Kangaroo Island

After making our way down through the vineyards of South Australia we have landed on Kangaroo Island. Just 40 minutes off the shore of mainland Australia this island has a lot to offer. Especially wildlife has been thriving here as many "illegal" immigrants like the fox and feral cats have not made it on to the island and thus kept the Australian native animal population intact.

That's how we made it on to Kangaroo Island.

So far we have seen wild kangaroos and wallabies, sea lions, koalas (always a delight for us West Australians ;-) ), a goanna, possums and I have seen a live echidna, Marlene only a dead one on the road :-( There are Koala walks through the Eucalyptus forrests, a tour of Seal Bay, nature walks through National Parks and just lots of wildlife all around. This is definitely one of the great things about Kangaroo Island.

Seal Bay guided walk on the beach

Marlene "finding" a Koala in a gum tree

What has impressed us a lot so far are the facilities that are provided to tourists. There are public toilets everywhere and even shower facilities which are very clean and always equipped with toilet paper, a real treat for people camping in a van like us. You just pay a fee to the "iron ranger" (a booth at the entrance of the camping area) and can camp somewhere in the area close to the toilets and showers (very important for the ladies). This really feels like luxury travel for us after camping in the wild in the Nullabor Desert.

Remarkable Rocks at Flinders Chase National Park

What else to see and do on Kangaroo Island? Well, we have kept it only to the sealed roads and have seen lots. From driving to the numerous great bays with marvellous beaches, lookouts, National Parks to the Seal Bay Tour as mentioned before and a tour of a sheep milk farm to vineyards. We have skipped driving on unsealed roads, gravel roads (Schotterstrassen) to get to great remote camping spots on even more isolated beaches and bays. There would be lots of lighthouses to explore as well which we are not that interested in anymore after seeing quite a few already in Australia. Furthermore there is lots of activities and adventures that can be undertaken, from quad biking, helicopter flights, paintballing, speed boat rides, wildlife sanctuaries, shearing demonstrations, etc. All what we have done already but it is definitely recommended when you spend longer on the island.

A view from above the "Arch" at Flinders Chase National Park

The scenery is definitely great here and for me the walk through the National Park was the highlight. We stood long and quietly on the side of the platypus waterholes but unfortunately were not lucky enough to see any, they seem to be in a kind of a "summer rest" in their hollows. The sheep milk farm was also something new to Marlene and me which was really interesting. Unfortunately the distillery had closed exactly on the day we had planned to visit it, damn.

Tomorrow we will be moving on again back to the mainland and then into the direction of Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road.

Stokes Bay