Thursday 3 May 2018

The epic road trip (3): Kangaroo Island

Day 8: Adelaide - Kangaroo Island 

It was freezing and raining as we got up super early for the 1.5hr drive to the ferry at Cape Jervis. The road was completely dark and it was incredibly hard to see in the rain. My dad soldiered on driving at speeds I would never have been able to achieve. The light began to lift as we got closer, but the rain continued. We just made the ferry with barely a moment to spare! Had I been driving, we would have definitely missed it.

The trip across was short and very choppy. It continued to rain for much of that first morning. We stayed at Baudin Beach apartments which was very nice, a cosy little hut in a small village.




I've never seen this strange grape like plant anywhere!



Sweet little ant that came up to visit while I was reading on the porch. 




The lady next door raises orphaned kangaroos and had a few that hung around her place that were practically tame. I dropped into the art gallery too, and had a chat with the woodwork artist who was stationed there that day.

 

We headed out to American River for some oysters, and saw heaps of black swans along the way. 

Along the estuary, we saw some discarded stingray carcasses being picked over by seagulls. A friendly local walking his dog told us that unknown fishermen had picked these up and dumped them on the shore. It made us quite sad.



In the afternoon we headed to Emu bay, where the white sand was beautifully soft.



We had planned to attend the pelican feeding at Kingscote, but this had stopped for the season. The pelicans waited patiently on the platform, allowing themselves to be photographed by the big crowd there.


Day 9: Kangaroo Island

We took a day trip to Flinders chase NP which was just one of the most spectacular places I've ever visited.

It was a wonderful day of stunning blue skies and an incredible sea wherever we turned.

We went to Admiral's arch where the sea washed up violently onto the rocks. 
 

There were seals everywhere!


At the end of the walkway is the actual arch, the limestone worn away by the sea. Here we saw lots of seals frolicking in the water and lazing about. The baby seals were really playful, dashing around and trying to annoy the adult seals. 


Then we went to the Remarkable rocks, which were really remarkable. 




We stopped for snacks here, setting up under one of the dramatic rock formations. Nature is so incredible in transforming rocks to all these different things.

On the way back we stopped at the visitors centre to spot koalas. Literally 2 minutes after we left the visitors centre area, we saw 2 koalas! They are the picture of sweet tranquility, sleeping the day away in a tree.


We stopped for a late lunch at Vivonne Bay, setting up next to the beautiful Harriet river washing into the sea. 


Feeling a bit tired, we headed home to rest. At sunset we headed down to Baudin beach and saw this solitary pelican.

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