Kangaroo Island, part 1

There is a little island to the South of Adelaide called Kangaroo Island. It is one of the most amazing places that I have had the privilege to visit. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone. On the island (which is 4,405 km² or the size of two Luxembourgs or half of Belgium) this makes it Australia's third biggest island behind Tasmania and Melville off the coast of the Northern Territory. To give you an understanding of what I like about this island is if you compare the islands' 4400 people to Luxembourg (half the size) and its 511,000, population it puts things in perspective. It is a barren place, at times desolate and empty. It suffered from large scale bushfires in 2007 which destroyed lots of native bush and killed many animals. This said it is still full of wildlife, large nature reserves and even larger farms. Amongst all of this you can though find some amazing 'non-natural' wonders. I will talk about these in the next few posts. Don't get me wrong, the main reason to go there is actually to see many of the natural wonders, but there are some other things you wouldn't expect. With honey, wine, natural eucalyptus oil, lavender and many other numerous products being created by local artisans.

So to celebrate our long awaited honeymoon, Marty and I hit the water in the form of the ferry from Cape Jervis on the mainland to Kingscote, the island's biggest township.

Looking back as we set sail

The school kiddies having fun with the wind

Losing some vision and stability

So it is time to be on the Titanic, I hope not!

We didn't stop there though instead and hit the road to our accommodation at Emu Bay about an hour away to drop off our things and then to progress on to one of the islands numerous fantastic beaches. Stokes Bay.

The beautiful Stokes Bay

Hidden from view of the carpark but large rocks

The amazing super white beach actually has great variety of mineral colours

And some odd white growths about.

Where we stayed, Emu Bay

Home of the odd Pelican or two

Ok, catch you later mate.

Alone, so alone.

Amongst the Rock pools

The rocks around the jetty

Some classic onion weathering

Love the formations

The jetty the home of some great fishing apparently, I didn't bring a rod.

We had our next wildlife connection on the way to Flinders Chase National Park in the South West corner of the island.

An unfortunate road kill, the beautiful monotreme that is the Echidna

The echidna spines.

The road to Flinders Chases Admirals Arch

Just off to the left of the road is the Cape Du Couedic Lighthouse

Marty and I really love Lighthouses

So we spent a while strolling around the area

The small building here is the kerosene hut

Where fuel was kept for the lighthouse to run.

We were lucky to get some great weather.

Marty pondering about the world of being a lighthouse keeper

Only 102 years old! Almost new!

So farewell Cape Du Couedic Lighthouse onto....

Admirals Arch

Look sea slugs!

Slugs everywhere!

People on the walkway looking for slugs

Ohhhhh they aren't slugs they are seals! Silly me.

Some of the native ground covers.

If you jump on the small side road you can get a view back to the lighthouse.

And of the Encounter Bay

The location of the lightkeepers house, where he had to get supplies from the bay up this cliff

Well rather large cliff actually.

I don't know that it would be the most fun thing in the world to get your supplies up and down this cliff face. It must have been a great relief when they built the flying fox to get things up and down.