For every beginning is also a continuation, and the book of events is always open (W. Szymborska).: First disappointment

In almost every experience there is always a time for disappointment and travels are no exception. On Thursday morning I arrived on Kangaroo Island with high expectations. There's no public transportation on the island so you either register for a guided tour (but there are only day tours, you don't see everything, no time for hiking, and I was staying for 3 days) or rent a car. Of the two rental agencies, one was closed. The other one proposed a nissan micra (unsuitable for most of the roads here, which are not paved and are in a bad condition) for $75 a day and with a limit of 100km/day, extra km with extra charges (the island is 150km long, there is no way you can drive only 100km a day, obviously they know that very well!)... However, I had no other option to get around, so I accepted, but decided to rent the car for 2 days only.

The weather was awful, except on the second day in the Western part of the island it rained and everything was grey. I drove to the north and only saw farm land (but I did eat some great fish). I read that there were nice bays further west but I would have to take unpaved roads and didn't dare to do that with the micra, I was afraid of getting stranded in the middle of nowhere (and there’s no network coverage in much of the island) and it was raining anyway, so forget the nice walks on the beach. Meanwhile, it was too late to head south, so I drove back to Penneshaw (the tiny town which is the gateway to the island), where I was sleeping. The next day I did the south coast and did take the risk of driving in some unpaved roads to go for some hiking in Flinders Chase National Park. And yes, the Remarkable Rocks are indeed... remarkable, no doubt about that. Watching the seal colony at Cape du Couedic is a pleasant experience. The Snake Trail is beautiful. But I didn't see anything that different that I hadn't seen in other parts of the country - I actually saw more wildlife when doing the Great Ocean Road than on Kangaroo Island, and found the latter very commercial already - and some trails, like the Rocky River, are really not that special. At the end of my second day I just decided to change my booking and take the Saturday morning ferry instead of the evening one, and go to Adelaide. Overall, I paid around $500 for coaches, ferries, a shitty car (I ended up doing 400km, which is inevitable if you want to see the island), fuel, accommodation and bad weather... I think this is the problem when you are expecting too much of a place, I had heard so much about Kangaroo Island and thought it would be a spectacular unique experience, one that I couldn't have elsewhere in Australia, but I was wrong, whereas in other places I just let myself be surprised, and it was great.