About 70 miles (110 km) away from Adelaide is Kangaroo Island. It is an island, and – perhaps unsurprisingly, has kangaroos (and wallaby). Kangaroo are not really known for swimming. Seems during the ice age that allowed humanity to cross the land bridge from Asia to North America also allowed the kangaroo to hop their way to what became “KI” (for “Kangaroo Island”) and then stay separate as the oceans rose after the glaciers retreated.
My standard general highlights bus tour took us to Kingscote, but our driver/guide filled us with information as were traveled:
- Just less than 5000 people lived on the island
- Ten times more kangaroo shared the island with the people
- In 2020 there was a big bush fire that burned half the island, including over 80% of the koala
As we drove we spotted many family groups of kangaroo in the open areas near the road. Excuse the fuzzy pictures, the bus was not able to come to a full stop so I was taking pictures thru the glass and I only had my small camera.
The landscape reminded me of Serengeti/Masai Mara of east Africa, with groups of trees and bushes broken up by plains.
The our guide mentioned how the Australia coat of arms had kangaroo and emu, both of which are not able to move backwards nor sideways – thus the nation is always moving forward. On the other hand, Australia is one of the few countries that regularly eats its national animals. Take from that what you will. We passed several kangaroo road kill on our travels and the bus actively dodged one.
At the outskirts of town we stopped to look at a grain silo. Seems the KI tourism board is encouraging the local to have fun with these.
Here’s the tourist website version – the drone didn’t have to find an angle between trees.
Kingscote hosts about half of the island’s population. They had a few tourist shops and a grocery store. I made my way to the bakery and bought breakfast – a meat pie and custard pie.
Here I experienced new condiment technology. The packet of barbecue sauce open by squeezing two sides, which opens a small hole on the top allowing you to squirt the sauce out. I’m sure everyone else on the planet has used this, but it’s new to me.
Leaving the town we stopped at the honey store. Ligurian Bees were imported from Italy in the 1880s, and now KI has the world’s only disease-free bees of this species. What I found especially cool was how the store “piped in” a bee colony inside. They are encased by clear plastic, with the entry/exit high above the store floor. I bought some honey ice cream and a bottle of mead.
Driving back we had a photo stop at Pennington Bay. It was a lovely beach, but watch out for rip tides and sharks.
Near the port we found an amusing “Look out” sign:
During the age of exploration many ships stopped at KI for provisions, such has kangaroo meat. A local artist has a suggestion for that.
I was not the only cruise passenger to suggest that if the first stop is a painted grain silo, perhaps we shouldn’t be expecting much excitement. And there wasn’t much. But it was a relaxing stay. If I return I’ll visit the national park that covers about 1/3 of the island at the west.