24.10.2018 | Australia, Travel

Best things to do on kangaroo island

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Hello travel friends, without further ado we decided to visit kangaroo island after Adelaide, so we drove to Cape Jervis, where the ferry departs.

Ferry trip

You can reach kangaroo island only by ferry, named Sealink. Unfortunately, they have a monopoly, therefore the prices for the pretty short ferry trip increased in the last years, a lot of Australian people complain about that. In May, in late autumn, you can get a short-term ticket mostly, but in the main season, you should definitely make a reservation. In total, we paid for the ferry 350 Aus Dollar, including one small camper (2,4mx4,9m), 2 persons, to and from roundtrip and a campsite for one night. The swell was pretty bad on our way to the island, I would highly recommend to carry on some travel pills. On our way back to the mainland the sea was pretty calm, it is all a matter of luck ;). If you are booking the first night on a campsite together with the ferry ticket you will get a discount for the ferry ticket. I think they want to prevent tourists from driving in the dark because of the kangaroos. Good to know: it is not allowed to bring along honey from the mainland, because they have their own population on the island.

Timing

We spend a minimum amount of time on the island. The weather was pretty cloudy and cold and because we knew we had still a few kilometers to Queensland to go we decided to keep it short. For us, two days were perfect to see most places, but if you want to relax at the different beaches, you have to stay longer. Especially in the summer you should plan a beach day at one of the pristine, blue bays.

Free campsite in Penneshaw

We took the ferry in the evening at 6 pm and drove directly to the campsite in Penneshaw. The campsite had a great view over the ocean and offered nice parking spaces, however, the sanitary facilities weren´t that great. Nevertheless, it was free and next to the campsite there was a penguin center with loads of information about the little penguins of kangaroo island :).

The roads

Only on kangaroo island, it is allowed to drive on gravel roads with a 2-wheel camper of Britz. Therefore if you want to feel the offroad-feeling on gravel roads – go for it! You will find red outback sand roads, furthermore, you will find kangaroos at every corner, thus be careful while driving. The island is drivable in a loop with a few side trips. We decided to discover the southern part first, to stay in the west of the national park for the night and to explore the northern section on the next day.

The rapper kangaroos

Early in the morning we departed on lonely gravel roads, purely accidental the radio played a cool rapper song, and suddenly: there were standing about 20 kangaroos around us. I´m telling you, they were pretty big and strong. They stood on their hind legs and gazed at us. But they didn´t want to be stroked. 🙂

Pennington Bay

From the eastern peninsula and Penneshaw, a road leads to the western bigger peninsula. Driving past Baudin Beach and Island Beach (they are also worth a visit), we continued our way to Pennington Bay. The beach in Pennington Bay, was absolutely beautiful and the water was pretty turquoise.  The waves were very high.

Cliffords Honey farm

The ride to the honey farm along the red sand roads was already stunning. Of course, I had to take pictures. The honey farm offers all information about the imported honey bees from Italy. This honey only exists on kangaroo island. You can try the different various sorts of honey and you can have a look at the strains of bees and the queen bee. In the end, you should try the well-known honey ice cream :).

Seal Bay and Bales Beach

In the “Seal Bay”, you can do a guided tour for 32 Aus Dollar or a smaller tour for 16 Aus dollar on a bridge to the sea lions. For us it was too expensive, therefore we drove to the “Bales Beach” next to it.

Little Sahara – a lot of fun

In the middle of the dry island, little sand dunes grew to bigger ones, because of shifting sand dunes. They are located next to the street and you already see them from a far distance. I would definitely recommend going there, it is such a funny thing to do for young and old. At the entrance, you can rent fat bikes or sandboards. If it is too expensive for you, you can also walk for free on top of the dunes. Trying to jump as far as you can from a sand dune is pretty funny :).

Vivonne Bay – an absolute must-see!

Vivonne Bay is one of the most beautiful turquoise beaches of Australia and they are right!! The water looked like the Maldives. However you should drive to the bay with the long wooden walkway with the fishing boats (second turning), the water is very calm there. The first beach next to this one is pretty rough. Walk along the bridge, have a little small talk with the fishermen and explore the rocks there.

Nationalpark Flinders Chase and Camping

In the afternoon we drove to the Nationalpark Flinders Chase, including the famous Remarkable Rocks and the Admirals Arch. If the information is already closed, you can fill out a paper and put it into a letterbox. You can choose between different sleeping places, a campsite or a rest area. We chose the mystery rest area “Snake Lagoon”. Sounds amazing and calming, isn´t it? xD The way to the campsite was slightly difficult, 9 km on a rough gravel road. I had to hold the navigator because it became loose. Actually, there were none on the rest area, we didn´t see any snakes, but I am not a hundred percent sure, that there wasn´t something next to us in the night sneaking around our car. Uhhh a mystery place xD.

Remarkable Rocks

We woke up early in the morning at 5:30 am to be the first at the Remarkable Rocks. The washed-out enormous rocks are standing directly next to the ocean, the view was fantastic! With a cup of coffee, we explored everything. On our way back a Wallabi observed us. I got a carrot out of the camper and the Wallabie immediately hopped to me and clasped thankfully my hands. It ate the whole carrot :). However you should not feed them with bread, as I understood it, carrots are okay.

Admiral Arch

The Admiral Arch is a rock cave with loads of seals, splashing in a little pool in front of the ocean. You can even see little seal babies. From a round arch on the other side, you have a great look over the rough ocean.

Hanson Bay and Stokes Bay

Hanson Bay was a turquoise and calm beach as well. I also loved Stokes Bay, where we could walk through the rocks to the other side of the turquoise beach and on top of the hill. From there we had a beautiful view of the ocean! In the morning there are lots of kangaroos (there are many pictures), but at noon there was no single kangaroo. If you have time left, you can drive to Emu Bay.

Kingscote and the Penguin Centre in Penneshaw

Kingscote is the biggest village on the island, where you can easily go shopping and have a picnic directly to the ocean. Since we had time left, we went to the Penguin Center located in Penneshaw. An older man, absolutely passionated with penguins, told us everything about the little animals and showed us the little penguins with infrared lights outside in the darkness (to not blind the animals). We paid 13 Aus Dollar each. We actually saw a few roaring penguins in front of the house on the rocks. There are three places in Australia, where you can see the little penguins nesting: Penneshaw on kangaroo island, Phillip Island and St. Kilda located near Melbourne. A tour on Phillip Island is pretty expensive and on kangaroo island populations declined the last years.  Therefore I would recommend going to St. Kilda seeing the penguins for free. You can see them on the rocks next to a wooden bridge and volunteer helpers show you the animals with infrared lights. When it´s getting dark the penguins jump out of the water back to the rocks, according to the season 5-9 pm. Afterward, we took the ferry back to the mainland and back to Cape Jervis, where we slept on a free rest area near Cape Jervis. *** Dieser Artikel enthält Werbung, da Marken genannt werden.