There is a famous U2 song that has the line…"but I still haven't found what I'm looking for". That has been us since we left on our trip. Now I don't want that at all to sound in anyway unthankful, but we have been so exhausted after our packing up our house in Alex that we have deep down just wanted to veg out and do nothing but that's a bit hard when you are travelling! But here at Rapid Bay we have found just what we have been looking for! A gorgeous beach, a cheap campground, a place where we can just chill and swim and play and rest! Yey!!!!
Rapid Bay is just north of Cape Jervis where you catch the ferry over to Kangaroo island. It has no general store, no petrol station, just an old quarry still in small operation and a dozen or so houses. The beach is a bay surrounded by large grassy/rocky large hills, verging on small mountains. At night you can see the lights of Adelaide hugging the coast. The campground here has toilets but no showers. Green grassy sights and norfolk pines for shade. Nothing to do here but relax!
Before we reached Rapid Bay we have had a few memorable moments:-
· Saw Larry the Lobster at Kingston, looking a bit old, poor old Larry but the kids were impressed all the same!
· Drove onto the beach near Kingston with our Trak Shak, stunning beach, (check out the photo on our photo page). Mark would've loved to do more beach driving but the opportunity just hasn't arisen.
· We have learnt that you need to fully assess a site before setting up! Planned on staying at a free campsite called 'The Granites' just north of Kingston. Rocked up there at 6.30, in gale forced like winds, the ground was a white limestone, we tried very hard to set up but the Trakkie was like a hot air balloon, billowing in the wind! Admitted defeat and ended up at a very sheltered national park bush setting!
· At this same place (The Granites) had a couple of grey nomad males come up to us. They didn't really offer any assistance just their two bobs worth which was a tad frustrating at 7pm at night when you are fighting gale force winds, have two hungry children in the car and still have to find somewhere to set up for the night! One of them had the cheek to say to me "Can I offer you some advice…I think you have packed too much". Grinning in response at his gall I said "Yes we probably have but we do have two kids". Immediately he apologised and took it all back and said he had no idea and that our amount of gear was completely understandable! (At this time our kids were in the car being little angels, playing their gameboys so he had no actual idea they were there!)
· We really enjoyed Victor Harbor but it was way too busy for our liking. We tend to forget it is still school holidays! We went on the horse drawn tram out to Granite Island, it was a really touristy thing but gave us a good feel for the town.
· About school holidays, Emshia done a whole week of maths homework from the book her teacher gave her to do! (Emshia wrote this by the way!) We were very proud of her and hope she keeps it up!
· At this moment Mark is actually sitting down reading a book! A guy we met who is camped nearby (who is a Jackaroo at Alice Springs) lent it to him and Mark is actually reading it! The last book Mark read was The DaVinci Code (when it was really popular) which tells you how long its been!
· One of our aims for this trip is for the kids to learn all of their times tables. Santa bought Rory a multiplication book and CD (sung by Don Spencer from Play School)and since Monday we have been playing the 2 times table song a couple of times every day when we are in the car. So far it seems to be working (the brainwashing that is!!!) Even Rory can sing it now! And we are all eagerly anticipating the 3 x table, just for a different song!!!
Listen now! New music from the Rogue Traders.
