Up at 6 am and left for the two hour trip to the ferry at 7 am. We got to try out a few more of South Australia's hilly bends but arrived nice and early at Cape Jervis. In fact we were so early we were put onto a ferry that left an hour before the one we had booked on. Bonus for us, meant we had an extra hour to tour the island on day one. The crossing was smooth as silk. I sat and had a hot chocolate with a nice lady who chatted the entire way there.
Day One.
Once we had docked and disembarked the car from the ferry, we set off along a dirt road to Cape Willoughby to look at the lighthouse.
From there we travelled inland via Willson River Road and East West Road to Browns Beach which is back on the main highway. Quick note to all my readers. Only the main arterial roads on Kangaroo Island are sealed, all the rest are dirt! To be fair, they are very good dirt roads. Next stop was the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery and Rookery Wines which is just up the road from the K.I. Lavender Farm. More dirt road driving put us back onto bitumen at Birchmore Road and off we went again, this time headed for Seal Bay.
Here we saw lots of endangered Australian Sea Lions and learnt that they are the original FIFO workers. Three days on, three days off. They go to sea for three days to feed then return to shore exhausted and sleep for three days before repeating the whole thing again. We were able to get very close to them via a specially built board walk with lots of viewing platforms only centimetres above the resting animals.
After that it was time to check into our accommodation for the night at the Western K.I. Caravan Park and after putting our bags into the cabin we headed out again to the Flinders Chase National Park just down the road from the caravan park.
After paying the appropriate National Parks entry fee, we went out to Cape du Couedic to see another lighthouse.
Also out there was a New Zealand Seal Colony and a natural feature called Admirals Arch which has been created by the pounding of the sea. Fascinating to see the arch although that many seals in one place were rather smelly! We watched some of them fishing.
On the way back to our accommodation we made one last stop at Remarkable Rocks. These really do have to be seen to be believed. The display is stunning. Another long board walk takes you to a large rocky outcrop right on the coast that has been blasted over the centuries by wind and waves and the resultant rock formations are quite Remarkable! If you stand still long enough or look at them from certain angles you can imagine all sorts of creatures. And best of all, we are still allowed to walk up to them and walk on them while being careful not to fall off the outcrop and into the raging ocean below.
That's all folks! Day Two (and the third lighthouse) tomorrow.
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