On our second day, we were collected from the YHA early in the morning by a minivan for our tour of the island. Already on board were two or three other couples, and we set off to fill up with backpackers staying at farmstays or other smaller motels nearby before moving on to Seal Bay, our first destination. Kangaroo Island was certainly turning out to be larger than I had imagined. When people talk to me about visiting a small island to see the wildlife, my head...

People make out that Kangaroo Island is just a short hop - if you'll pardon the pun - from Adelaide. These people are deluded - anyone who turns up in Adelaide expecting to catch a number twelve bus to the port is going to be disappointed. Cape Jervis, from where you catch the ferry out to the island, is easily a two hour drive from Adelaide, but it's really not something I would want to do as a daytrip. For a start, some of the things you're probably going to wa...

Adelaide is also famous for its statues. Wherever you go in the city, you'll find everything from statues recalling famous figures from Australian history to the bizarre street art that springs up everywhere. On the pedestrian precinct outside Rundle Mall, litter bins along the street are decorated with full size bronze statues of pigs standing on their hind legs and nosing through the rubbish, other bronze pigs just standing around awaiting their turn. These pig...

In 2003, Eloise and I flew directly from Darwin to Adelaide as part of our mini-tour of Australia to take in some of the places we hadn't had time to see the previous year. When planning the return trip, we had heard a lot about the Great Ocean Road, a stretch of highway which spans much of the coast of Victoria and is considered by many to be the most scenic route in the country. Until that point, I hadn't known much at all about the route, and so was keen to se...

Day 4 was really the first main stop of the tour. We spent the day at Coober Pedy, which is where ninety-five percent of the worlds opals are mined. The place is quite extraordinary - since the temperature can get as high as 110 degrees in the summer and below zero in the winter, the occupants have quite simply chosen to live under the ground where the climate doesn't affect them and it remains a constant 28 degrees. Today, apparently, it has been somewhere in th...