Kangaroo Island is truely magnificent. It is much larger than we had expected so we had a rushed visit, and in the end the bad weather did not help. The inland core is mostly scrubby-looking farmlands. But the coast and the Parks are awesome, in many areas unique, providing memories we will never forget. The sea lions are a joy to watch.
We were at Kangaroo Island on 02 – 03 April 2019.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Victor Harbor > Cape Jervis ~ 60kms. Ferry to Penneshaw
History
The Island is known as Karta (“Island of the Dead”) by the mainland First Nation tribes. Due to rising sea levels Kangaroo Island was separated from mainland Australia around 10,000 years ago. The existence of shell middens and stone tools demonstrate that Aboriginal people lived on Kangaroo Island as long as 16,000 and may have only disappeared from the island as recently as 2000 years ago.
Early European explorers believed the Island to be uninhabited and this was disproved in the 1930s when Aboriginal campsites were discovered in a number of areas around the Island, including one near the fur seal colony of Cape du Couedic.
In March 1802, Matthew Flinders named the land “Kanguroo (sic) Island”, after landing near Kangaroo Head on the north coast of the Dudley Peninsula. He was closely followed by the French explorer Commander Nicolas Baudin, who was the first European to circumnavigate the Island and who mapped much of the island (accounting for the interesting mix of English and French place names). Although their countries were at war, they met peacefully and shared information.
A community of sealers and others lived on Kangaroo Island from 1802 to the time of South Australia’s colonisation in 1836. A sealing gang led by Joseph Murrrell reported landing at Harvey’s Return in 1806–07 and they established a camp on the beach.
The sealers were rough men and several kidnapped Aboriginal women from Tasmania and mainland South Australia. The women were kept prisoner as wives and virtual slaves. At least two report record reputed crossings of Backstairs Passage from Kangaroo Island to the mainland by kidnapped women seeking to escape from their captors. One woman was said to have swum the passage in 1835, and a woman and her baby were found dead on the beach after a presumed crossing in 1871.
In 1812 Richard Siddins was engaged in salt harvesting on the island. A number of shore-based bay whaling stations operated on the coast in the 1840s.
Kingscote, originally established at Reeves Point in July 1836, was South Australia’s first colonial settlement. It was later suggested that Kingscote could serve as the capital of South Australia, but the island’s resources were insufficient. The colony relocated to the mainland of South Australia less than four years later, leaving just a few hardy settlers to establish small holdings in isolated bays and along river flats. They farmed sheep and cattle, exported a bit of wool, grew wheat and barley and, of course, fished.
In the aftermath of World War II, the Australian government instituted the Soldier Settlement Scheme, providing returned servicemen and their families with 1,200 acres of land to farm. They began arriving in 1948 and by 1954 the population of the island had almost doubled. The town of Parndana was established as a hub for this new farming community.
Air travel and high-speed ferry services eased the isolation of the Island, while a submarine cable laid in 1965 supplies electricity. Penneshaw had a reverse-osmosis seawater desalination plant installed in 1998. The 1991 economic slump forced farmers to diversify.
The Island is noted for its honey and its Ligurian honey bees. Ligurian bees, introduced by South Australia’s Chamber of Manufactures in 1884, produce high-quality honey. The island has the world’s only pure-bred and disease-free population of this type of bee. The exporting of pure-bred queen bees is a notable industry for the island. Thus there are significant quarantine restrictions on bringing bee products and bee-handling equipment onto the island
Today Kangaroo Island is home to around 4,500 people. Each is connected to the Island’s rich heritage and diverse natural environment. Kangaroo Island has become a leading ecotourism destination for international visitors.
Day 1 – Tue 02 Apr – To and at Kangaroo Island
Early start to the day at Victor Harbor as I had to do a few things before we left to catch the ferry. I had to reconnect the water to Mobi – one tank was empty and the pump would not stop. Hopefully water in the tank would stop it. But no. We turned the pump off – we will need to deal with later.
The light was also on the toilet cassette – it was full. I could have left it but decided to empty it and of course the dump point was at the opposite end of the park. I was glad to get that done – hope I did not disturb the neighbours as we were squeezed in tight.
