Kangaroo Island

A Glitch in Their System

We leave the house at 5:30am. It is a 1.5 hour drive through beautiful countryside to get to Cape Jervis for the ferry to Kangaroo Island. We pass a kangaroo hopping around a vineyard and a large flock of cockatoos sitting on the fence of a field filled with newly shorn sheep.

We get to the Sealink car ferry terminal at 7:00am, 40 minutes before the ferry departure. The ferry is at the dock and John gets out and takes a picture. At 7:05am the ferry starts leaving… and we are not on it… OMG!  We have prepaid tickets!

We go into the terminal and are told that the 7:40am ferry we had booked was cancelled and they sent us a text five days ago. The ferry we saw leaving was the 7:00am. Up until this point all correspondence with Sealink has been by email. Also John received an email two days ago confirming our tickets for the 7:40am ferry with car boarding between 7:00 and 7:15am. The lady shrugs and says ” It looks like the info didn’t transfer to emails. There must be a glitch in the system.  I’ll put you on the 9:00am ferry. ” No apology.

It is a 45 minute trip to Kangaroo Island. It takes closer to an hour. The waves are rocky. I’m so glad that I took a non-drowsy anti-nausea pill before getting on the ferry. 

Admirals Arch

Kangaroo Island is quite a large island. It takes two hours to drive to Flinders Chase National Park on the other end of the island from the ferry terminal. 

This park was destroyed by bush fires in early 2020 but quickly came back. The jewels of this park are the Remarkable Rocks  and Admiral Arch.

We have a quick lunch at the visitors centre. Actually we were hoping for quick but they end up serving everyone else first (forgot us) and it takes over 40 minutes to get our meat pie and hot chocolate. Now we are really behind schedule.

We first head to Admirals Arch. Such a gorgeous rock formation on the ocean but my attention is focused on the seals and sea lions playing in the tidal pools. Click here for a short video.

I also watch a seal climbing up a very steep rock. Click here for another short video.

Weir’s Cove and Remarkable Rocks

Next we go to Weirs Cove for more dramatic views of the coast. 

We next head to the Remarkable Rocks. These uniquely shaped rocks sit on top of a granite dome. They look like a modern art sculpture installation instead of something created by Mother Nature over millions of years.

We get to Seal Bay for seal viewing but John’s stomach is upset and we realize we are running out of time before we need to catch the ferry back (and it’s a two hour drive).

I am disappointed with our visit to Kangaroo Island because from what I read, there were supposed to be animals all over the place and all I saw were a few seals, sea lions and seven dead kangaroos at the side of the road throughout the day.

The ferry back is quicker and calmer. John feels like he is coming down with a cold. It is 6:00pm when we start our 1.5 hour drive back to our bed and breakfast.

Kangaroos at Sunset

The sun is golden on the rolling hills. It is beautiful. I see lots of kangaroos in the fields and tons of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Galah Cockatoos and Rosellas. John stops at the side of the road a couple times so that I can watch them. Click here for a short kangaroo video.

We are back at our Airbnb by 8pm.