We decided to go on an adventure to Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island is Australia’s third largest island, and a majority of it is protected by nature reserves. All sorts of animals call it home like Kangaroos, Koalas, Wallabies and snakes. It is about a 2 hour drive from Adelaide to the car ferry, then a 45 minute ferry boat ride over to the actual island. We had never driven a car onto a ferry boat before so it was a unique experience. After arriving on the island we drove another 1.5 hours to our Airbnb called Correa Cottage located in Vivonne Bay.
After settling in we headed out to have a go at sand boarding. The Little Sahara sand dunes were located just a little ways down the road from us. It consists of several sand dunes of varied heights. We decided to rent three sleds between the seven of us. To go down the sand dunes each time we had to apply a little bit of beeswax. It was quite the workout to hike up the sand dunes each time to sled back down. Everybody was pretty exhausted by the end of it but we had a blast. It was a lot cooler than we were expecting. Even the Grandmas took a turn although each of their runs ended in a mouth full of sand. They both said they still had fun and were glad they did it. We swung by Vivonne bay beach for a while after sand boarding to check out one of Australia’s top beaches. It was beautiful with the white sand and turquoise water. Afterwards, we had a nice spaghetti dinner out on the deck of our rental cottage.
The next morning we drove to Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park. We were not sure what to expect but ended up really loving it there. All of us were able to pet and feed Kangaroos and Koalas. Tom’s mom, Nadine, even got to hold one. We learned all about local snakes in the reptile center. Chelsea’s mom, Cathy, showed the manager of the park a photo she had taken of a snake she had seen near Adelaide. Turns out it was an Eastern Brown Snake. One of the deadliest in the whole world. That could have been a lot worse! We got to learn all about dingos from Billy the park manager. Dingos are on a list of animals in Australia that you can shoot on site with no questions asked even though they are almost extinct. We also got to see many other animals native to Australia like Wallabies, Penguins, Wombats and crazy looking birds called Cassowaries. Tom even found a Koala in a bird exhibit that was not part of the park it was just a wild koala.
From there we headed to Flinders Chase National Park. Flinders Chase is a huge nature reserve with many amazing places to pull your car over and explore. Getting out of the car at the visitor center we spotted several more koalas sleeping up in the trees. Our first stop at the park was to check out the Cape du Couedic lighthouse. The lighthouse was over 100 years old and protected ships from the dangerous rocks just off shore. Today people are able to spend the night in the light keepers quarters. A short distance from the lighthouse is the famous Admirals Arch rock formation. You access it by walking down a beautiful wooden boardwalk that winds its way down towards the coast. Just before you reach Admirals Arch you can look out on the rocks below to check out the fur seal colony. We counted over 50 seals basking in the sun and frolicking on the rocks. Down a few more flights of stairs is Admirals Arch. It is a magnificent sight with the huge stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the arch and giant waves crashing against the smooth rock floor below. It was a beautiful natural phenomenon that we were all really glad to have experienced. We got back in the minivan and found our way to the Remarkable Rocks area. We had a quick ham and cheese sandwich picnic in the car (because the flies were a nuisance outside) and then walked down to check out the rocks. The rocks consist of several giant granite boulders that are millions of years old. They were the result of magma being forced to the surface before cooling and being carved out by the wind and sea over time. They were enormous rocks that we had a fun climbing all over and walking around on.
We drove about an hour back to our cottage to rest from our busy day and have a quick dinner. We didn’t have much time because we had booked a night wildlife hike at the Hanson Bay Animal Sanctuary. We drove about 40 minutes or so at dusk to get there. The roads on Kangaroo Island are quite narrow and a lot of them are dirt roads. Almost all of the roads have heavy brush on both sides of the road. Dusk just happens to be the time of day when the animals are the most active. First up on our drive we spotted a little koala sitting on the side of the road. We stopped to take photos and it just sat and stared at us. A little further down the road two Kangaroos darted out causing Tom to swerve and narrowly avoid them. Next up a set of giant wedge-tailed eagles flew up in front of the van dropping part of whatever they had been eating on the road in front of us. It was starting to get crazy out and we needed all hands on deck looking out for animals. Before we finally arrived for our walk we saw several more kangaroos, a giant wild pig that ran in front of us and a few wallabies.
The night walk at Hanson Bay Animal Sanctuary turned out to be one of our favorite things we have done in Australia. There was a group of 14 of us led by a tour guide Mel and a volunteer named Benny. Benny was from Germany and in Australia on their one year work Visa for people under 30. It is a really neat program that we all wish we had done when we were younger. We started out in the forested area where a lot of koalas hang out. Almost every tree we looked in had one up in its branches. There were even some walking around on the ground. It was neat to hear the males grunting noises and the females call that sounds like a woman screaming. Our guides said there are between 80,000 – 100,000 Koalas living on the island while only 5,000 people live there. We walked out into more of a clearing where we saw several kangaroos hopping around. We were lucky enough to see a few short-besked echidnas walking around. They are a little brown animal covered in spines. One of the coolest parts of the walk was the wallabie crossing. Once the sun started to set you could see tons of wallabies start to creep out of the bushes all around us. Once they felt it was safe a wallabie would dart across the field to the bushes on the other side. After the first one would go, several more would follow one after another in a row. It was really funny to watch. In the cover of darkness, we walked back with flashlights we were given at the start of the tour. It felt a little like a science fiction movie with all the animals running around us with all of the sounds they were making. It was a night we won’t soon forget. We took the drive home in the dark much slower and saw several more animals along the way!
On our last day, we made a quick stop at the Vivonne Bay Jetty. We walked out to the end of the peer and back before driving towards the city of Kingscote. We made a quick stop at the beautiful Emu Bay beach where we waded out in the ocean. In Kingscote, which is the biggest town on the island, we grabbed lunch and did some shopping. We got to the ferry terminal about an hour early and were able to get on an earlier boat back to the mainland. Our grand adventure ended with a stop at the Victory Hotel in McLaren Valley which is a huge wine region outside of Adelaide. With a stroke of luck, we were seated downstairs in their amazing wine cellar by ourselves since the rest of the restaurant was full. It was an awesome way to end our mini trip with our guests. If you ever find yourself in South Australia it is very much worth the trip.
