[Originally sent as email travelogue, Thursday, March 2, 9:56 pm Australian Central Daylight Time; Wednesday, March 1, 3:26 pm Pacific Standard Time.]

Monday, February 27

(NOTE: We have spent three days in Sydney between Brisbane and Kangaroo Island—but, we will spend another three days in Sydney this coming weekend, and I will later send a couple of travelogues about our time there (both related to World Pride and non-related) after the second weekend is done.)

Left to right: Mary Ann, wife of Uncle David, next to Shobhit and me. They live in Adelaide, South Australia—the very reason we visited that Australian state both back in 2020, and during this visit. Both times, we also took the ferry from Cape Jervis to Kangaroo Island: Cape Jervis is a 67-mile, roughly ninety-minute drive southwest of Adelaide on the Fleurieu Peninsula, at the end of which Cape Jervis is located. The ferry then sails about twelve and a half miles across the Backstairs Passage, the straight between the South Australian mainland and Kangaroo Island—a passage that takes between 45 minutes to an hour.

It is also prohibitively expensive, thanks to the Sealink Ferries monopoly on service in this area: Round trip ticket with a vehicle is $220 AUD, with an additional $110 per ault passenger and $90 for Concession (senior discounts): that totals $620 AUD if I've done my calculations right; that would be worth roughly $422 USD as I write this (the exchange rate can fluctuate daily—and believe me, Shobhit is tracking that daily).

Okay, let's talk about Kangaroo Island! It's much too long for me to get the entire thing into one shot, even from the mainland (although I could have tried a panorama shot, dammit Matthew think!): it's 90 miles (145 km) long. Its width really varies: 34 miles (54 km) at its widest, and at a particularly narrow point, barely more than half a mile (0.85 km). With a land area of 1,701 square miles (4,405 sq km), it is Australia's third largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island.

When we came to Kangaroo Island in 2020, we stayed only one night, but effectively spent two days: sailing over in the morning, then back the evening the next day. This was in the interest of saving money on lodging. This time we went the route of maximizing time efficiency, going mostly straight to Cape Jervis after Uncle David and Mary Ann picked us up at the Adelaide airport ("mostly" because we did stop briefly to do some grocery shopping, as one of the places we stayed on the island was nowhere near any towns or even stores; and we also stopped at their place to leave our huge suitcases and just bring two smaller bags for the two-night stay so there would be enough for all of our bags in their rather small car). This meant staying two nights on the island instead of just one, and also meant arriving in the evening—we stayed at a hotel in the town called Penneshaw, barely up the road from the ferry terminal.

Kangaroo Island Seafront Hotel has both a regular hotel building, and cabin-like rooms in the back, as seen in the above photo. Another shot I took made it rather look like our unit was entirely surrounded by lush vegetation, but as you can see here, that wasn't quite true. In the above shot you can see Shobhit walking toward our "1 Bedroom Villa," which we all found quite lovely. With only one exception (in Brisbane), every place Shobhit and I booked included a kitchenette so we could cook meals, and we all had grilled cheese sandwiches and wine out on the front patio of the "villa" for dinner that first night.

Not long after dinner, Shobhit and I took a brief sunset walk not far from our hotel. I got a few quite beautiful photos out of it, in spite of the disappointment that "Kangaroo Sculpture Trail" featured no sculptures of kangaroo whatsoever. There was a fish sculpture, however, and a "Penguin and Wildlife Viewing Area," where we saw no wildlife aside from the screechig cockatoos. There was a bit of an amusing bit about that gated path, though, as we went in through one that had no closure signs on it, but when we found another through which we wanted to get back out onto the nearby street, it was padlocked shut. The fence was short and easily scalable, and only after we got to the other side did we see the sign on this one: CLOSED TEMPORARILY - trespassers will be fed to the penguins.

Tuesday, February 28

We got a fairly early start on Tuesday, our destination on the other, west end of the island. We detoured a bit along the north shore, which I wouldn't have even thought to say I wanted to go to, except that Uncle David told me Stokes Bay was named the best beach in Australia by Tourism Australia. Well if it's the best one, we have to go see it!

Even if it means, apparently, driving quite a few miles on unpaved road. When we were on the island in 2020, with the exception of the town on Kingscote where we stayed in a hotel that time, we traveled almost exclusively along the southern shores of the island, so this was all new to us. And moments after we got out of the car, I saw this pelican on the rocks. There is nothing in this photo to provide scale, but I had no idea how huge these birds are. It reached easily at least two thirds my height.

I texted this photo to Gabriel and he identified it as an Australian pelican: "Apparently, quite typical." Well, not where I live it isn't!

By the way, Stokes Bay, with its endlessly unique rock formations, was indeed stunning—and only accessible through tight passageways through huge rocks. I took so many shots here that it was practically impossible to choose just one to share, and in the end I chose this one with Shobhit just to provide some scale.

