13 days in...

Hello from South Australia, the festival state. Temperature since we've been here: 40C. But a very dry heat so not so tiring. We're staying with Tom's cousin who has a little house in the south of Adelaide near the hills. Bush fires raging almost out of control. Yesterday we took the ferry to Kangaroo island. Like Australia used to be I imagine before all the ribbon development along the coast. Fantastic beaches totally deserted. Found a natural sponge washed up on the beach (but you can't remove any items from their original environment). I fondly imagined to see kangaroos boinging around everywhere but it turns out all species including wallabies, echidnas (like anteater/hedgehogs) are nocturnal. But we did see an 18 inch long gooana (iguana). I like the original Australian homesteads with zinc roofs and verandahs and these are apparently becoming more appreciated here now. South Australia is unlike western Australia, seems less modernistic, more traditional. Now at the airport en route to Sydney so it will be interesting to see how different NSW is.

Be seeing you.