Kangaroo Island ~ South Australia island pictures

Ferry From Cape Jervis to Penneshaw Kangaroo Island

Bus tours start early, in Adelaide, on the 90-kilometre (56 miles) morning drive to the ferry at Cape Jervis. It's a scenic treat, and a good reason to rent a car so that you can stop for photos or head down one of the many laneways that lead from the highway to the seaside. Kangaroo Island is 13 kms (8 miles) from the mainland. You'll see groups of kangaroos bounce through the fields and olive orchards, and flocks of birds. The lands is fairly hilly, with rocky canyons and tidy villages once you leave Adelaide behind. If you are traveling by bus, when you get to the ferry, you take your luggage and walk on board. After crossing the Backstairs Passage, you board an island bus to continue the tour.

Kangaroo Island's north shore beach

Kangaroo Island separated from mainland Australia about 9,000 years ago. The four main centers are Kingscote, American River, Parndana and Penneshaw. (In the photo above, the ferry is approaching Penneshaw.)

A narrow path winds along the beach and through these limestone boulders at Stokes Bay. This is on the north shore of Kangaroo Island. There's a fine white sand beach and a rock pool for swimming.

Sheltered from cool southern winds, it's a great spot for an afternoon picnic if you are traveling independently. (For ferry information, go to Sealink.) I booked my Kangaroo Island visit from Sydney throuh one of the many package tours available through travel agents.

Stoke's Bay beach on Kangaroo Island

Stoke's Bay beach is accessed by walking around these limestone pillars to the secluded cove.

Kangaroo Island is 155 kilometres long and 55 kilometres wide (96 miles by 34 miles) and lies off southern Australia's west-facing coast. Most visitors come via Adelaide, a lovely town itself worthy of 3-7 day visit to tour the many parks and wineries in the area.

English explorer Matthew Flinders discovered the island in 1802, and used its abundant kangaroo population as a source of fresh meat for his crew.

Kangaroo Island Road

In the interior, the landscape is very flat and bleak, and lulls many bus passengers to sleep. The island's 4,500 residents are outnumbered by the koala population. Agriculture -- sheep and cereals -- is the main industry, with tourism second, and fishing, third.

Stoke's Bay Farm Kangaroo Island

Each day we stopped for tasty and ample lunches in establishments that brought to mind a community hall, or church basement cafeteria. This day, Stoke's Bay Farm was the lunch stop. This view is outside the hilltop lunch hall, looking north towards Penneshaw. The meals are served buffet style, a choice of hot and cold dishes. Once, kangaroo meat was one of the choices, but only a few of the guests gave it a try. Some of the lunch stops offered beer or wine for an extra charge.

Typical Lunch plate included on Island tours

These are some of the foods offered on the lunch buffet at Stoke's Bay Farm. (Note: no kangaroo)

South Coast from the interior highway on Kangaroo Island

The view to the south, with the Southern Ocean barely visible on the horizon. Native vegetation covers half the island; one third of the island is designated national and conservation parks. There are some 50 shipwrecks around the island; some are accessible to divers.

High Sand Dunes in the park Conservation area

The south coast attractions such as Remarkable Rocks, Seal Bay Conservation Area and Admiral's Arch are accessed on boardwalks to protect the sand dunes. There are some wildflowers in bloom, depending on season, but mostly low, shrubby bushes.

The Wharf at Kingscote Australia

From Penneshaw, the highway goes to the north coast around American Bay to Kingscote (58 kms / 36 miles). Several in our group had selected Kingscote's Ozone Seafront Hotel from the list of hotels on offer. The seafront walk goes on for some blocks, and in the evenings, you can join one of the Little (Fairy) Penguin Watching walks. There's a maritime museum here as well. At dinner time, there was much confusion until we new arrivals learned to get in line to place our dinner orders.

Kangaroo Island Pure Sheep Dairy

Another stop on the tours is at the Island Pure Sheep Dairy for a demonstration of cheese making from start (when ewes file into the high tech milking shed) to finish, with samples of the excellent cheeses, including feta, kefalotiri, manchego, haloumi and brie. This dairy, like the honey farm, are examples of the Kangaroo Islanders response to the bottom dropping out of the sheep and wool market a few years ago -- develop new industries.

Kelly Hill Caves Island Attraction

A park interpretive officer takes small groups into the Kelly Hill Caves on the way to Seal Bay and the Remarkable Rocks. The caves are 116 kilometres (72 miles) from Kingscote, and the parks rep made an excellent presentation. The caves were 'discovered' by a horse in 1881. It seems the animal accidentally fell into one of them.

Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery

This old vehicle was parked at the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery, a self-sufficient eco-friendly plant that's powered by steam, wind and sun. It's South Australia's last remaining commercial distillery and the only one in the world distilling the Kangaroo Island Narrow Leaf Mallee, a renewable resource free from chemical sprays. The gift shop has a great variety of products from candies to creams. I brought home small packs of eucalyptus and honey hard candy.

Clifford's Honey Farm - Honey bees Source flowers

Kangaroo island is the world's oldest sanctuary for Ligurian bees as well as the world's last pure strain of these docile and productive Italian natives.

The queen bees are exported around the world. Hives are moved every 6-8 weeks to catch eucalyptus, tea tree, banksias, canola and more, in bloom (the sign in the photo shows the flowers according to the seasons). If your tour stops at Clifford's Honey Farm, try some of Jenny's honey ice cream. She uses a fraction of the 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) produced each year.

Ferry Leaving Kangaroo Island

Back at Penneshaw, after having stopped at the airport to drop off those who were flying back to Adelaide. The rainstorm stayed away until we had reboarded the bus at Cape Jervis, then proceeded to pour on us all the way back, in the dark, to Adelaide.

Flying back earlier seemed so much the better choice. The winds can be strong, and the sea rocky out in the middle of the channel. Those out on deck had a wild ride, and had to hang on tight to railings to keep from being blown over.

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