Kangaroo Island

 

About an hour and a half drive down the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide, and a 45 minute ferry ride southwest across the Backstairs Passage, lies Kangaroo Island (or “KI” as the locals call it), the 3rd largest island of Australia.  Congrats to “Anonymous” who correctly identified Tasmania - one of my personal favorite spots in the world - as one of the 2 Australian Islands larger than KI; the other is Melville Island in the Northern Territory. If you were to sail south and miss the Island, your next landfall would be Antarctica!

KI was discovered in 1802 by the British explorer Matthew Flinders.  While I am usually reluctant to say European explorers “discovered” places that already had thriving indigenous populations, KI was actually uninhabited when Flinders landed. There is evidence that there once was an aboriginal population on the island, but for unknown reasons they were gone by the time Flinders arrived.  Nearly 20 times the size of Martha’s Vineyard, but with a year-round population of only 4,500, KI is home to an amazing variety – and quantity – of wildlife. Visiting in the late fall - the “shoulder season” for visitors - we were fortunate to have a spectacular spell of weather - sunny and in the 60s everyday - and very few tourists. On all of the hikes we did, there were far more kangaroos on the trail than hikers!

                                                         

We rented a small cottage overlooking the beautiful - but largely deserted - beach at Emu Bay (I’ll spare you the photos of me taking full advantage of the remoteness of the beach 😈)

We spent our days hiking and wildlife viewing.  Some wildlife was easier to spot than others:

            This koala liked to hang out in a eucalyptus tree less than 50 meters from our cottage

KI has its own subspecies of kangaroo, cleverly named the Kangaroo Island Kangaroo, as well as a large population of koalas and wallabies.  Kangaroos on the island are (supposedly) nocturnal - though they certainly were active during the days as well, and wallabies are crepuscular (a $5 word if ever there was one - or I guess a $7.50 word down here!), meaning that they are most active at dawn and dusk. That meant the biggest adventure on the island was driving - particularly between dawn and dusk (more than once we had to come to a full stop on a highway to avoid them). While there really are no natural predators for the larger animals on KI, sadly, automobiles take quite a large toll.

 

Aside from the larger marsupials, KI is also home to a myriad of other interesting species, including Rosenberg's Goanna, fur seals, and a wide array of bird life:

                                                

The natural geological formations, including the iconic Admiral's Arch and Remarkable Rocks are also impressive

While we were not lucky enough to spot any echidnae or platypuses - we were amazingly fortunate to spot an endangered sooty dunnart, a tiny carnivorous mouse-like marsupial that hops like a kangaroo. Unfortunately, it being on a night walk, we were not able to catch it on film. Well, since we don’t actually use film in our cameras anymore, I guess we were unable to capture it on our memory cards - other than the ones in our heads!

 

                                                                (Not our photo!)

Some of you may have heard about the damage suffered on KI during the 2019/2020 wildfires in Australia, when nearly half of the island burned.  For the geologists in the audience, it was fascinating to learn that the soil that covers most of KI is rich in a rock known as Ironstone, which essentially serves as a geological lightning rod, and it was a lightning strike that ignited the wildfires. 

 

 

What was most remarkable was the speed with which the vegetation has regrown in just 3 ½ years

As you can imagine, we have tons more pictures from this leg of our trip, but hope this at least gives a taste of the experience.  Yesterday we moved on to Melbourne, staying at a high-rise AirBnB in the center of the city - couldn't be more different than the past week!  Next week we head off on a 7-day, 104 km (65 mile) trek along the Great Ocean Walk.  It'll be chilly (in the 50's) and often rainy, but the scenery is supposed to make it worth it.  We'll let you know when we get to the other side!

With Love from Down Under,

Elan and Melanie

P.S.  We were able to carry 2 full bottles of wine in our carry-on luggage on our flight from Adelaide to Melbourne yesterday.  Made me a bit nostalgic for simpler times…..