Kangaroo Island, South Australia

 

Another amazing activity while we were in Adelaide was a road trip to Kangaroo Island. Actually, I was already excited by the name of the island. This time the guy at the reception of Sunny’s Backpacker Hostel gave us some camping stuff. That means no more nights sleeping in the car like I did during my road trip to the Barossa Valley and Flinders Ranges. So Linda, Robin and I booked a car and drove south till Cape Jervis. At the Sea Link Ferry Terminal we took a boat for 45 minutes till Penneshaw. Afterwards we drove till the information centre to get a map and some places where to go. I also took the time to send a personalised Christmas card to my mother. The delivery time generally takes 10 days from Australia to Europe. I sent it December 11th to be sure she would get it before the 24th (which was also the case). For the night we stayed at Kangaroo Island YHA hostel and couldn’t wait to discover that island.

                                                                 

In the morning we first stopped at Prospect Hill. After 521 steps we enjoyed the lookout while reading some history about the landscape forming about 350 million years ago and which animals living here. Then we drove till Little Sahara for some sand boarding in the white sand dunes, which was a lot of fun. I still prefer snow boarding tho. And then a magical moment occurred. I saw my first koala bear. It was so fluffy! We spent more than 10 minutes watching that cute creature.

 

Our third stop was at the Seal Bay. At that moment you can choose between a boardwalk self-guided experience ($15) to see the seals from a distance or a guided seal bay beach tour ($32) to be really close to the seals. I opted for the first one for some money saving, and by the way I helped the Seal bay. All fees for the entrance go to research and conversation efforts.

 

Then we drove till Flinders Chase National Park and looked for the information centre. We booked a camping site on the Rocky River campground. There we parked our car and set up our tent. Next to the camping site we went for the Heritage Walk where we finally saw our first wallabies. After some bush walk we went for the Platypus Waterholes Walk but unfortunately we weren’t patient enough to wait for those funny animals to show up. We headed back to the car and ate some pancakes with delicious chocolate spread. By night we freaked out for a while. We were playing cards in the tent when suddenly we heard something that got dragged next to the tent into the bushes. Everyone got silent and tried to figure out what it was. Someone had to look outside and see what was going on. When we zipped the tent’s door one of Robin’s shoes was gone. In fact it was dragged a bit further away. After some reasonable thought we supposed that it was an opossum that was looking for some food, that was all!

 

In the morning we were back on the road. After a nice drive on amazing routes we stopped at Remarkable Rocks, which is one of most popular spot on Kangaroo Island. The erosive forces of wind, sea spray and rain have shaped this work of nature over 500 million years. Another impressive landmark nearby is Admirals Arch, a distinctive rock bridge also formed by years of erosion. Not only the view is amazing but also a lot of seals are resting on those rocks. This was one of my favourite stop on Kangaroo Island.

 

The last stop of our road trip was in the North of the island. We decided to go for a swim in the sea at Stokes Bay. You have to walk thru a small way between the rocks. After 5 minutes walk you have a beautiful white sand beach. After sea, sleep and sun we headed back to the YHA hostel in Penneshaw for our last night on Kangaroo Island.