Kangaroo Island Diary

Thursday 31st July 2008

We are on Kangaroo Island

We were up and packed fairly early this morning. We drove the two hours to Sydney airport, dropped off the hire car and just had time for a coffee before our flight to Adelaide. We left almost on time for the two hour flight - ariving in Adelaide about 2.30pm. We then had a two hour drive down the peninsular to Cape Jervis (we saw lots of kangaroos on the way) to catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island - which took another hour finally arriving here just after 7pm - so a long day travelling. It was dark when we arrived and stopped quickly at the small local shop before meeting a few Fairy Penguins on the road to our house (which was just a few hundred yards from the Ferry in a great sea front location. We also saw a penguin behind the wood pile in the garden and as the boys were getting ready for bed - met a wallaby on the front lawn! Not many pictures from today as we have been travelling but here was the wallaby we encountered!!!

Friday 1st August 2008

We have seen Seals and Pelicans and Penguins

We woke up to bright sunshine and rove down to Cape Willoughby to see the lighthouse. We were a little surprised how remote it was and that the majority of the roads were dirt tracks with potholes and made us very grateful for the 4WD car! it was very windy at the lighthouse but impressive too!

On the drive back we stopped at antechamber bay (not sure why it is called that!) but it was a lovely beach although the tide was in and the boys enjoyed a windy play there.

Next we went to visit Seal Bay on the south coast - one of the only remaining colonies of Australian Sealions. It was very windy on the beach - the guided tour took us down onto the beach with the sealions . As it was very windy a lot of the sealions were sheltering in the dunes rather than on the beach - so we didn't see as many as if the weather was better but we still saw a fair few and saw them coming out of the sea and making their way up the beach to the dunes. We saw mother and baby seals crying out for each other as they returned from the sea.

Then we made our way to Kingscote - the capital of Kangaroo Island to do a little shopping and to see the pelicans being fed from the jetty. This was a really great experience and we all really loved the pelicans. They wandered amongst us and seemed to love having their pictures taken and fought over the fish too!! A really fun thing to watch.

Then - it was a busy day! - we went back to Penneshaw to see the Little - or Fairy Penguins on their nightly parade out of the sea back to their nesting burrows - either at the top of the rocky beaches or in peoples gardens (we had some nesting behind the wood pile in the garden) It was surprising how many you saw around the town in the evening - they return to the same place as there are good feeding grounds just off the shore. They are tiny penguins (the smallest of all penguins) approx 10" high and weighing 1kg. They are very timid so we watched them with our guide by a red torch light so the pictures aren't very good but seeing them was amazing! It was great to see the penguins in their real habitat and not just in the zoo like we are used to.

Saturday 2nd August

We have seen Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas, Possums and an Echidna

We got up to another lovely day and saw dolphins swimming in Hog Bay in front of the cottage. We packed the car and left our little house in Penneshaw in the now filthy car (due to the track roads) to head to the west side of the island.

The island is surprisingly big 150km long. On the drive to the other end we stopped for a picnic lunch at Vivonne Bay - recently voted Australias best beach and had a picnic lunch - letting the boys play in the sand and before we knew it Sam was in the sea too and needing a complete change of clothes!! Great fun though and we even had some surfers to watch.

Then we went to Little Sahara - bizarre huge sand dunes - quite far inland with just acres of white sand. We hired a toboggan to do the australin thing of surfing down them but the sand was too wet and we ended up no going very far and looking very silly!

Then we came here to Hanson Bay - where we are staying in a log cabin right on the cliff top overlooking the sea which is quite rough this side of the island with big waves. We were rewarded with our first proper pair of kanagroos waiting for us on the drive as wel as a friendly wallaby the boys named Josephine! The cabins are very remote (an hour to the nearest shop) with jus bushland and animals as well as a fantastic beach around. In the evening we went on a guided nocturnal walk around the Hanson Bay Sanctuary a couple of miles away and saw koalas as well as possums, kangaroos and wallabys. The koalas were amazing - they pick 3kg of leaves a day - eat 1kg and throw the others away as they don't like the look of them! They can strip a tree of leaves within a couple of days - eventually killing the trees when the tree finally has enough! They look very cute - sleep for 20 hours a day and eat for the other 4! The sit up high in the eucalyptus trees and cling on through all weathers and winds! We were also introduced to ring tailed and brush tailed possums - very cute animals about the size of a cat and Jack & Sam were delighted to meet their hand fed Kangaroo (reared from a baby when her mum was killed) and they got to feed Amy and her Joey (AJ) as well as stroke and hug them! It was a perectluy clear night and we could see thousnads of stars - we are getting used to seeing the sars of the southern hemisphere and learning about them! We can now all pick out the southern cross - the stars depicted on the australian flag! On the drive back to the cabin we were really lucky to see an echidna crossing the path in front of us. (a bit like a long nosed hedgehog - an egg laying mammal like the platypus) At the cabin we had a visit from a possum which Sam took a real shine to and named Peter (though we later discovered she had a Joey in her pouch but decided not to confuse her by changing her name so she is just a female Peter!!)

