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Tim, there’s a wallaby on the balcony….
Kangaroo Island, Australia |
Kangaroo Island, Australia
With La Toya sold and with her new parents, it was just the two of us again and a few weeks to spare in South Australia before our flight home. We contemplated just relaxing in Adelaide but that idea was quickly scrapped as we knew we would be bored in no time at all. We investigated taking a tour to Alice Springs and to Uluru, but sadly the companies that we wanted to use were either fully booked or not going on the dates we needed. So plan B, what was there to see around Adelaide. Thankfully for us there was plenty.
We had a day or two in Adelaide to plan our travels and even managed to secure a few days house and cat sitting at the end of our stay. What we needed was a new set of wheels. We contemplated hiring a camper but in the end opted to finish our tour with a bit of luxury staying in motels and hiring a little car.
We picked up the new addition to the family, Heidi the Hire car and headed south to Victor Harbour.
The population of the City of Victor Harbor Is around 11,000 but over the summer holiday season the population almost trebles, thankfully we were here outside of the holidays and it was just nicely bustling with a few tourists. We were headed over to Kangaroo island the following day so Victor Harbour was a perfect overnight stop.
Like most other tourists the main reason that we wanted to visit Victor Harbour was to go over to Granite Island, which is connected to the mainland by a short tram/pedestrian causeway. The journey over to Granite Island is the main attraction of the town. The tram service is provided by the Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram, one of the very few horse-drawn tram routes remaining in public transit service. The Tram is a big old fashioned wooded carriage pulled by an equally big shire horse. There is something a bit special about this old school tram which bumbles across the bridge to Granite Island at a slow and melodic pace just taking in the scenery. It was nice to see the horses being treated like royalty, being hosed down after each round trip and fed and switched over for a rest.
The views from Granite island are beautiful and it was once home to a large colony of Little Penguins, sadly this colony of little penguins in now nearly gone. In 2012 only 7 were found; it is suspected that an increase in New Zealand fur seals in the area may be to blame. However all is not lost as Granite Island has a very special penguin colony still alive and kicking consisting of penguins that have been injured and rescued and now live in the safety of a refuge on Granite island. These penguins have all been here for a really long time and sadly due to their injurys cannot be released into the wild. But they are living out their days in absolute luxury. They have a big pool which is naturally filtered by the rising tides and are hand fed by the loving volunteer that has been working with them for so long has a proper relationship with each of them. They actually respond to her when she calls their names, amazing. Whilst I am not a fan of animals being kept in captivity these little guys have no hope of survival in the wild so thanks to the volunteers at the centre they are well fed and watered and happy living in their safe little cove.
After a night in our funny little hotel and a quick breakfast from Subway we were on the road headed to catch the ferry over to Kangaroo Island. The sun and blue skies of the day before had vanished. It was once again grey, windy and spitting. I was more than a little concerned about the boat but it was only an hour so I am sure it would be fine.
The fine weather the day before had lulled me into a safe sense of security so my sea sick band and tablets which are always at my side for boat journeys were somewhere buried in my rucksack. We got on board and there were a few excitable teenagers laughing and shouting and playing in the aisle trying to walk in a straight line whilst the boat swayed lunging you the opposite way to where you were headed.
The stash of sick bags and instructions as to how to avoid sea sickness did nothing for my confidence that we could ride this journey out with our subway breakfasts still in our stomachs. In no time at all the noisy excitable teenagers were outside on deck trying to get some fresh air, we were just sat quietly focusing on the horizon. Lets just say we made it, but we were both thankful that the boat was no longer than an hour as it may well have been another story. The worst thing about this was that we knew that we had to go back again in three days. Dear God, please send us some calm seas and good weather!!
So here we were on Kangaroo Island, the third largest island in Australia. Just to put into perspective how unpopulated Kangaroo Island is here is a factoid for you…. Kangaroo Island is 5 times bigger than Singapore but with just 1% of the population!! It is quite deceptive how large Kangaroo Island is, it is 150km long and 90km wide and has a population of just 4,500 people. To say that Kangaroo Island was quiet would be the understatement of the year, we drove 150km from the harbour to the other side of the island where we were staying and we didn’t encounter another car, bike, bus or human the entire way.
We had booked ourselves into the Wilderness Lodge, mainly because it’s reviews were beaming with people who had had possums and wallabies outside their rooms in the courtyard, obviously I was sold. Still feeling slightly queasy from our boat journey we decided to have a siesta before an evening stroll along the walking trails around the lodge to see all the amazing wildlife. I thought that someone was having a joke with us as after an hour of walking at dusk, the best time to spot the hopping people, we didn’t see or hear a single animal. Hmmm. We headed back to our room and in order to save money we had a picnic dinner of snacks and treats that we had stocked up, on the mainland. We planned our route for the following day and I spent the evening nipping to the door to see if anyone was in the courtyard. Low and behold there was nothing. I was not impressed.
The next day we had our work cut out to fit everything in that we needed to see in one day. Luckily the main attractions were all near our hotel but it was definitely going to be a long day.
