We had a lovely handful of days on Kangaroo Island, staying in a wood house with a loft, beautiful views and an abundance of wildlife- although we saw more dead kangaroos / possums and koalas then live ones
7/1/2010 – day1
We (Prasad, Vedanth, Pranathi, Shekar, Meghana and I) started to Kangaroo Island from Pranathi Shekar’s house @ 9:00 AM. Took a small break at Yankalilla for 15 min to have some coffee and then straight to Cape Jarvis to catch ferry to KI @ 12 PM.
Shekar loaded car in ferry and joined us up in the deck. Kids (Vedanth & Meghana) wanted to sit in moving chairs so we opted to sit in the front of the ferry. It was bit hot but we went out to enjoy the sea view. We are in the middle of blue water and can see both Island and Adelaide from the middle of the sea. In 45 min we were in Penneshaw (KI).
From Penneshaw we went to Kingscote passing American river to have our lunch. We had Veggie burger for lunch. We got additional burger from café even though Pranathi did not pay for it , I think people at café liked Pranathi did some groceries shopping (jeez they cost 2 times more than what we get in Adelaide) and started driving to Vivonne Bay.
On our way we booked a guided tour to Seals bay. Seal Bay is a large sandy beach where thousands of Australian Sea-lions live. It’s a rough life being a sea-lion. They spend days out in the water hunting and feeding without any real rest. Once satisfied, they return to the beach where they sleep for the next few days and gather their strength. And then it starts all over again! We were able to go right onto the beach (with a tour guide) to see the sea-lions, taking some great photos (good that Raj brought his camera from car). We needed to keep at least 10m away though, because even though it wasn’t breeding season (where all the males become very aggressive) the strength behind these animals is still incredible and we don't want to disturb their rest. We saw hundreds of seals resting on the beach. It was the first time I saw seals so close (I saw trained seals in Sea world long time back but they are completely different from these seals here).
We came to know from guide that in KI rain water is the only source of water. They tasted great (much better than mineral water we buy at stores). There is no other source of water so mind you “use little water” when you go there.
We booked our motel at Vivonne Bay, Kanga stay(every single cottage/guest house got its own name). It is a beautiful wood house with 3 bedrooms, 2 rain water tanks and eucalyptus trees on all three sides. We took some rest and kids wanted to go out so we went to ‘little sahara’ near our cottage (5 kms) . It is spectacular vivid white sand dunes, surrounded by natural bush vegetation. Climbing over the first ridge, you are confronted by a second and much higher dune, which when scaled, does not expose the coast as one would expect. Megha and Vedu are much exited to go on higher sand dunes and surprisingly they did it. Pranathi gave up after climbing few dunes. Shekar went with kids and Prasad and I joined them a bit later. Surprisingly we did not find even a single person there so it is just 6 of us so we had great time shouting names talking loudly. Kids are amazing, after such a busy day they were able to climb higher dunes.
We wanted to go out for dinner but then realized there are no restaurants around 40 kms. Thank god (may be I should say thanks Pranathi??) Pranathi packed some Indian masalas and asked me to bring some rice and daal (just in case if we feel like eating Indian food we can cook was her idea). That helped us for dinner. We made veggie Biryani which we had with some curd.
Day 2 – 8/01/2010
I woke up at 6:00 AM to see beautiful sunshine. Shekar went for jogging and Prasad joined me for morning walk from our cottage. We started walking on the rugged/dusty/sandy roads and realized there were only 3-4 houses (may be guesthouse or cottages) around that area that’s all. After walking for 10 min we saw a spectacular, breathtaking and picture perfect beach with white sand on one end, sun shine from east and meeting point of sky and water on the other end. Not even single person is in the beach it was just Prasad and myself in that place. I am sure that moment will not wipe out of my brain for ever. On our return back home we saw few foot prints of koalas & possums on the sand road. We told everyone about the beach. Shekar returned from jogging and started telling us about the beach. So we decided to go back in the evening with kids.
While planning for our day we went through the information books and found that Vivonne Bay beach is once proclaimed the ‘BEST BEACH' in Australia.
I was bit worried about my project as there is no internet or mobile connection in that place. We were on road to find an internet café atleast to send an email to office people and get the file that I needed to start my work. Lucky we found one so I logged in for 20 min and downloaded the file I needed. We saw quad bike tours in that area.
