6th to 12th December 1999 (Week 49)

On Monday we started from Minnipa towards the Gawler Ranges. On the way we payed a visit to Pildapa Rock. He is one of the many granite Rockformations that can be found in the Gawler Ranges. All the Gawler Ranges is still under pastoral lease. That means it is private property. Some interesting sites can be found on the property of Panney Station. By buying a permit, one receives a map of this sites and the permission to travel on their grounds. Permits can be purchased at the Roadhouse of Minnipa, in Willuna and as well at Panney Station itself. Nevertheless there are some public roads that can be passed without a permit. The Gawler Ranges are up to 400 m high. Most of the stations are raising sheep. At iron knob we reached again Highway Number 1 which brought us back to Port Augusta for the Night. The next day we drove on to Adelaide and furter to Cape Jervis where we boarded the Ferry to Kangaroo Island on Wednesday.

The weather on Kangoroo Island sadly wasn't to good. we expirienced 3 cloudy days with the odd shower. During that time we visited numerous beaches, 2 lighthouses and walked the Flinders Chase Nationalpark in search for Koalas and Echidnas. Luckily we found both and were able to watch them. One of the Highlights was definately the visit to Seal Bay. Here live about 600 Australian sea Lions. This species is pretty rare, there exist approximately around 12'500 around the southern coast of australia. it is possible to walk with a tour guide up to 10 meters to the seals.

On Sunday we first visited the Emu Ridge Eucalypt Oil Distillery. We found a very interesting and environmentaly friendly enterprise. The eucalypt oil is produced from the Kangaroo Island Narrow Leafed Mallee tree native only to Kangoroo island. First the leaves are harvested and then loaded in big metal drum were they are boiled in water to resolve the eucalypt oil from the leaves. The oil is resolved in the steam which is passed through cooling pipes. After cooling, the lighter oil swims on top of the water. The oil is then skimmed of. This oil is then distilled to purify. The whole process is environmentally friendly since the waste is used eventually to boil a new load eucalypt leaves. Additionally throughout the production site solar panels are used to generate electricity. In the distilling process the resulting steam is then fed through a steam engine which drives a generator that creates electricity again which is feed into the batteries too. This way around 3'500 litres of eucalypt oil a year are produced at current out of a native resource that grows all around the Island. The Kangaroo Island Narrow Leafed Mallee trees don't need fertilizers or special chemicals, they even grow to the age of a hundred years and can be harvested bianually. It takes about 5 kg of leaves to produce 50 ml of eucalypt oil. By the way, their first export market so far is switzerland, with hopefully many more to come.

Next we visited the Gum Creek Marron Farm where we learned how these crustacians are farmed. Marron is a sweetwater crab that can grow to around 2.5 kg over 10 years. On the farm up to 5'000 Marron are grown over 3 years, then they reach the size restaurants are looking for. Naturally we had to sample them too. After that we returned to the ferry and on towards Adelaide.