Day 39 Kangaroo Island

The day began obscenely early! Like 5 am as I needed to be at the Central Adelaide Bus Station by 6:15 Or so I was told.  Anyway, I called an Uber and made it  about 5:45 only to discover that the building was still closed.  The bus came later than I was told it would and the only checking in was with the driver.  Once we were loaded we began the 1 1/2 hour drive to the ferry which would take us to Kangaroo Island.  I fell back to sleep for part of the trip, woke up in time to see a mob of kangaroos in a paddock.  Then we were at the ferry and I could finally get a cup of coffee!  It wasn't a very long ferry ride across the "Backstairs"-the photo above greeted us upon arrival.  Then we got on the tour bus and began the rest of the day.  The driver entertained us with many tales of the island--some of them may have been a bit exaggerated.:) Our first stop was at Seal Bay.  Home of a colony of Australian Sea Lions.  They "walk" using all four flippers, the guide made this sound like the are the only species of sea lions to do that but I've seen the seals in San Diego do it so. . . .  They do not have fur but rather hair and go hunting for 3 days without sleeping.  How can that be good?

The area was nice, there is a long boardwalk down to view the sea lions or a tour that takes you onto the beach with the animals.  Since I am using a walking stick to minimize the pain in my knee-I took the boardwalk.  The Driver said 1 hour so I was nearly back to the Visitors Center when he came looking for me!  It hadn't been and hour only 45 minutes! Hum.

Here's some pretty pictures of the area.

Next stop was at The Remarkable Rocks.

Again, I did not walk down to the rocks, but the boardwalk offered a splendid view!

Next up was Admirals Arch.  I did not see it, the tide was quite high, the walk long and I was much more interested in the Lighthouse!

We also saw some New Zealand Fur seals but they don't show up well in my photos as they quite blend in with the rocks!

The last stop of the day was at a Wildlife Sanctuary.  The highlight of my trip to Kangaroo Island was feeding a Kangaroo by hand! (no pictures, sorry)  The KI Kangaroo is a sub-species of the Western Gray Kangaroo and is quite a bit smaller.  I had a little female with her tiny paws on each side of my hand while she ate!  It was like hand feeding a puppy.  Such a great memory!   The Sanctuary is also home to Koalas and other animals.  The Koalas and the KI Kangaroos are back-up for those in the wild and the Koalas at least where treated after the fire of 2019-2020 which dropped the estimated 55,000 Koalas on the island to around 11,000.  Much of the island still shows where the fire was even though it is staging a comeback.

Once we left the Wildlife Sanctuary we were on a race to catch the last ferry of the day which was quite a long ride.  

Along the way I met some lovely people.  Some Ex-pats now living in Australia, a gentleman from Germany who was on his 7th visit to Kangaroo Island!  Also a lovely woman from Hong Kong (she insisted that she was not from China!) and we had lovely chats!  I wish I had gotten her contact info or that I had given her mine!

After the ferry ride it was the seemingly endless ride back to Central Adelaide bus station.  Many passengers fell asleep, I would have liked to but even with the coddling my knee was hurting.  Called an Uber and headed back to the hotel.  One of the roads we needed to travel on was choked with cars and young people -- truthfully I don't think I've ever seen so many people outside of major sporting events or concerts!  Apparently, the party continued most of the night as I was awakened by a car stereo "thumping" at 3 am (on the 5th floor)-I just turned on my music and returned to sleep.  (Actually, I wasn't sure I heard it so I asked the front desk--I didn't dream it they had to ask them to leave!)  Something new all the time!