Thursday April 28th and Friday April 29th, 2011
You won't need much time here but if you every make it to South Australia you must make a trip to Kangaroo Island. You could drive around most of it in about a day but really you should give yourself two so you can see all the cute little animals.
Not a lot of other cars around. It was pretty nice.
The island was discovered by Matthew Flinder in 1801 with the first settlement (Kingscote) being established in the 1830's. It is home to about 4,500 people, supported mostly by farming, fishing and tourism. Originally the island would have be inhabited by sealers and whalers as well.
Some of the beautiful coast line and one of the most beautiful beaches (as voted by someone) in Australia. Apparently there are a whole lot of sharks off this beach however so swimming is at your own risk.
It is interesting to note that there are no aboriginals on the island. There is evidence that they were here but they left long before the Europeans arrived. Unfortunately there is no one around anymore who knows why they left but one theory attributes it to evil spirits on the island.
The van I was travelling around in. It was a small group (just 5 people) and our driver Clancy. Nice size to get around a small little island.
Kangaroo Island is still pretty well untouched and there are a lot of rules in place to protect the local wild life. Of course there are a ton of kangaroos and wallabies but there are a lot of other animals as well. Koalas have been introduced to the island and they are thriving. In fact now there are too many and they relocate them to other parts of Australia. You can also see seals and sea-lions and echidnas and penguins and the dreaded tiger snake. Unfortunately the only thing we didn't see was the echidna......which means that yes, we did see more than one tiger snake.
This is our group. That's Clancy (our driver/guide) in the white shirt and hat telling us all about the island. This was his first tour after a recent trip to New Zealand. He tried to keep us away from what little crowds and traffic there were.
Clancy tried to keep us on the back roads as much as possible. Enabled us to see a lot more wildlife and that kind of thing. It is easy to say however, that he was not happy when this happened.
We weren't off the main roads very long when we all seemed to notice the van was not driving well. This would explain why.
Daniel and Seral (from Switzerland) helped Clancy change the tire. The girls.....well we provided lots of moral support and went koala watching.
Once the tire was fixed we headed off to see our first wild life at Seal Bay, which ironically enough is not home to seals but sea-lions. And of course they are not the same thing.
I love how they seem to smile when they sleep. Sea lions usually spend 3 days at sea fishing and eating and then 3 days on the beach sleeping. I'd smile too if i got to sleep for 3 days.
He's so cute. I wonder what he is dreaming.
A little video I made of some cute little sea lion pups. A few little sea lion notes. They can be found up to 2 kilometres from the water, they can walk on all 4's (and can be quite fast) and they have hair versus fur so it is harder for them to keep warm. For this reason you will often see them far from the water under bushes and trees trying to stay warm. Pups are extremely curious so can be found wander all over the place....even into the Ranger station. Pups are left alone while their parents are at sea hunting but will usually be found close by for the first year of their life.
This one isn't as cute as it is giant and bellowing. I think I like the little ones better.
There's a little one now. I think he likes having his picture taken.
Sorry just one more picture. I just loved them so much.
We eventually had to leave the sea lions and since the day was so nice we headed to do some sand boarding. Sorry I left my camera in the van but sand boarding is exactly what it sounds like.......boarding down giant sand dunes. Always fun and maybe next time I'll try to take some pictures. I'm sure there will be a next time.
Looking out at the jetty. A favourite spot for local fishermen to try to catch some salmon. In the evening it is also a favourite place to do some penguin spotting. They did a really good job hiding but we did spy a couple.
Looking down the jetty.
We eventually made our way to our accommodation for the evening, which was a little cabin in the middle of a kangaroo paddock. So yes, we got to see a bunch of kangaroos. We spied some wallabies as well but they wait until it is a little bit darker before making an appearance.
Look a Kangaroo Island kangaroo. Not sure I will ever get over seeing fields full of kangaroos.
Our homestead for the night. Cute little place. The only real issue was that on this night we had no running water. One of the pumps wasn't working so we couldn't fill the tank. So it was like real camping but with bunk beds.
There's Clancy making us dinner. Being a tour guide here sure is a lot of work. They do the driving and the cooking and have to keep us educated to all things Kangaroo Island. He was happy to have such a small group as his food budget allowed him to go all out on dinner. It was great. I love not having to cook.
