Kangaroo Island

A half-hour flight from Adelaide brought us at midday to a small island airport where the luggage was delivered on a cart outdoors, an upgrade to a Kia Sorento Diesel (with an uncommon "outback" license plate) and a short drive to a 2BR villa in Kingscote, a town chosen for its driving centrality.

We consulted with our host, received his advice and left for the Eastern and generally less interesting side of the island whose main town is Penneshaw. A recommended exploration of a lesser known dirt road for a few kilometers yielded no kangaroos. The odds were against us because they do not like wind or heat and the midday conditions were exactly that. Then on to a good lunch at the recommended Sunset View restaurant 

and a visit to Pennington Beach.

Pennington Beach had particularly charming information boards

 On day two we drove one hour to the Flinders Chase park at the western end of the island and undertook the heroic four-hour Black Swamp hike described in the last post.

On day three, after a good breakfast at the Cactus cafe, we returned to the park, drove to its southernmost points and saw two sights which alone would justify a trip to this island; one, the Remarkable Rocks and two, the Admiral's Arch and its adjoining sea lion colony.

From a distance one might think that the cluster of rocks on top of a hill would not be very interesting. 

But when you get there, if natural forms are your thing, it's a wonderful spectacle with an impressive scale. Conditions were perfect for walking over the rocky terrain and admiring the shapes which nature has carved over eons.

From there we went to the even more fascinating Admiral's Arch where, in a shoreline formed by gigantic rocky shelves and  watery inlets, innumerable sea lions sun themselves or swim in the sea. We saw them from a beautifully arranged boardwalk which runs through the area. It was one of the best opportunities we ever had of seeing animals in their natural setting. And the seaside setting was beautiful.

Sea Lion are on the rocks and in the water in these pictures

In the afternoon we drove back to Kingscote, changed into bathing suits and headed for Emu Bay Beach, about 20 kilometers away. A beautiful white sand beach, miles long. The tide was too low for more than wading but that and shell collecting satisfied us.

Footnotes: 
1. At breakfast we saw a wedding party also having breakfast. Easily identifiable because the bride wore a dressing gown with "Bride" embroidered on the back and another woman had one embroidered "Bridesmaid." On the drive to Emu Bay beach in the afternoon we passed a lavender farm and saw them in a field in the middle of the wedding ceremony. Then, at the beach they arrived for photographs!

2. We see more animals in the form of roadkill than alive. Kangaroos and opossums mostly it seems, but also lizards. Incidentally, Emma stopped on the highway today to let a Rosenberg lizard cross.