Sunday 3rd August

We have seen Seals, Admirals Arch & Remarkable Rocks and more animals

We got up to fairly good weather this morning. We set off quite early and headed to Flinders Chase - which is a large reserve on one end of Kangaroo Island. In December 2007 Kangaroo Island (KI) was badly affected by 14 large bush fires. This had been fairly evident travelling all round the island - but much more so today when we saw the complete devastation that the fires cause. Over one fifth of KI burnt - and although we thought it was awful we are assured that this is how Australia works and although from above the trees are blackened - on ground level the regrowth has started - and there are a number of plants that only flower following a fire (we saw lots of the Yacca plants with the long thing sticking out the top!_ good description!! - look at the photos)

We then went to Admirals Arch - a huge eroded arch of rock. There are lots of New Zealand Fur seals here too and they were great fun to watch! - but they were smelly (says Jack!) The sea was wild here because we were on the south coast so there wa nothing between us and Antartica - we looked out for migrating whales but didn't see any - and had a look at the lightouse - which from the crashing waves seemd quite essential! It was fairly precarious and involved steps too!!

Then we went to Remarkable Rocks - silly name maybe - but they really were quite remarkable!! Australians seem to name things quite literally! (We saw Rocky River - which was, Deep Creek - which we assume was - and for this reason we avoided Breakneck hike completely and I did my best to avoid Snake Lagoon too!! ) Remarkable Rocks are high up on the cliff - a huge Granite Dome weathered into bizarre shapes. As soon as we arrived it tipped with rain so we hid in one of the caves (also hiding from the coach party that fled at the sign of rain thankfully!!) They are best described in pictures!

We then went back to Hanson Bay where we were staying and the Koala Sanctuary was (via a quick look for Platypus in Rocky River) - can you see one in the water??

No - neither could we - but we did look!!!

Then we made a quick detout via Snake Lagoon - and contrary to the name we didn't see any snaks or a lagoon (as the lagoon is normally dry and seeing as it is winter and has rained a fair bit we can't work ou when it is ever wet!!!) but we took a picture anyway!

Then we visited the Koalas in daylight and the Kangaroos - but - as soon as we arrived so did the rain and it was wet and quite miserable. e did however see a lovely Koala really low in a tree and even one on the ground changing trees so it was a really worthwhile visit!

Monday 4th August

We travelled back to Adelaide and stayed in a room with a 1940's Fire Engine!

We left Hanson Bay just after 8am this morning to drive back to the Ferry port. It was really wet when we got up - though cleared quite quickly - but we did take some pictures of the amazing location we were staying in - in the rain.

Now I think we mentioned the dirt roads before - but we had to take some pictures of these on the way back - David had mastered the art of driving lik he was some rally champion - darting all over the roads to avoid them and terrifying anyone who happened to be looking at a map and not where we were going!! These were actually major roads (like The South Coast Rd etc!) but mostly they were fairly quiet apart from reckless kangaroos and wallabies and the odd farmer etc.

Then we caught the ferry back to the mainland - still trying to spot whales as we went - and then drove to Victor Harbour and Encounter Bay on our way back to Adelaide - again in the vain hunt for whales. We saw no whales but found a nice spot for a picnic and saw a horse drawn tram taking people across from the harbour to Granite Island.

We then moved to Adelaide and a little surprise for Jack & Sam. David had found the hotel online and the boys didn't know that we had booked it. It was the ground floor of South Australias first ever Fire Station - converted to an appartment - complete with a 1942 Fire Engine in the room (as well aslots of fireman hats and even a uniform that we all had to try on!) and the original firemans pole that Sam shimmied up in seconds and dangled from at various intervals throughout our stay!! It sounds mad - and it was - but it is the best room I have ever stayed in and we all had great fun!! Sam was even up at 6am the ext mornng playing on his fire engine! Can't really explain anymore - just see the photos!

Round the world home, Dillo home, eek home

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