We couldn't check into our next place of lodging until at least 2:00, so we had to burn through a few sights along the way there. Shobhit found Australian Red Gum Gallery on our island map and suggested we stop there. It's a bit off the beaten path but was in the middle of the island on the way from Stokes Bay to the north to other destinations we had on the south shore; it's a place with crafts made from "local timbers." We were the only visitors there when we stopped in, which made Shobhit feel obligated to buy something. Pictured here is a lot of salt and/or pepper shakers, but they were too heavy and made Shobhit concerned about weight limits in our luggage on the way home—plus they were very expensive. But! At lower right you can see a couple of cheese knifes with hand carved wooden handles, and we bought one of those. Mary Ann bought the other.

Further travels through the island, some beautiful, lush scenery—and far better than it had been when we were here in 2020, less than two months after the devastating bushfires. Note here that the old, dead, burnt trucks still exist all over the place: they stick up out of the newer greenery growing up and around them. Much of the island looks like this right now, and, barring another horrible year like 2020 (which, let's face it, is more likely than not), within another couple of years the dead branches should be completely obscured.

The one wild koala we saw on the island, and a much happier sight than the one we saw in 2020, ambling alongside a road, evidently desperate for food. This one, on the other hand, appeared fairly content. We only saw it because a Flinders Chase National Park staff lady pointed it out to us right after we got out of the car to pay our entry fees.

"Remarkable Rocks," near the southwest corner of Kangaroo Island: this had been my top destination on Kangaroo Island when we visited in 2020, but, due to the recency of bushfire devastation, Flinders Chase National Park was still closed. But not today Uncle David told us more than once about how incredibly impressed Grandpa Minor (his dad) had been when they took him here in 1979, which I always enjoy hearing about.

"Remarkable Rocks" as a name for an attraction seems a little on the nose, but it must be said: they really live up to it. This spot is probably the most photographed location among the several gargantuan rocks isolated in a cluster on a cliffside, having been there roughly 150 million years so they're slightly older than I am! I asked a lady to take this photo of all four of us.

If there were any disappointment here, it would be the cloud cover, which prevented me from capturing the much more vivid colors the rocks have under direct sunlight. But really, I'm just delighted I finally got to see them.

And then, just a short drive from there (and from which the distant photo of Remarkable Rocks one of the links in the previous caption was taken), truly just as impressive: Admirals Arch on Cape du Coeudic, with its petrified tree roots hanging from its roof, and accessible via boardwalks and then staircases down the cliffside.

You can't really see them here, but there were seals down there, with plenty more on nearby surrounding rocks.

Cape Du Couedic Lighthouse, 82 ft (25 meters) tall, built 1909, automated 1957. I took a few photos of it but this one is my favorite as the angle includes those two other islands in the background to the left.

Second lodging spot: Western KI Caravan Park, a two-bedroom "luxury cabin." Not located inside Flinders Chase National Park, but just ouside of it.

Another sad reflection of the state of affairs here in 2020, but a beacon of hope for resliance in their wake: in 2020, we saw no live wild kangaroos on the island at all, and the only one we saw was one example of roadkill. This part isn't great either, to be fair: we saw so many dead kangaroos on the side of the highway on Kangaroo Island this visit that it almost felt like some kind of kangaroo apocalypse. However! That was also a reflection of the sheer numbers here now in comparison, and Western KI Caravan Park is also a wildlife reserve. We saw several kangaroos just hanging out and grazing around the grounds of our cabins on Tuesday evening, including this mother and nursing joey in front of a cabin about two units down the road from us.

Wednesday, March 1

The same lady who had pointed out the koala to us said this nearby place was a must-see to put on our list: Hanson Bay, which indeed was absolutely stunning.

Also at Hanson Bay, I'm pretty sure these are a couple examples of the hooded plovers noted by signs on multiple beaches, warning visitors to keep their distance because they have "one of the lowest rates of child survival in the world," and we don't want to disturb any of their nests.

[EDIT: I texted this photo to Gabriel to see if I was right about what kind of birds they were, and he replied they were "totally different birds." I was like, well what kind are they then? He said "pied oystercatchers."]

Side note: I used to think "live photo" on the iPhone was annoying, but now I live by it. Without it I would never have been able to choose an alternate frame to get this far better shot than the one it defaulted to.

Shobhit wanted to stop at Clifford's Honey Farm in the middle of the island on our way back to the ferry terminal, and so we did. I wanted to get this photo with him in the face cutout that was the first thing we saw when we got out of the car, and so we did.

Due to a honey shortage ongoing as recovery takes years after biological catastrophes, their supply of honey flavors was very limited—but damn, what they did have was delicious. Of course we bought some.

Found back at the Penneshaw ferry terminal. I do not recommend eating any of these if you just find them lying on the ground.

Back on the SeaLink ferry, returning to the South Australian mainland.

(Click here for next travelogue: Adelaide 2023)

Kangaroo Island 2023

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