Kangaroo Island
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2008
1
34
62
Trip End
Mar 19, 2009
Kangaroo Island,
South Australia,
Australia
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Interestingly it isn't called Kangaroo Island due to an abundance of kangaroos. Kangaroo Island was founded many years ago when Matthew Flinders was exploring the south coast of Australia under Queen Victoria's instruction. His ship only stopped here as they'd run out of meat, so they shot 20 kangaroo's on what they thought was mainland Australia. On their return from South Australia they realised that where they'd stopped was actually an island, and as they'd eaten good 'roo' meat they called it Kangaroo Island.
a- Koala's in our Garden
The nice thing about Kangaroo Island (and several other Australian Islands) is that the foxes and rabbits introduced by the British to the mainland didn't make it here. As a result many plants and animals that have been killed off on the mainland still thrive here.After leaving our bags at the hostel and discovering 3 koalas (2 babies) up a gum tree in the garden, we set about exploring the island by bus.
Our first stop was Prospect Hill where a tiring walk of about a million steps was rewarded with great views of the whole island. We then found a deserted beach on the south coast to go for a swim. The highlight of day one was a visit to Seal Bay where around a hundred Australian Sea-Lions come to rest from their endeavors at sea. It was something special to sit within 10 metres of these beautiful creatures and their pups. We got to see them play-fighting, real-fighting, snuggling, basking and marking their territory with a foul musky smell. Sea Lions eyes are developed for underwater use so their relatively poor land vision meant that they barely noticed us and behaved naturally.
Our next stop was Little Sahara, a collection of steep sand dunes where we had an introductory lesson to sand-boarding. This is a relatively new sport like snow boarding but on sand! The main difference is that (thankfully) you can't really do any nifty turns and tricks -- instead you just pelt down the sand as fast as you can - ouch! Going down was fun but traipsing back up the sand dune was hot work, so we cool off by body boarding on another stunning beach straight after. This is kind of like surfing but less embarrassing as you get to lie on your belly on a much shorter foam board.
After dinner (BBQ of course), we went off in the dark to look for Little Penguins
b- Seal Bay
. These guys swim between sunrise and sunset and come to shore in the dark to find their nests. We can only see them using a red filter on a torch so as not to damage their eyes. They were very sweet although did seem a bit disturbed by our presence so we didn't hand around long - instead headed back for a Coopers Pale Ale by the campfire.Day 2 involved lots of sightseeing including River Cove, Hidden (but busy!) Beach and Admirals Arch where New Zealand Fur Seals live in abundance. They smelled too but were lovely to watch as they cleverly maneuvered over sharp rocks to dive into the sea to cool off.
During this trip we also saw an echidna, kangaroos, plovers nest, wallaby's, possums, a wedge tailed eagle and a dog (!) - all in their natural environments. Another highlight was that on arrival back to Cape Jervis a NZ Fur Seal followed our speed boat into the port. He then played about, inches from our noses and showed off his belly for our cameras.
A very good trip!!
Comments
South Australia
Brilliant bloggs. We are delighted to see that Kangaoo Island has not changed since we were there 30 yrs ago. We are keeping the home fires burning - literally. xx