Yer not the ocean

And now for a little recap...I will use multiple postings so hopefully you start reading here.

January 16, 2009 - Hell Day

Well I hope I provided enough of a cliff hanger on my original "Steady as she goes..." post and that the story of "hell day" doesn't turn out to be too much of a disappointment.

The day started out perfect. We left Steve and Jenny's and headed to the grocery store to get some things for the trek. A night on Kangaroo Island was on the agenda and we were all fairly excited about it. For those of you who don't know KI is a unique island two hours South of Adelaide and is world renowned for it's abundance of kangaroos, koalas, sea lions, seals and penguins, not to mention beautiful scenery. There are no predatory animals on the island so all the aforementioned animals have been able to basically take over without any major threat to life.

While we were in Adelaide the city was gearing up to host the Tour Down Under which was the first race of the season in the major bike racing circuit. Conveniently it also marked Lance Armstrong's return to cycling in his first race since retirement. The radio stations were a buzz with Lance sightings and we joked that how we would hit him while we were driving in the hills and make world news. Fortunately we didn't do that but we approached a cycling team on the outskirts of Adelaide and were like maybe that's Lance...it was! He was training with his team, cycling in about the middle of the pack. We were on the highway so we couldn't really slow down but luckily we hit a red light and I grabbed my camera as they came up beside us. The light turned green and I had a chance for one picture...it was of a bike tire. It didn't matter though, I saw one of the most recognizble legends of sport and I was ecstatic.

That's basically where the fun ended. The drive out to KI was amazingly beautiful and if I hadn't seen Lance Armstrong it would have definitely been the highlight of the day. When we got to the ferry for KI we got out and went in to pay. The women said, "3 students and a wicked van...that will be $520." Ummm....no. We checked online before we left and we had calculated the cost to be about $170 to get us all out there with the van but apparently we calculated wrong. Since we were only going for one night (even if we had been going for 7 nights) $500 would have been incredibly hard to justify. We decided to opt out of KI.

Our next stop was Mount Gambier where Jenny's Parents lived. They had offered us their beach house in Port MacDonnell, 20 minutes south of Mount Gambier. We drove, got lost, got found, drove, got lost again, got "found", drove, ended up in the same place, drove, drove, drove and drove some more. We ended up in Mt. Gambier at 9:00 p.m. 12 hours after we had left Steve and Jenny's. All we had eaten that day was peanut butter and bread and we were starving. We picked up the keys for the beach house and Joyce and Ron instructed us to go eat at this pub in Port MacDonnell. We got there and it was closed, so we settled for PB and bread for the 4th time in a day. This may not sound bad but when you have been in a car all day and that's all you have been eating it loses it's appeal very fast. The kicker, the salt in the wounds or the insult to injury came when we asked Ron and Joyce how long the drive SHOULD have taken us. There response,"oh Adelaide to Mt. Gambier...that's about four and a half hours." Yes, we managed to "get lost" for 7.5 straight hours.

Now, I am going to get a bit serious. There was one really valuable thing I did take away from the drive (and this may seem a bit out of left field, but Denis Agar, I think you will enjoy it). For the first time in my life the idea of global climate change hit home. Driving through a country in the midst of one if it's worst droughts in history I really had the opportunity to see global warming at work. We were instructed to drive down the Coroong on the way to Mt. Gambier because it was supposed be an amazing drive by the lake, it wasn't. Most of the lakes have now dried up and what is left are empty holes of salt and dried out vegetation. Farmers in the area are really suffering with crops virtually non existent, and livestock having little to nothing to eat. As a Winnipegger in the midst of one of the coldest winters on record it is hard to see the truth behind global warming, but I did. I think global warming can actually be compared to many diseases, everyone knows that they exist but until it actually affects one of your loved ones it's easy to forget. I can now say that my "loved one" has been diagnosed and I am affected. The irony in the whole situation was the fact that we were driving a diesel van which was spewing out jet black exhaust for a huge chunk of the drive. In conclusion to this thought I am not trying to say that I am going to give up the hundreds of luxuries I have in my life but I will from here on out try and make more cautious decisions when it comes to waste, and I think that's a good start.

I was reminded by Carly Chivers of "Hell Day" in Europe; pouring rain, no sleep, and hours of walking around Paris. I don't think this day quite touches that one but on the other hand if "hell days" continue to include foreign destinations and unexpected revelations, bring it on.