly, your updates are just too good to be stuck back into city life. Keep going x