Saturday 15 February we were up early in Adelaide, packed up the car, checked out of our apartment and drove down the Fleurieu Peninsula on the way to Cape Jarvis where we were scheduled to be on the midday ferry over to KI. (And this is the most expensive ferry in the world per kilometre!) Beautiful scenery and small towns along the way and, although the brown grass showed the impact of the South Australia drought – if the hills had been verdant and green you could almost think you were in teletubbie land LOL.

Of course, the weather had caught up with us, after the extreme temperatures in Adelaide the previous week it was now chilly with the very occasional short-lived shower of rain.

We got to the ferry terminal and checked in – I had to walk onto the ferry as Richard drove the car and met me onboard later – it was very choppy heading directly into the wind towards Penneshaw, our KI destination port.

In fact the ferry was tipping around so madly that the (empty) swivel seats were enjoying themselves in some sort of synchronised ballet. There were a few excited kids around and they loved it although they were not so keen when the ferry tipped and they couldn’t stand up anymore LOL. Thankfully no one was injured or sea sick although bags were at hand in plentiful numbers just in case…

We arrived in Penneshaw and I walked off the ferry and waited for Richard to pick me up. Richard had been one of the first to drive onto the ferry so he was lucky enough to go forwards and reverse into a tight spot near the stern. Other drivers were not so lucky having to navigate the access to the ferry completely in reverse gear. Upside to that for them was that they were off first at the other end!

Richard drove us the hour or so to our accommodation in Kingscote which is the main settlement on the island. The first thing we noticed was the huge amount of roadkill – mainly kangaroos sadly. We found our holiday cottage easily and let ourselves in…checked out the cooking facilities…and headed into town for some provisioning. This cottage had been built in the owners garden (which was very spacious) and was lovely with sea views from the kitchen window. On the way back from provisioning we enjoyed the Silo Art, visited the pelicans and the cormorants on the waterfront. Back at “home” we felt quite cold so had dinner and movie night in.

Sunday morning we were up early and headed down the island to the Wildlife Park and Raptor Domain. The Wildlife Park had been relocated in December 2024 from the centre of the island near Parndana. We enjoyed ourselves feeding kangaroos and patting the koalas. The kangaroos are different here – more woolly – and very friendly. The funny thing about the koalas’ enclosure was that they had wild ones who had come down in the night and wanted to stay…so they were let into the enclosure and hadn’t tried to leave since… Guess they were attracted by the easy access to fresh eucalyptus leaves each day LOL. The keeper told us which were the wild ones and they were more than wild looking – absolutely livid with us tourists checking them out when all they want to be doing is sleeping! But my favourite this time was the sleeping koala who was cuddling a youngster in her arms and a bigger young one climbed on top, not wanting to miss out. Wondered if this was also one of her joeys. Lots of arms / legs to decipher in this one LOL.

After that we looked at the fairy penguins, which do live on this coast in the wild but are being decimated by the expanding fur seal population. Afterwards we went to the raptor show which was very educational – the avian keepers clearly had a rapport and respect for their charges. I was lucky enough to hold a tawny frogmouth (who is often mis-named as an owl) and Richard held a large South American parrot. We also checked out the meerkats, the dingos, and some other critters.

Moving on we headed in the car to the far west of the island to see Admirals Arch and the Cape de Couedic Lighthouse. We also spotted quite a few fur seals lazing around – completely protected by their precarious perch on the rocks. Boy the sea was raging that day….

Afterwards we headed to see Remarkable Rocks which are perched above the sea in Flinders Chase National Park, the rocks form what appear to be a cluster of precariously balanced granite boulders. This stunning work of nature has been shaped by the erosive forces of wind, sea spray and rain over 500 million years.

By now we were pretty peckish so grabbed a very late lunch at Livonnie General Store and cafe just before they shut the kitchen. Back in Kingscote we were surprised to find a car parked in the parking spot outside the garden gate to our cottage. We realised, however, that the main house was also being let at this time so the car belonged to another guest who had parked close to the main house…. Anyway, no real hostelry nearby that we fancied so we decided to have another night in.

