It was a nice, sunny and warm morning in Port Elliott - very nice to wake up to. The birds were tweeting and kids were playing in a distant playground (not too close - I hate that sound). We had a plan to be in Adelaide two nights later but we still wanted to see the entire Fleurieu Peninsula so we ate and left the campground as quickly as possible. We dropped in to a small cafe for a quick coffee fix before doing a run a few kays back to Goolwa/Hindmarsh Island to see the Murray Mouth which was extremely significant to us as one of our missions was to follow the Murray from the sea to the Darling junction and then follow the Darling. It was a pretty awesome sight. You could say I'm a bit of a river nut I guess.

Next thing we were back on the road past where he had stayed the previous night and into town where we had to go and do a quick tour of Port Elliot . There were some markets by the water but they looked hectic and parking would've taken ages. We figured we'd be able to squeeze more stuff into our day by continuing our drive on to Victor Harbour.

It was only a few kays and it looked like fun so we parked the van and looked around. We had heard about the penguin colony on Granite Island which is accessible by a footbridge so we checked the visitors centre to find out how many penuings were in the colony. Since it was only a tiny colony it wasn't worth our while after seeing the huge one at Philip Island. This was good because viewing time is sunset which would mean we would have had to stay another night which in the area which was bad for our timing. We still walked over the bridge to the island for a quick look. You can take a horse-drawn tram across the bridge too but it wasn't running and we'd prefer to walk.

After this, it was back to the van and SW towards Cape Jervis . After a quick stop at the Victor Harbour lookout for some photos we were headed up into the ranges west of the coast. There were some really nice and scenic sections of the drive and there was a camping area in the Deep Creek Conservation park but we needed some supplies and we wanted showers that night so we planned on looking for a caravan park. By the time we got to the shop at Delamere it was beginning to get dark and some nasty weather was blowing in off the Bight and being outdoors wasn't pleasant. We got to Cape Jarvis feeling a little tired and hungry. There wasn't much there except for the Kangaroo Island ferry terminal with about 20 cars waiting. 

The temperature was plummeting and the wind almost blew us over, plus there was drizzle that would hit you in the face and almost freeze. It didn't make out photo stops very pleasant so it was back into the van to seek out a place to set up for the night. From Delamere it was only a few more kays to Rapid Bay - which we didn't stop at, nor did we stop at Second Valley . Both of these places had good caravan parks and facilities but we had this strange curiosity to go and check out Wirrina Cove. We drove in and had a look around and thought it looked interesting so we drove down to the caravan park section. We got to the swipe card operated gate and thought WTF?

There was a house nearby which we went and knocked on the door of but there was no reply. Just as we were about to give up and go back to Second Valley some younger doof promoter types walked past us. We asked them if they knew how we could get in - they told us to go to the resort office up the hill, while we were at it we asked them what they were doing. They were casing-out the place for use as a potential venue for a music festival or dance party. Interesting. It was only about 1500m to the office where we were surprised to find a decent looking resort with everything - including a restaurant with a decent menu. They offered us a resort room for $90 but we would have then needed to unload the van which wasn't worth the hassle - plus the van is extremely cosy, we've been taking it away camping for 9 years now and it's like our 2nd home . 

We paid $30 for a powered site and headed down into the valley, the code they gave us worked fine opening the gate but we were a little bit shocked upon first sight of the place. There were a few permanent looking caravans with some pretty rough types drinking outside. I am sure they were extremely nice people but we couldn't help but question our decision to stay here. Once we had passed that section we came to a more open area with overnighters in campers. We must have done 5 or 6 laps of the place before we decided on a quiet spot in a bushy section as far as we could get from everyone. We set up and plugged the van into our power pole and sure enough, no power.

We tried all the other outlets on the pole - all dead. At this point we thought it didn't matter too much as we still had everything we needed. It was bloody freezing so we wanted to get our outdoor stuff out of the way so we headed to the shower block which was actually quite good, everything was clean and the water was H O T . Back at the van, we managed to heat the van to a cosy temperature by cooking dinner. Then, after dinner we would boil water to clean and make tea which boosted the temperature again. We only found 3 TV channels which was good enough. Next G reception was almost perfect which provided us with additional entertainment and methods to research the places we were yet to visit. It was cold and drizzly outside which provided a great contrast to the cosy interior of the van. Soon enough, we were off with the fairies for the night.