Our home away from home: American River

The town we stayed in while visiting Kangaroo Island is called American River. It’s called that because in the early 1800s, some American sealers established a base here. It’s also at the back of a deep cove so it looks like it’s a river, but really it’s not. It’s a pretty small little town, but it does have a general store and a fuel pump, which makes it bigger than 95% of the other places on the island. Around 200 people live there year-round, and it clocks in as the third biggest town. 

The turnoff to American River

The general store, bottle shop, and hardware store

And when I say fuel pump, that’s what I mean - it’s rightly not designated as a gas station. We were nervous about using these things since the first day when we saw them. And we wanted to fuel up before we drove around each day, just to be safe. 

Hmmm....

Success! 

Success! I walked up the hill to take the picture, just in case we caused an explosion

The scarier part turned out being inside the general store where we had to pay. It looked like the apocalypse had happened and the store had been raided. Luckily, I managed to pay and escape in one piece!

Although the main part of town might not have had too much going for it, our hotel was lovely! We ate breakfast in the main house every day, and we had dinner there two nights. It was run by a cute little couple who knew our names from the minute we arrived and always chatted with us at every meal. 

The main house where we had our meals, as well as where the proprietors live

Breakfasts were a "do it yourself" meal, but Kim always offered to fix us some bacon and eggs. 

Simple but perfect!

And we had some fun celebration crackers on New Years Eve!

Our hotel was just up the hill from the waterfront. We went and poked around at low tide one afternoon, just for fun. 

In the evenings, the hotel proprietor lent us some flashlights. She told us that we could pretty much walk alongside the main road in either direction and see some Aussie wildlife. She wasn’t wrong! There aren’t any streetlights, so the flash light came in handy to see the little kangaroos out for their evening meal! We also saw wallabies and possums. They weren’t too happy to see us, but we tried to leave them in peace. 

The phone pictures with the flashlight aren't too great. It was more fun for us to walk along in the dark and spot them when our eyes adjusted. It was pretty amazing to hear them hopping through the bush around us when we got too close. 

We also walked along the shoreline in the evenings too. The shoreline wasn't that picturesque, but there was a beautiful sunset on New Years Eve. We could also hear the band playing at the local pub down in the center of town; the hotel owners shut up dinner early so they could go down and party!
 

Happy New Year from T!