The next morning we got up nice and early to check out a few more things.
Nothing like starting the day with a beautiful sunrise.
We then headed out to see the New Zealand Seals. They are quite a bit smaller than the sea lions and unlike sea lions, seal pups are weaned very early so they can often be seen in the rock ponds teaching themselves the skills they need to survive.
The Lighthouse at Cape du Couedic.....where we went to see the seals. What we also saw there was a giant black tiger snake. I didn't take a picture of that. I was assured by Clancy the night before that we were not going to be seeing any snakes today because it was too cold for them. I guess he was wrong.
A few of those little fur seals now. Baby fur seals get weaned a lot sooner than baby sea lions so it seemed a lot of the little seals spent a lot of time irritating the bigger ones.
They all seemed to do a lot of hanging out. Oh what a life.
Oh and look, a cute little seal pup. These guys move a little differently than the sea lions (dragging their back legs). So seem a lot more awkward when moving around. Don't worry I won't bore you with more pictures and movies of the little baby seals as well.
Looking out towards the water. It was an amazing little spot these seals choose to call home. This is known as Admiral's Arch.
We then headed over to the see the Remarkable Rocks.
The Remarkable Rocks are the group of rocks you can see in the photo. I bet it would be really pretty with some sun shining on them.
A close up look at some of the remarkable rocks. They don't look that big in this picture but I assure you these blocks are far larger than I am. At least double my height.
I'm sure you are a little curious about these rocks. Well not to go too much into the geological history, from the way I understand it basically some geological upheaval caused rock to melt far below the earth's surface. The magma became buoyant and was forced towards the earth's surface. About 19 kilometres below the earth's surface, the molten rock begins to cool and form granite. Millions of years pass and the rocks around these masses are eroded eventually leaving these giant sections of granite....which are now slowly being eroded by winds, rain and time. They really are remarkable.
From the Remarkable Rocks we made our way to the koala walk. I know I mentioned it before but koalas are not native to Kangaroo Island. They were brought here to help with the koala numbers. Lots of the trees koalas like to eat have been planted here and the population has grown from the first few that were brought here. In fact the population has grown so much that they actually relocate Kangaroo Island koalas to other parts of Australia.
Look a sleepy koala. You know I have a few pictures of them. Koalas don't like to eat the leaves on immature eucalyptus trees. Basically they won't eat the leaves until the tree is 7 to 10 years old. In this area they have trees planted of many different ages so that these koalas can be moved to different trees from time to time. Koalas don't like to move around very much and will get very comfortable in a certain tree. They will end up eating that tree to death though and may end up starving because there is nothing left on the tree. Planting new trees in the area encourages the little guys to move on from time to time.
Just one more. I will never get tired of seeing these little guys.
We had a few more little stops on our way back to the ferry. It was a very scattered day. Next we stopped by at a Eucalyptus Oil farm for some shopping.
No I'm not shopping in this picture but today is the day of the Royal Wedding so I'm playing "Princess Katherine". See I have a tiara and I get to ride in a carriage. It's practically the same thing.
Outside you will find this one lone emu. Normally in pairs, this young lady actually killed her partner so now she lives alone.....don't get too close.
The one thing I bought here was some really good honey. But not just any honey this honey is from the ligurian honey bees that are originally from Italy. I'm told that the ligurian beees you find on Kangaroon island are now the only pure ligurain bees found in the world. They have not cross bred with any other bees. For that reason all bee and honey products are banned from Kanagroo Island. The honey.......very good.
Our last stop before the ferry was at American River, named so because back in the 1800's the area was the place where American whalers and sealers set up a port. Now it is a great place to see some pelicans.
There's a pelican now. Just standing there looking all big and pretty.
All these guys decided to come say hi to us when we arrived. It is actually rather disturbing to have a large number of large birds coming you way out of the blue.
Penguins are so cute....so watch out for them. The penguins here on Kangaroo Island are the same type of penguin that I saw in Melbourne.
The ferry. Being back here means that I'mall my way back to Adelaide and my trip to Kangaroo Island is over.
The gang after the trip. It was a great time.
And that was Kangaroo Island. Like I said not a huge place but certianly worth a look.
Julie
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