Kangaroo Island: A Must See in Australia

Off the coast of South Australia is a narrow long island named Kangaroo Island, although everyone calls it KI. Even though this is the third largest island in Australia, it isn't as well known as it should be*. This place will fill almost all of your wild animal expectations.

Trips to KI usually depart from the Adelaide bus terminal to the ferry port at Cape Jervis. A leisurely drive through the rolling countryside, replete with kangaroos, and you get to the ferry to KI. although it is an open sea crossing, it isn't far and only the truly susceptible will get nauseous from the journey.

Once there, you'll join your tour proper. Most tours are either one or two night trips, with the little towns of Kingscote or Penneshaw as your base. The most famous pictures of KI are those of the "Remarkable Rocks", a group of large boulders sitting on a plateau overlooking the southern shoreline.

However, it's the wildlife that make KI fun to visit. In the day, you can take a guided tour of Seal Bay Park, which is inhabited by a colony of sea lions. The biologists on hand will be glad to explain the difference between seals and sea lions. These same biologists will chaperone you onto the beach where you will get within about 5 m of the sea lions. Bring lots of film.

Seal Bay is also a good spot to see "heath goanas" which are small monitor lizards. We spent the better part of an hour tracking one, but only caught the briefest of glimpses.

Penneshaw gets invaded every night by a colony of Fairy Penguins, little wobbly birds who sleep in shallow caves that they have dug wherever they please. Not only is it forbidden to interfere with the small birds, but it's illegal to take flash photography of them also. Rangers will escort you around with red "night lights" that they will shine on penguins so that you can take a picture.

At the opposite end of the island lies Admiralty Arch, a rock cave made eons ago by tides, and now occupied by a colony of New Zealand fur seals. You aren't allowed to get very close to these seals.

Getting to Admiralty Arch, you will pass through a variety of landscapes, the most interesting of which is Little Sahara. With unbelievably tall sand dunes, Little Sahara could easily pass for the real thing if any film crew were wanting to do location shooting. The fine sand and constant wind ensure that every visitor leaves the mini desert caked in a layer of scratchy dust. Be careful with your electronics, Little Sahara ruined my camera.

Wallabies, a smaller relative to the kangaroo, flourish on KI, and you'll become inured to their presence, even when too tame ones try to board your bus looking for food.

Koalas are also easy to spot. They live in great numbers in KI and most tours stop at a few well-populated koala areas. Koalas sleep a lot. Sometimes the hardest part is getting a photo of an awake koala. There are so many koalas on KI that they’ve had to try to reduce the population, through sterilization, removal and occasionally culling. This was a hot button issue with Australian environmentalists a few years ago.

You might getlucky and see a platypus in one of the small rivers or creeks.

Other sites to see on KI include a couple of beautiful lighthouses on the south shore and some very pristine and almost deserted beaches on the north shore.

Even though KI survives on tourism (along with some sheep farms and a few wineries), the place has not been spoiled by the sterility of big brand companies like Starbucks or McDonalds. You can get a burger there, but the person cooking it is probably the owner. Somehow that just makes it better.

*Then again, #2 is “Melville Island” have you ever heard of it? Could you place it on a map?
Tasmaniais #1. You should have heard of it at least.