We got away at 7.15 – we had to be at the ferry by 8.30, though it is only about 65km. Nice drive with sunrise pics back over the town, and a lovely misty valley. The landscape is very nice rolling farmlands, and soon we were looking across to Kangaroo Island. It was a beautiful clear day weather wise. So pretty with little misty patches in the valleys
The ferry and terminal bring back memories of going back to Ireland by ferry in the years we lived in England, albeit on a smaller scale. There are a few cars there before us so we parked and checked in. I grabbed breakfast. Then Kerry took The Cruiser onto the ferry and was shocked to be told to reverse into the ship. Guess The Cruiser is a bit long for the drive around parking. Was shocked to see a caravan had reversed into such a tight place… only about 6” on either side of it with a big bus right next to it – also reversed in.
Soon after, passengers boarded – only the driver can go on with the vehicle. Kerry had got two seats right at the front of the main lounge. It was a lovely day, a rarity lately. There was a gentle swell for the 45min crossing.
Kerry was just about the last off the boat, having to let all the trucks and caravan get off before she could move. We learnt that lesson … don’t get to the front of the queue or you will be stuck behind all the trucks.
Heading off the boat, there was not much to see near the port, though we drove through a lovely tunnel of trees, and the first part of the drive is close to the sea.
We stopped in at Pennington Bay, purely on spec and were rewarded to see a stunning beach with a reef and outcropping rock ledges and a great surf beach. It is a “do not miss” place. It had gorgeously interesting looking rock ledges – so tempting to stop and explore more but Des is on a mission to get going. We have already seen that 2 days in not long enough to see things properly.
Shortly after that lovely diversion we turned left onto Three Chain Rd to cut across country to get to Seal Bay. It was a good gravel road, but rather a long drive. The island is much bigger than we expected. We passed a number of lakes on the drive, but could not get into them.
At Seal Bay we did the self guided boardwalk for $13 each with the seniors discount. This was brilliant. You walk down a timber walkway to the beach, viewing the skeleton of a whale towards the end.
We could have done the guided tour which would allow us to step onto the beach, but not get near the sea lions, but the next tour was some time off, and we had a lot to get to. At the beach there are really good lookout points to view the sea lions. There were so many – resting, swimming, surfing and playing around. There were a few right up the dunes too.
As we were leaving a sea lion came onto the beach and made its way up the sand hills obviously, heading for its young in a shelter. It worked so hard to get up the steep sand hills.
At the Centre we saw the way that sea lion numbers are declining.
Next we took a little detour to Bales Beach, just near to the Sea Lion centre. This is another glorious spot – white sands, beautiful blue and aqua waters and with a couple of surfers making the most of it.
We were going to stop at the Raptor centre but the bird “shows” were badly timed for us, so off we headed to Vivonne Bay. This is a stunning place, a massive beautiful beach calling out for exploration. WOW and WOW. The colour of the water is quite astonishing. Felt more like Bora Bora than an island off the SA coast. Absolutely pristine. I only found just the tiniest little bit of a remnant water bottle lid.
We stopped for a takeaway toasted s/w at the Vivonne Bay general store – not kidding, it took about 40 min to get the toasties. We then headed up to Kingscote for a look around. Some lovely old buildings and a lovely coastline. There were many sea lions sleeping on the side of the old dry dock.
We wandered around for a while, went to supermarket for an easy dinner then headed to our stone Air B&B home for the next 2 nights.On the way we saw a pink lake – or what looked like one. I walked out for a short way but it started to get a bit mushy underfoot. There was quite a solid salt crust on it – with a faint pink tinge.
We popped into Emu Bay before settling in… another lovely little place. But there are no shops or any other amenities there.
It is a really good house with plenty of room and a really spacious living room. There are 2 large bedrooms and the kitchen is great. I loved the large wood burner stove and the supply of timber for me to play with. On the downside, the TV signal was not strong and not consistent (it was budget night and we wanted to watch that but struggled). There was no internet and Kerry’s Telstra had a very weak signal. My Optus was very marginal with mostly no service.
We had a good evening with the fire going, nice and cosy, and intermittent TV reception. Des had the fire roaring – got so warm I had to step outside to cool down.
Day 2 – Wed 03 Apr – at Kangaroo Island
It was a cold and and dark morning, setting the scene for the day – grey skies, cold strong winds, and some rain. We got it all.
We drove along the north coast – a well compacted white dirt surface – to see some of the beaches and landforms. The land was general farming with large rolling hills and some scrub. First up was Cape Cassini. We drove the North Coast Rd until the Cassini turnoff. On the way we passed a very strange looking place like a toy castle or two. We also passed the Yambah aquaculture, quite a large business.
