1-15-09
New friends

I met this guy driving up in this cool little truck and had to go over and ask what it was. It is a 1981 Diahatsu (sp?). He owns a pub and restaurant and runs it on bio-diesel that he makes. He said he as a car that they made too, it is a four wheel drive and has a diesel engine too. He said it is tiny compared to this rig. He said it would have cost $800 to paint it so he use house paint and a brush instead and got it done for twenty bucks. He is also a farmer and we got to talk farming/grazing too.

There are lots of places like this for sale. Well this one has one kilometer of ocean frontage but most I see have ocean views. It didn’t say how much but I would imagine it ain’t cheap.


I went over to the north side of the island. It was a windy cool day and the surf was up. I went to the Seal Beach viewing area but was stopped cold by the sheep chutes and ‘guided tour’ I would have to put myself through along with the $14 tour as well as the $10 boardwalk. After the tour and boardwalk they run you through the gift shop to fleece you further. Damn I sure do hate to go through those chutes. It was a lot better on the beach with just myself and no one else. I have seen lots of seals and sea lions and stepped in their shit before so no need to do it down here.

This little bush is sure struggling but putting on a good display nonetheless.

I sure like this guy’s mailbox/farm/station sign. Made out of a barrel and an old tractor petrol tank.

I got a note from Barbie Charlie about temps and thought you might also like to know a simple way to figure out what the ‘real’ temperatures are.
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Several days ago you mentioned something about it being hot, but you couldn't convert to degrees F easily. Well here's a good way to do it. If you are seeing temps in the 30-40 C range, add 12 and double it. So 35+12=47, 47x2=94. The actual number would be 95, but close enough, right? If you drop below 30 C, just add 13 instead of 12. My Dad taught me this trick years ago.
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Wow, where to begin on this story. I guess at the start eh?
I was packing my Ozdog on a side street in Kingscote and a woman stopped by to tell me that her husband rides a BMW and we got to talking about my trip and farming and on and on. It turned out that she is working for the Australian Agriculture in some capacity now. We talked organic farming and rotational grazing etc….. She said her husband was on a BMW ride now over on the mainland but would be back on Thursday and if I wanted to hang around she said she knew that he would like to talk with me. I think this was on a Monday or maybe Tuesday. I didn’t know if I would still be here but she gave me directions to their place as well as tellie number. I hung around Kingscote for several days it turned out just loving the island and riding most of the back roads that are dirt/gravel. Wow, what wonderful place to ride and it is very open and very few NO signs. I found a nice gorilla camp spot next to town and found a really nice pizza place as well as they have a nice store there. The real nice thing is that they have wifi at the library and I used it quite a bit as you could tell by my dog logs. When it finally turned Thursday I called and was told by one of their daughters that Rafferty would be home after noon. I took a chance just rode out to their place following the directions that I was given. I pulled into the yard and this really nice guy comes out of the shop where he had his R100 GS that he had been riding. We started talking BMW stuff right away and he showed me all the modifications that he has done to his bike and he has done some really far out stuff. One thing that we discussed was the tranny and the drive shaft that is often a problem with them. Here is a drive shaft that he reworked but has not tried to fit it to his bike. It will be interesting to see if it will fit in the drive shaft housing. He put in new universal joint that is bigger and had washers welded over the ends to keep them in. it will be really interesting to see if it works out.

His girls were at swim camp while they are on Holiday and we had to go out and pick up the tent they were camping in. The schools are closed for Christmas holiday that must be at least a month or more.

On the way back to his house we stopped by a friends place and here he is riding in on his brand new Triumph Daytona. Wow, what a beautiful bike. He has BMW’s too but needed this one for a new kind of thrill I think.

This is the house he built. He has never built anything before and did this one all out of recycled wood. Some of the wood beams are ironwood and he said when cutting them to length the chainsaw would shoot out sparks when cutting it. You have to drill a hole to put in a nail or screw. Lots of recycled glass too. A friend did the rockwork, which is really nice too.

This is his wife’s garden. In this country you have to protect your garden from kangaroos, wallabies, and most everything else.

She had carrots going to seed as the peaches and nectarines were getting close to ripe.

One of the big lizards (Jack I saw one at Raff’s place that was over two feet long but too quick) took a hunk out of this little chook (this is what they call chickens here). She glued the skin back together with some super glue and it seems to be doing ok.

This is a ‘super visor’ that Raff puts on his helmets. This is a Nolan helmet and he takes off the sun visor and this visor clips to the clear shield. He has trimmed the beak on it to make it mostly for sunshade for riding into the sun.

This is the woman I met that is Raff’s wife. Her name is Sabrina and she and Raff adopted two girls from India about five years ago. They are Hanna and Alyeesha. I clicked in with the little girls right away. I love beautiful girls and these are stunning and the friendly and happiest girls you can imagine. Sabrina took us to the Koala viewing park where she did some consulting work a few years ago. The girl that is taking care of the park now came over to talk and had this little baby bear clinging to her. When a baby gets separated from his mom, someone has to take care of it 24/7. She lugs this little feller around all day and feeds it milk and picks blue gum leaves for it to eat all day. I think she said she would have to feed it another five weeks before it would be able to make it on its own. They really are cute little things.

We went out to Remarkable Rocks, which is out on the very west end of the island. These rocks are granite and heavily weathered.

The girls loved climbing on them

It is a main tourist area but the road going out there and the rocks are worth the sheep chutes to see and walk around in them.

The girls attached themselves to me at every opportunity. Here we are going down to see the seals.

It was really terrific to be with both Raff and Sabrina. They have worked all over the island and are professional guides and knowledgeable on EVERYTHING here. From geology to flora and fauna they have everything covered. Their place it part of a 3000 acre family retreat/homestead that her father started sixty years ago. The property goes right down to the southern ocean and has a river that runs though it. Some of the land is cleared for pasture, as her dad ran cows and sheep there for years. The place is overrun with kangaroos and wallabies now but with a lot of shooting and fencing a person could get that back in production. They have just recently bought a ten-acre place over on the mainland and will be improving that place soon too. They have a lot of work ahead of them but they sure seem to be on a good path.

BAD, BAD, BAD
I dropped my little camera in the water and it no longer works….. bummer. I have a lot of pictures on the little chip in the camera and hope to be able to get them out somehow. I am now on the trail of a new camera that will hopefully be able to use the same chip. I went to visit a man not far from Sabrina and Raff’s place. He is a guy that sheared sheep with my sheep shearer, Ralph McWilliams. Ralph told me I should go meet Ben Davis since he lives on Kangaroo Island. When I went out to visit him he was working his bees. I have some really nice photos of him making some queen bees, or at least I hope I do, if I ever get that chip downloaded. My computer for some reason takes the chip but doesn’t recognize that it is there. Dang computers.