Monday we went out for breakfast in Kingscote before driving to Seal Bay.

On arrival, we enjoyed the boardwalk to the beach lookout.

Leaving this (and the seals) behind we headed to the northern coast and ended up in Rockpool via an unmade road. OMG the poor car was completely covered in dust! And we had been shaken / rattled like crazy. The slower you drove the worse it was, so Richard embraced his natural energy, and took off like a F1 pro LOL. I merely clung to my seat hoping to arrive safely!

After this we went to Emu Bay and had a cold drink in the car watching out over the coastline…. Then to Shoal Bay / North Cape and phew the roads were difficult – driving on sand over limestone rock…completely desolate with some farmland tucked in between. This is what you call isolation! Back to the apartment after a long day of driving we had another quick shop on the way back ‘home’ and another early night beckoned. This time we were a bit practical too as we got all the laundry done and hung up outside to dry. The sun had come out so we even enjoyed a glass of wine in our little cottage garden overlooking the sea….

Tuesday morning we headed to the American River. This is the first area visited by Europeans in 1802 when Matthew Flinders landed to survey this part of the island. In 1803 a group of American sealers camped for four months in the area. They arrived on the brig Union and built their own 35 ton schooner Independence from local timber. The town takes its name from this time. Was interesting to see the restoration work being done on the schooner Independence in the shed on the end of the wharf. The star attraction on the wharf was the solo seal sunbathing….

Oh yes and it was cruise ship day…so swarms of tourists in minibuses descended on the small towns along the way. It was also one of the few places where we saw yachts at anchor.

After this we headed off to see the Cape Willoughby lighthouse – and, with me driving and Richard navigating – once again we had dirt roads to contend with! To be fair you can’t really get around KI if you try to avoid them…. Funnily enough we had been told in the past not to take rental cars ‘off road’ but, although they knew our destination there was no such warning given this time. Felt better about that but did wonder if we would have been better off in a SUV?!? By the way, going back in time, can’t imagine being posted as the light keeper to one of these very remote places…

In December 2019/January 2020 KI was hit by lightning which ignited devastating bushfires. Fires burned 211,474 hectares of land, almost half of the island. It is unknown how many of the island’s wild animals perished, although the koala population plummeted from approximately 48,000 to 8,500 as a result, alongside 32,000 head of stock and domestic animals that also died. The widespread fires damaged / destroyed homes, businesses, grazing land, forests, crops, machinery, and infrastructure, and two people tragically lost their lives. Very sad but the island has recovered amazingly well considering.

In the afternoon we had booked on a boat trip to go out and see dolphins and seals…so headed to Christmas Cove to meet the boat. The boat was late docking and all these wet, cold and exhausted tourists disembarked. They had been swimming with the dolphins and seals….brrrrr….not for me thanks in the Southern Ocean which is Great White shark territory!!! Think they may have been cruise ship passengers…

We had an enjoyable slow cruise out looking at the limestone cliffs which showed many a story of the evolution of the place…with unusual formations which the skipper was quite excited about….but we had seen very similar in Tasmania so weren’t that impressed. We met a young French traveller – female and solo – who was driving around in a truck which had a tent on the roof for accommodation. I thought she was incredibly brave but she said that lots of French people do this and she keeps bumping into them at different places – but everyone has a different schedule so she always knew this would be largely a solo adventure. Guess camping is in her bones as she manages a campsite in France for a living LOL.

We were lucky enough to see both dolphins and seals as promised by the captain. Guess they pretty much stay in the same place…. On the way back the crew let the massive 1200 HP outboard engines rip and we drove around erratically at great speed to the delight of all the guests on board.

Anyway, quite chilly after the boat trip, we headed back towards Kingscote and popped into a new local hostelry called the Pick & Shovel Pub. All very trendy and tiny! Not particularly comfortable we drank up and moved back to our apartment to bring in our laundry, have dinner and curl up in the warm.

I got on with the blog and Richard watched his favourite programmes…. Anyway, this was our last night on Kangaroo Island as Wednesday we were booked on the 1.30 pm ferry to return to the mainland….

So bye for now and come back soon for another part of our adventure.

Jan