We started off in Flinders Chase National Park, the home to many wildlife species such as platypus and koalas and also some pretty special geological monuments.
I was a little reluctant to get excited about these geological monuments as one of them had been named “The remarkable Rocks” and having been so very disappointed by “The Amazing Cave” in Halong Bay I generally didn’t get my hopes up when such grandiose names were used as I figured all too often they were ironic rather than descriptive.
We started off at Admirals Arch which is a cave like structure which has been carved out by the fierce seas and it the home to a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals. If it weren’t for the fact that it was blowing a hooley and freezing cold we could have just stood and watched the seals for ages. There were huge bulls, tiny babies and every size in-between, sunbathing, swimming and relaxing on the rocks.
So next up the Remarkable Rocks. I have to say that for once an attraction lived up to it’s name. These were absolutely remarkable; there are no other words for them. They are like Henry Moore sculptures just perched on the tops of a granite outcrop. They are so huge you can walk through them, climb on them and even climb in some of them. Nature really has out done itself here as I have never seen anything like it, remarkable!!
As you can see from the photo’s the traffic on Kangaroo Island was terrible. I think we must have passed 6 cars in total all day.
Next up Seal Bay, the third largest Australian Sea Lion colony in Australia with a population of around 1,000.
Here are some Australian sea lion factoids: They are one of the rarest species in the world. The world population is estimat
ed at around 14,700. Australian sea lions have a life span of between 17 and 25 years. Males mature between eight and nine years of age, and females between four and six. The long period between birth and reaching maturity is one of the reasons for the slow population growth of the Australian sea lion. Australian sea lions feed opportunistically and take a wide variety of prey – particularly squid, octopus, scale fish and crustaceans. Adult females at Seal Bay will travel to sea and away from their pups for three days at a time, returning ashore to feed pups and rest between trips. Adult male Australian sea lions have been spotted up to 100 kilometres south of the island.
We opted for the cheap ticket tour, which meant that we only got to see the Sea Lions from the Boarwalk, they didn’t tell us that when we bought our cheapskate tickets!! But regardless the sea lions were so close up underneath the boardwalk that we could practically hear them snoring. These amazing animals were dotted all along the beach snoozing in the afternoon sun and in the surf you could see them leaping and playing and fishing. Yet another truly majestic place on Kangaroo Island.
Our final stop for the day was just 5 minutes from our hotel, the Koala walk.
Koalas are not native to Kangaroo Island. In the 1920s, 18 koalas from French Island in Victoria were introduced as a response to a decline in koala numbers in the South East of South Australia, due to hunting for the fur trade. This relocation exercise was one of the earliest conservation attempts in Australia. In 2006 there were an estimated 16,000 koalas on the island. There have been problems with koala overpopulation which has affected the eycalyptus trees so there has been a neutering programme to slow the population.
In the koala walk there are anywhere between 15 and 20 koalas who live in the trees, helpfully the koala walk has a few volunteers who place flags underneath trees where koalas have been spotted to make seeing them easier (as they don’t move far each day!). We wondered around but having been so spoilt with all our close up, low down koalas on Raymond Island and along the Great Ocean Road these little grey furries were not giving us too many photo opportunities. This was going to be our last chance to see them and say goodbye so Tim indulged me and let me drag him around the trees in search of one last koala photo. Just as we were about to give up and leave I spotted a baby and a mamma in the tree above us. I stopped to say hello and unbelievably the baby decided to scoot down the tree past her sleeping mum. She was not the most graceful or elegant climber I have ever seen swinging upside down and poking herself in the face on a variety of branches. She came right up close to us, then reversed some more and sat on the ground before heading to sniff a couple of trees to choose which one she wanted to climb. What an absolute treat, the most up close and personal koala experience we could have ever hoped for, what a day it had been on Kangaroo Island.
With the sun setting we had to creep along the road at snails pace to ensure that we kept our no road kill sheet clean and end the perfect day on a high. Despite the attempts of several suicidal kangaroos and wallabies we made it and parked Heidi up for the night.
Once again my day was not quite over and I had to keep an eye on the courtyard for all the Possums and Wallabies that are meant to be there and finally my persistence paid off. “Tim, there’s a wallaby on the balcony” the words I had been waiting to say the whole stay. There was indeed a wallaby right outside our door and then a pair of possums. Wonky tail was there first and he got scared off my Fatty Boom Boom and then we heard someone walking on our roof who we named Lightfoot who must have been big as Fatty Boom Boom was scared off. Night watch duty over, time for sleep.
Our final day we had to make the 150km journey back to the harbour and had just enough time to have a quick photo stop at Little Sahara, a beautiful white sand dune all set up for sand boarding. After our previous failed sand board attempts we decided to pass.
Thankfully it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the sea was much calmer and we made it back to the mainland without even thinking about the sick bags.
Kangaroo Island, you’ve been great, back to Adelaide for the next adventure…
Beans Around The World 