Kangaroo Island

Monday, October 14, 2024

The flight from Port Lincoln to Kangaroo Island was itself interesting. Shortly after take off, we flew over the large rings where Blue fin Tuna are being fattened and Kingfish are being raised along with mussles, abalone, prawns, crabs and flounder. Port Lincoln, I learned, is the seafood capital of Australia. We also got a good shot of the grain loading conveyor belts in Boston Bay. The biggest problem for the small city of 14.500 people is lack of water. The town is considering building a desalination plant. After 40 minutes over the Southern Ocean we were over Kangaraoo Island with green fields and many rain water catchment basins.

We landed near Kingscote on Kangaroo Island and were met by our next driver guide, Lee. He wasted no time getting our program started by driving us to a place called Duck Lagoon, where we had tea and coffee and saw lots of birds including: black swans with several cygnet (baby swans), ibis, pied cormorant, galah, crimson rosella and several koala asleep in the trees. Lee told us there are 273 endemic birds in all of Australia, but too many koalas on Kangaroo Island. Meanwhile, there are only 4,500 people. The island is approximately 100 miles long and 50 miles wide and has 335 miles of coastline with a lot of it being white sand and wild seas.

A fire in 2020 wiped out half the island. The 60K koala were reduced to 30K. Eucalyptus oil is made on the island and exported for use as cleaning products. While Lee waxed long about eucalyptus, we were more interested in the birds, especially the three below.

Crimson Rosella
Black Swan
Pied Cormorant

From there we went to Seal Bay where we saw many sea lions warming up on the beach and a flock of Great Crested Terns.

Sea lions carry a smooth stone in their stomach to aid in digestion. When they move their head back they are rearranging the stone.

Finally, we arrived at our hotel, the Southern Ocean Lodge. We were glad to stop moving and settle into our rooms with a Southern Ocean view.

Sitting room, bed room
Outdoor patio
Bathroom with me in the tub.
Hotel Restaurant dining room. I was in for a light meal. It was excellent and small.
Pork belly with crisps and coleslaw
King fish carpaccio
I am standing with Peggy Rismiller over looking an echidna hole in front of my left foot. She has agreed to join us for a picnic lunch and talk about echidnas, a topic she is an expert on. She is an internationally recognized Environmental Physiologist who lives and works on Kangaroo Island and specializes in reptiles including Rosenberg’s goanna.
Turns out she knows a lot about many things. In this case, she is telling me that Yakka plants grow a centimeter a year and their leaves protect many tiny animals and invertebrates during fires and winter storms.
After lunch she showed me several photographs of echidna in different stages of growth. In this photo she is feeding a baby. A dead Echidna is on the table in front of her.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Flinders Chase National Park
Water and solar storage for the park
Yucca has the ability to be one of the first plants to flower after a fire ensures a food source for many insects and birds
Boobialla in full bloom all over the island
Boobialla, pretty spring flower
Myrtle leaf milk wort-bad name, pretty flower.
Our first stop in the park was the Admirals Arch. There was a long boardwalk needed to get down to the arch. While there we could see long-nosed fur-seals playing in the surf. It was a long hike back up the boardwalk, but the walk was worth the effort.
Gray Guinea
Hansons Bay

Lee picked us up at 9:30 and off we went to the nearby Hansons Bay to get a look. Then we continued to a rendezvous place to meet Heidi Griffey, a Dutch conservator whose goal is to eradicate feral cats on the island. She owns 200 acres of her own and works with other small land owners to capture and eradicate the unwanted animals.

Heidi demonstrates her cat capture process, which is baited with chicken wings or cat urine. This method catches too many animals besides cats so it is being phased out.
This machine is capable of face recognition and sprays poison on the recognized cat, which licks itself, goes to sleep and then dies, both methods are successful and do not require much attention. However the machine is costly. Heidi is trying to develop more funding as many farmers cannot pay for the machine.
Having tea with Heidi, Lee and Mark
Heidi’s fence with her Land For Wildlife sign.

After we left Heidi, we checked into Flinders Chase National Park Headquarters to get permission to enter.

At the tip of the island we found the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse named for a french naval officer from the 1700’s. It was built with great effort between 1907 and 1909 and is still used with led lighting.
Nearby was a place called Remarkable Rocks where we enjoyed the shapes and colors of the granite formations. The colors are due to lichen growing on the surface of the granite.
Part of the pealing rock
This piece looks like a face
Colors of the stone
More colors
Another face

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Meet Lee at 9:30 for a day of exploring beaches. But first, Mark fortified himself with an Eggs Benedict that had smashed peas in it.

Eggs benedict with mashed peas
The new fencing that curls a foot out from the bottom
The pretty land after cleanup from the fire.

As we headed north for the Western River Cove, we stopped along the way to see some fencing to get a good look at what they call varmit fencing that we refer to as hog wire. All the fencing is new due to the huge fire that wiped out so very much in 2019-20. The landscape is a beautiful green where the trees have been cut. The sheep have just been sheered and they look very happy. The hog style fencing is installed so the bottom foot is folded out away from the protected area. There is no barbed wire on the top. A lot of trees still need to be removed, but much has been done and both people and animals are slowly recovering.

A rural mail box and a yucca tree that is just finishing flowering
A Willy Wagtail

At the convergence of the Western RIver with the Beach, we walked across a foot bridge and had a close encounter with a Willie Wagtail, who danced around for a long time, before flying away.

After a pleasant hour on the lovely and nearly deserted beach, we drove on to our next Beach experience, Snelling Beach. Along the way we saw a few koala in the trees. This was our lunch stop and Lee served a delicious spread of meats and salad. This beach was almost as nice as Western River Cove.

A hot koala cools on the tree
Another koala gives us a look
Snelling Beach
Lunch at Snelling Beach

Our last beach of the day was Stokes Bay and Lee was looking forward to showing us a special tunnel. When we arrived we were not impressed with what we saw as the beach was full of rocks, dried kelp, pebbles and trash. Then he told us to follow him and soon we were navigating a narrow passage among large boulders.

Eventually we passed the last boulder and stepped into the sunshine on another beautiful beach. What a pleasant surprise. After a pleasant walk on this beach, we headed back to the hotel.

The beach on the far side of the tunnel at Stokes Bay

It turns out Kangaroo Island is full of lovely beaches and the locals are very spoiled. The water is pretty cold, but not uncomfortable in late spring and summer.

On the way back to the lodge from the north coast beaches, Lee spotted several wallabys and Mark was able to snap this one. Really good of him as Tammer is the only wallaby on Kangaroo Island.

A Tammer Wallaby hiding in the bush.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

It is Thursday morning and we are sitting at the airport terminal waiting for our Quanta’s flight to Adelaide followed by another wait for an onward flight to Newcastle. So I end this most southerly part of our trip.

By adventureswithjulia, on October 16, 2024 at 4:48 pm, under Adventures. No Comments
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