Kangaroo Island

Admiral's Arch


Remarkable Rocks


Seal bay


Last weekend was a very long weekend as it was Easter, with Friday being "good friday" and Monday also a holiday for some unknown reason. So we went on a trip to Kangaroo Island, which is the 3rd largest island off the coast of Australia. We left home Saturday afternoon and came back just before Monday noon.

Kangaroo Island is off the coast of Southern Australia which is around 100km from Adelaide. The island is separated from the mainland by a 13km stretch of water which is the southern ocean. Access to the island is by ferry which is a huge one which can carry couple of dozens of vehicles as well as passengers. The sea is usually very calm around this area so the ferry ride is generally smooth.

We arrived in Kangaroo island just after sunset on Saturday and we checked into the small hotel, which is a kind of hostel, great for backpackers and travellers. Then we had a chance to walk around and meet up with some penguins who had come upto the shore from the seas as night fell. The island is a far cry from the city life, and nights are pretty much dark as there's not many lights around. And for this reason the night sky looked simply magnificent! I had always been an admirer of the night sky and had never seen it so full of stars, it was simply breathtaking!

The next day we went around the island in a tour coach (bus). The island is quite big ~150km long and ~50km wide. Our coach driver who was also our tour guide talked to us throughout the whole journey (from 9:30 am till around 6:30 pm) and flooded us with information. It was really enjoyable.

The highlights of the tour were Seal bay (full of Australian seals sleeping in the sun), Remarkable rocks (a few big unusual looking rocks on a pure Granite base), Admirals arch (an arch in the rocks near the sea), New Zealand fur seals (again a bunch of noisy big fellows), and a small farm where we had a delicious lunch!

By the time we got back to the hotel we were exhausted. But it was simply great! The island is very much self-sufficient. There are people living in the island something like 4500. Most of them working on farms, it's more like a step back in time, with large areas of land with a farmer's small house in the middle, cattle grazing, flocks of sheep just idling around and of course kangaroos hopping all over the place. (we almost ran into kangaroos jumping across the roads, two times). The manager of the hotel that we stayed in told us that his nearest neighbour is 1km away, and that he often finds kangaroos peeping in through his windows at night.

We came back in the ferry Monday morning. It was a great experience! I could recommed this place to anyone without a doubt. It seems one of the last unspoilt places on earth.