{"id":305,"date":"2016-10-23T22:48:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T21:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/?p=305"},"modified":"2016-10-26T23:44:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T22:44:14","slug":"231016-kangaroo-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/travel\/231016-kangaroo-island\/","title":{"rendered":"23\/10\/16 Kangaroo Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quick drive down from Victor harbour to Cape Jervis for the ferry \u26f4 to Kangaroo Island.<\/p>\n

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Only fitting I suppose that Maggie spotted a mob of Roo’s off in a field to our left as I rake along to the ferry.<\/p>\n

Big buggers too.<\/p>\n

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\nThe ferry takes about 45 minutes and is full. They pack every last inch of the deck with vehicles and several were booked out when we booked a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n

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We have booked the wilderness retreat on Kangaroo and as that’s on the far side of the island we head there on leaving the boat. it’s about 100 miles long and the main roads are paved.<\/p>\n

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Just outside we pas through the Kangaroo Island ‘Dark Hedges’. This could be the new location for ‘Game Of Thrones’.<\/p>\n

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Half way along the southern coast we take a break at Seal bay.
\nThis is the home of a colony of sea lions numbering about 700 in total including about 200 pups.
\nWe take a walk down with a guide as it is protected and you can’t just saunter about. Latching onto a tour means we avoid paying the only downside is the constant jabbering of the guide making it difficult to get sound without her voice in the background.
\nStill it’s interesting to see the sea lions and breaks up the journey.<\/p>\n

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The male teenager pups play fight to develop their skills for when they are adults and need to be alpha mail to get all the chics.<\/p>\n

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We take it easy on the roads as we pass about 4 or 5 road kill Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

This one is really not feeling that well.<\/p>\n

Not surprising as when I get out to take a snap I almost step on an ant hill. They are on me in a flash and it takes some time to try and beat them back. They probably have set up home here especially to feast on the unexpected bonanza of meat. That is the only upside of the roadkill. It doesn’t get wasted. The animals and people all will use it for meat.<\/p>\n

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Lucky too as just before we arrive at accommodation 4 Wallabies dash across in front of us. They are so fast it is almost impossible to break in time. The last one in the line lucky enough thought better if it and bounced back into the bush.
\nOur accommodation is like a, well wilderness retreat, and the receptionist tells us his Dad us from Gweedore in Donegal, small world.<\/p>\n

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He says that there are Koalas sometimes in the trees and Wallabies often visit at night.
\nAnyway we spend the afternoon in Flinders National Park and go for a hike to look for Koalas. Can’t find any until Maggie as usual comes up trumps. They are like dark balls in the tree foliage. Once you see one then they become easier to see and all in all spot about 6 or 7. Having said that most are sleeping so just appear as balls of fur attached to branches high up in the trees.<\/p>\n

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Next we see a couple of Wallabies feeding in the undergrowth and I sneak up to get some pics.<\/p>\n

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Brilliant.<\/p>\n

Apart from that these birds are grazing everywhere. They are quite amenable to being photographed so I duly oblige.<\/p>\n

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Having achieved our goal we leave and drive to Admirals Arch a rock arch at the sea coast.<\/p>\n

the Australians are quite literal in their naming of things. Admirals Arch is beside Remarkable Rocks. I didn’t’t get a pic but suffice to say they are remarkably as they stand out from the rocks around and are a different colour. They are remarkable.<\/p>\n

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It is surprisingly cold and much like the North coast at home.<\/p>\n

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Under the Arch there are seals playing on the rocks and in the swell.<\/p>\n

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We don’t spend too long as it’s freezing. Well it is cold at least.
\nBack to the retreat and with our newfound Koala spotting expertise look for fur balls without success.<\/p>\n

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\nMaggie has Kangaroo for dinner and me beef. She got the best deal as hers in wine and beetroot is beautiful.
\nKangaroo is lovely meat.
\nAfter dinner we walk back to room.
\nI am dumbstruck that alongside the path there is a mob of Walkabies munching seeds or nuts on the ground.<\/p>\n

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\nIf we walk really slowly they don’t get spooked and we spend half an hour spellbound by their feeding.<\/p>\n

This camera is really good in low light. These are shot at 64000 ISA. Bit of noise but in reality it is dark and the camera is seeing more than the naked eye.<\/p>\n

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I only leave when I get too cold to sit any longer.
\nWe both feel so spoiled and privileged to have had the experience and to cap it all I see a possum leaving a tree.
\nBit dark to see much as he runs down tree in dark and disappears off.<\/p>\n

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The wilderness retreat is definitely the place to stay on Kangaroo Island..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick drive down from Victor harbour to Cape Jervis for the ferry \u26f4 to Kangaroo Island.   Only fitting I suppose that Maggie spotted a mob of Roo’s off in a field to our left as I rake along to the ferry. Big buggers too. The ferry takes about 45 minutes and is full. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irwinarmstrong.com\/bigtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}