The road to the Cape descended to the coast near its end, We found ourselves on a desolate-looking farm with a gate ahead of us, a side track around it and a deserted little homestead further down. We made our way to the shore – a rocky beach at the end of low farmland. There are large cliffs to the east and lower rocks outcrops to the west. Interesting place but we have gotten used to the spectacular.
We continued to drive west then up to Stokes Bay, through more scrubby farmlands. The beach area at the carpark had striking headlands at both ends, large cliffs further west but the “beach” was covered in stones.
Then we saw some signs to the Beach, pointing to the eastern headland. We followed those and found ourselves on a track through tall rocks, at times squeezing through some very narrow gaps or under an overarching rock. Then we came out onto a beautiful beach. There was a lovely sheltered pool initially, but then the protective rock shelf ended and the beach opened up with lots of signs warning of severe rips. It was another lovely beach. This is covered on out video – click here.
A preschool bunch of kids came through the track as we headed back – what a great place for kids to play. Then at the car park we saw a small wallaby.
We continued heading west over to Snelling Beach, still on the dirt road. Getting close, there is a good sized creek alongside the road. There was no outlet for this at the beach though. Maybe it breaks through at very high tides.
The beach is like the others – white sand with rocky headlands. This was a shorter beach and we had a quick walk along it. There are a few houses close to the beach and scattered on the hill side behind us.
There is a massive hill to the west and we got some good photos looking back down to the Beach. Quite a dramatic place.
Our aim was to go out to Cape Borda Lighthouse, and we got onto the Playford Hwy. But we quickly discovered that the “highway” was in name only. The dirt track was in very poor condition and we quickly decided that we did not want to go over 60km of that to see the lighthouse. We turned around and drove south on the bitumen covered West End Hwy. The landscape was a forest/farmland mix. Unfortunately light rain started.
We stopped at the Flinders Chase Visitors Centre and paid our entry charge – $9pp. Armed with a map and instructions from the ranger, we drove south to the Cape du Couedic, firstly to see the 1909 Lighthouse. This quite striking – if you can have a very pretty lighthouse then this was it.
We drove the short distance to see Admirals Arch – a spectacular place. The Cape itself is dramatic with its predominantly black rock . riddled with holes and caverns, and with the ocean giving it a relentless bombardment. There are rugged cliffs in both directions. There is an island just off the Cape and another smaller island beyond that. A timber walkway takes us down – it is very windy and cold with occasional light rain and we are well rugged up. We can see sea lions on the rocks and one is swimming playfully in a rock pool – we got some of that on the video – click here.
The walkway took us around the Cape – and then we are looking at the awesome Admirals Arch. Let the pictures tell the story.
The pool below the Arch is the one in which the sea lion was playing. Lovely to watch. Unfortunately as I was taking photos and filming it all I got a message on my camera telling me the memory card was full. I had to manually delete enough old photos to be able to take more.
There were lots of sea lions on the rocks.
We did go up to the sea lion lookout but we were closer to them just near the Arch. What an awesome place to be.
A short track on a dirt road took us to Weirs Cove. Here there was the remains of the old storehouse for the Lighthouse. There are great views from there and we could also see where the flying fox used to operate to haul everything – including people – to the cliff tops. It was not until the 1930s that an overland track was installed.
The road to the Remarkable Rocks is well marked and a short drive. The rain is just holding off.
We loved the Rocks. We read that it took 500 million years for rain, wind, and pounding waves to create these aptly named granite boulders. They are simply amazing shapes and sizes – incredible. Aptly name “The Remarkables”
Love the “bubble” roof in the caverns. I was constantly having to delete old photos off my memory card, which was full, to fit in all the photos I was taking. I could not stop clicking away.
Black mica, bluish quartz, and pinkish feldspar comprise most of the granite of Remarkable Rocks. These flat rocks are easy and safe to walk on during dry weather – but on the ocean side the rock base gets very steep. Many of the rocks are covered by golden orange lichen.
The rain set in as we turned east to get back to Kingscote, so we did not get to do anything else. It was miserable and I was looking forward to getting the fire going. But suddenly the 2 cars in front braked and swerved to the left. An echidna was crossing the road. I stopped and videoed its progress.
To see photos from this post, click here
To see video from this post, click here