No Time To Carrickalinga?

Day: 348

Towns / Cities Visited: 245

Countries Visited: 31

Steps Taken Today: 9,887

Steps Taken Around the World: 5,476,649

And so it was that dawn broke, and we were forced to pack down our tent. It was early. Well probably not for many people, but it was early for me, and it felt doubly so as the grogginess of my pre-emptive travel sickness tablets lingered in my system. Still, we had a ferry to catch, and an hour and a half drive to reach it. The clock reached 9:30 and we finally closed the boot with all of our things jammed back into the car. The time had come.

Dozing in my seat for the majority of the drive, we eventually made it to the port at Penneshaw and loaded ourselves onto the ferry yet again. Bidding an unwilling farewell to Kangaroo Island, we pulled away from the dock. The only upside was that the mix of medication and calm winds meant that I didn’t spend the entire voyage half a second away from vomiting the whole time. Still, I remained a perpetually fatigued zombie for the most part, only answering questions when direct, necessary, and unable to be answered by the nod or shake of a head. It was a feeling I hadn’t felt since I’d been on strong anti-depressants and it was a large part of the reason I went off them years ago. There is just something soul-sucking about being that tired.

When at last we made it back to the mainland, we set off to the first of the few easy tasks we’d set ourselves given my current state. Turning off the main road, we found ourselves in the small town of Rapid Bay. It wasn’t the bay we were there for, though, nor was it their notably long jetty. No, we were there for the gaping cave sitting conspicuously at the far end of the sweeping beach. Wrapping out jackets tight around us, we wandered along the sand until we reached it.

As we looked up at the dark stone cavern, my partner tried to lure me out of my shell with upbeat conversation, but although I wanted to, I couldn’t muster the energy to play perky. Instead I just nodded as he pointed out interesting features and tried to provoke my love of hating humanity by bringing my attention to the graffiti tags marking the back wall. If it had been another day, when I had more energy, I’m sure we would have clambered up the steep shelf and explored the deeper section, but I just didn’t have it in me, and so we returned to the car.