After having breakfast we thought of going to Kelly hills cave but we saw similar limestone caves in Naracoorte and Shekars family saw them in NZ so we dropped that from our list. We went to Parndana in hot 43 degrees. By the time we reached Parndana it was 11:45 so we decided to have a break. Lucky we found a hotel and IGA there. We went to hotel to order some food and drinks. Vedu, Megha, Prasad and Shekar started playing pools. Pranathi spent her time watching them play pools and I was busy my office work as I found a nice spot to sit with my laptop (mind you no internet or mobile in Parndana too). We had lunch and spent few hrs there. Due to extreme hot weather we returned home. In the evening we took kids to the Vivonne bay beach and they loved it. We found two more people in the beach so we played and played and played in the water. Returned home, got fresh and cooked rice and daal. Had dinner watching movie and off to bed.
I just opened the curtain in our bedroom and found zillions of bright stars in the blue sky which we never find in cities. I showed it to Prasad and he was surprised to see those many starts in the sky.
Day 3 – 09/01/2010
Woke up at 6:00 AM, went out for walk near the beach (don’t want to miss this walk during my stay in KI) returned home quickly as we thought of going out early today to cover most of the places in south and west.
We drove to Flinders Chase National Park touching Hanson bay. We started our tour with Remarkable rocks. It is 100% scenic drive to reach Remarkable rocks. Most of the green disappeared due to 2007 bush fires but still the drive is nice. We stopped near the T junction to take pictures of R rocks and ocean together. True to their name, Remarkable Rocks are rocks that are quite remarkable. The rocks are very peculiarly shaped natural formations on a granite outcrop over the sea. They have been slowly eroded over millions of years into the very peculiar shapes that are there today and we spent quite a while climbing over them and taking dozens of pictures. We rested 15 min inside the rocks looking at the waters.
From there we went to light house and started walking to Admirals Arch. We started walking on wooden decks to find seals all over the place. This time it is home to the New Zealand Fur Seals. Instead of a beach these furry critters live on rocky outcrops that we were able to view from walkways above the crashing waves. Further along the walkways we also went to visit the spectacular Admirals Arch, a natural arch in the rocks over looking the ocean. We spent some time watching the young seals fighting and playing. These seals looked more active then Aussie Sea-lions .
We saw the two islands on the south of KI which are untouched for natural rehabilitation. I think by this we reached end of Australia.
After lunch we started driving to West bay. But, after driving in the bumpy muddy roads for 35 kms we started getting panic as we did not see even a single vehicle on our way and mobiles are not working for emergency. We went upto snake lagoon and returned back. On our way to cottage we saw hundreds of dead possums/kangaroos/koalas. Prasad took a snap with dead blue tongue lizard waaaaak
In the Evening we went to jetty near Vivonne bay. We saw some soft stones (small, big and huge) and started walking on them. After walking for 5 min we found waves coming from sea. Shekar jumped into water and vedu followed him. Megha, Pranathi, Prasad and myself started walking on the rocks and went to huge rocks where we found loads of dry salt and from there we can see waves very clearly. We asked Shekar and Vedu to join us. I went on to bigger rock and sat there. Rest of them went to get wet in the waves. Suddenly there was a big wave and Shekar went missing for few seconds. He was 15 meters away with scratches and wounds all over his body due to the rupture of rocks from the big wave. Vedu and Prasad protected Megha but Pranathi was wet all over. It was a massive wave – Thank god I was not in the water. I took photos of the whole scene but my heart went numb when Shekar was missing. Kids also had few scratches for falling on the rocks. We immediately came back from there. We discussed about how tsunami affect would be on people as we felt it was like a mini tsunami and no one was around to help us.
We went home wet and with big shock. We cooked coconut rice and daal and started relaxing with drinks, food and movie. I went out to see stars again and off to bed looking at the stars.
Day 4 – 10/01/2010
We packed everything to go back from KI to Adelaide. On our way we took kids to Horse riding place but we did not find anyone except horses ha ha ha. From there went to Strokes bay. It was very hot. We had our lunch there. Vedu wanted to explore around. He came to us with a big smile and said you must come with me I will show you something special then we all started following him into the caves sort of thingo.. in some places we have to squeeze ourselves to go further. The bay was accessed through a crack in the cliffs made by people who were frustrated by having to take the long route there over some cliffs and dynamited another entry through the cliffs (as per some locals info). After 10 min of walk in those cracked cliffs we found a beautiful beach and puddles full of people. After 3 days we are looking at 20-30 people around . Pranathi and myself sat in a cool place dunking our legs in water but boys went out to explore more. It was a nice place and we got some cold breeze due to the rocks and water. We took some rest there for 2 hrs. We went to Penneshaw on rugged roads betting about next dead animal on the roads
We wanted to catch an early ferry so that I can come home and finish my work. Lucky we got an early ferry and we are back in Adelaide by 7:00 PM.
KI is a beautiful place to visit if you really want to go on holidays. It is full of wilderness and natural beauty. If you are like me who loves natural things then this is the place to go.
A massive thanks to Pranathi, Shekar and Megah for spending an excellent time with us.
