Kangaroo Island – Day 1

On approche de KI

I’m not quite sure where I first heard of Kangaroo Island, I think it was in a friend’s FB status. Well I’m sure glad I did more research and chose to go. The ferry to get to KI leaves from Jervis Bay located about an hour and a half from Adelaide. This meant an early start as we left Adelaide at 6.45 am to meet the 9 am ferry.

To visit the island, I had signed up for a two-day trip with Adventure Tours Australia. They were the company I used to visit Kakadu when I first arrived in Australia and as I thought they had done a good job, I chose to stick with them for this trip as well as my upcoming travels in the outback and Tasmania.

Once on the other side of a pretty calm Backstairs passage, we met up with our guide Kate. We were a group of 20 made up of Chinese, German, Austrian, Swiss-German, New-Zealand and Peruvian travellers as well as myself.

The first step

Bob’s place

Our first stop was at Bob’s place. He hosts visitors to show them how he herds his sheep with the help of his dog and also how one shears sheep. His dog did a good job of gathering the sheep nearby and brought them back to the barn. The dog then helped sort them so we could get to a sheep that was still covered with wool. He did this by jumping on the sheep and dropping in between to split them up. Pretty impressive! To get ready for shearing, our host put on some flat sheep skin slippers and slipped into a harness that is used to diminish back pain for the shearers. As he took the wool off our woolly friend, he made sure its feet were not to touch the ground, as it would then try to get away. Once the sheep sheared, Bob explained how he graded the wool as he is certified to do this. He also demonstrated a bit of spinning. Mom, you would have thought he was pretty lousy at it, very uneven thread. (for those who don’t know her, my mom is pretty good at the whole spinning thing) Mind you, the wool was neither cleaned nor dyed, and he did confirm that these steps usually came before the spinning. Anyhow, it was a good demo, and I don’t think I’d ever seen a live shearer before.

A few minutes later

A stool like spinning wheel

Seal Bay

Before setting out to Seal bay, we visited a Eucalyptus Distillery. The smell of the place definitely cleared my sinuses; perhaps a bit too much as my sense of smell was on overload when we got to Seal Bay to observe the native sea lions. They used to be all over the island, but most were killed and this is the only colony left. To see them, we had to follow our guide closely and not get too close to the animals. They were beautiful to watch but were quite stinky. Some were playing and surfing the waves while most were fast asleep recovering from the 3 days they had just spent at sea finding food.

Some are playing in the water

One pup was quite curious and came to say hi to the groups. However, we were advised not to move as the pup would think it’s a game and pursue this game as an adult. And well, no one wants to play tag with a full-grown sea lion.

Here’s a clip of the cute fellow!

I think snow works better

Little Sahara

Our next stop was the little Sahara sand hill. We brought up little boards that we could slide down with. Some managed to do it standing. I made a brief attempt but my board was quite sticky. Our guide had actually brought up some furniture polish to make the boards slicker. Anyhow, the view was pretty impressive.

The view

A Wallaby by the Hostel

Vivonne Bay

It was then time to head over to our accommodation of Vivonne Bay. It was a really clean and modern facility. Before dinner, some went to the beach and others went kayaking. I stayed back and relaxed, enjoying the sunset.

After dinner, most of us went to find some fairy penguins. As we cannot use a flash and only a red light to find them, I was unable to take any clear photos. Basically, imagine a small penguin and voilà! Adorable creatures. Even though I was knackered, I did stay up ‘til 11 or so hanging out with some of the other travellers out on the deck.

Long shadows at the end of day

Sunset

Jetty where we went to find the penguins