Four Days on Kangaroo Island

Today I have returned from a fun four days on Kangaroo Island. I hadn’t planned nor even wanted to go – due to a fairly bad case of the flu. But despite the insistent cough, my wife and I stayed with her parents for four days.

The first day was non-eventful as we didn’t get to their home until after midday, so the afternoon was spent settling in – and enduring torrential rain that sprang out of nowhere! Thankfully I’d taken a few shots from the SEALINK ferry as we travelled across from Cape Jervis to Penneshaw earlier in the day…

It rained throughout the night and into the second day, so I was worried I would spend the entire short holiday inside the house. Considering that I usually spend my holidays on Kangaroo Island photographing the scenery, landscapes and wild-life, the idea of sitting around the house did NOT appeal to me at all!

It wasn’t until the 3rd day that the sun made it’s appearance – and I’m so glad it did! My MIL and wife had plans to do work on their Bee Hives, so I tagged along wondering where I’d be shooting my camera.

Upon arrival at the farm, I got permission to get out the car at the gate. Just across the main road is an old abandoned house that I have photographed before, but this time I had blue-skies and minimal cloud-cover. I also had my MANFROTTO tripod with me, so I was able to set up for long-exposure shots inside the house. I must go again now, as I’ve since discovered my settings were far from perfect.

The torrential rains from yesterday had some benefit after all. It turns out that a salt-lake hidden on the farm had been converted to a stunning lake of water, overflowing across various fields, between trees from one farm to the next. Various tracks had disappeared completely, and some fence lines had piles of natural-debris up against them. Whilst those scenes were fascinating in themselves, I was more interested in the stunning reflections of trees:

On the walk down the fence-line following the flow of water I had scene a glint of metal amongst the trees to my right. At the time I thought nothing of it, as many farms have hidden debris left by farmers over the years. On my FIL‘s farm (that he sold early in 2009), tractor parts and other debris were common-place, so I foolishly let the moment go.

But on the walk back, I spotted something in the bush: Three old cars had been abandoned all the way out in the bush. They looked like they’d simply been driven down into the trees, parked a few metres apart, then forgotten about for over forty years! It staggers me to think how many cars must be hidden around the hundreds of farms across Australia!

Well, I’m not one to let a grand opportunity to slide by. I only had to clamber over two barbed-wire fences to get to them (upon which I ripped my good denims, dammit!), so it was worth the effort:

I shot many more photographs than this, but they are destined to be displayed upon my Redbubble gallery.

Before days end, I shot around 500 photographs of the watery-landscape and the cars, plus various organic shots. Much of that evening was spent sorting them out and uploading the images you see above.

The following day I was left to my own, so chose to take a long walk from the Kingscote Jetty down the coast line – just to see how far I could walk before I exhausted myself. I had high hopes to find something interesting to photograph, but it was in vain.

Thankfully I had the good sense to photograph interesting points and places upon the Jetty itself. As usual, I went down the jetty with no plan in mind, simply shooting things as they appeared before me. This time I spotted a down-ramp that right to the waters’ edge. Here are a few shots that I enjoyed capturing: