pretty much exactly 40 years ago. I booked the ferry and camp sites 2 or 3 weeks in advance and had no issues. The weather was pretty well perfect for the whole week apart from the wind which got a bit much at times. The car just worked, didn't give a single hint of trouble over the 8 days except needing to air up the rear shocks every morning (there's a leak somewhere I haven't located) There are more dirt roads than sealed on the island and corrugations abound, some extremely severe. With the car loaded up to the roof just about, and my 44 y/o rear torsion springs giving up the ghost I needed the shocks to be at 100psi to get the suspension away from the bump stops, which I hit numerous times.
It hasn't rained on the island at all this year and it shows, really bad in some places. I really feel sorry for the farmers that are de-stocking and cutting back to nothing because they can't afford to truck in food and water for the animals. Rainwater tanks and dams are empty. There were some areas around Kingscote where the paddocks have gone beyond brown now they look grey. The malle/trees around the field borders looked dark grey/black like they were in hibernation. This all made the landscape literally look like a black and white photograph sometimes.
The Western end at Flinders chase was very much different with lush green growth everywhere. The density and variety of different native plants was a sight to behold. Some had not been seen in more than 50 years since the last fire.
I packed the car on Thursday night with the non-perishable items. Finish work early on Fridays so I went home, packed in the food and last little things and got to Cape Jervis for the 6PM ferry.
Planned to have a pub dinner in Penneshaw to find they were all closed except one which was too busy for the number of staff they had. And everyone was speaking French! Gave up and went straight to camp at Chapman river campground so I could set up at least not in full darkness. Got there to find I couldn't get the car near the tent spot. About 10 paces away which made things harder. Also the car was parked on a very steep angle (can't see in pics) so everything rolled to the side constantly. The site was on the river bank, quite nice in the end. Spent 2 nights here.
Explored the Cape Willoughby lighthouse and did some fishing off the beach there, Antechamber bay. Caught a handful of mullet, kept a couple of the bigger ones before a dolphin cruised through very close to shore. Didn't catch anything after that.
After packing up this camp I did some sight seeing on the way to the next spot, a caravan park near Kingscote (can't go 8 nights without a shower!) Did some fishing at Nepean bay where you can drive on the beach. Didn't catch anything
Can see my cars saggy butt in this shot. 
Explored a very interesting local museum in Kingscote, in the maritme section I found a photo of the old ferry that my car would have gone on in the early 80's, from Port Adelaide. Dad says it was a much longer trip back then and the car deck was a bout an inch deep in sheep poo!
The farming areas around Kingscote were the driest I saw on the whole island.
I visited the Emu Ridge eucalyptus oil distillery. That was a fantastic couple of hours, very highly recommend taking their tour. It was a story of Aussie enginuity and graft to revive a long dead KI export industry and make a great success out of it. They have an 80-90 year old plantation of KI native Malle trees to get the oil which grows back readily and thrives in the conditions. They used to run entirely off of steam power (steam engine even!) in the 90's when they had no mains power or water. Even today the oil still is wood-fired.
This is the steam engine which powered a water pump for the still, and an alternator to charge 12v batteries so they could make their own 240v power.
I visited Seal bay, as everyone does. There were indeed a large number of seals lazing about on the beach. $28 to get in! for the self guided tour e.g., walk down the boardwalk to the viewing platform
Visited Vivonne bay to check out the jetty after this. Was very windy and the road in was terrible. Stopped for lunch at point Ellen.
