As this week was the mid-semester break and Liz was still away, I decided to book for a two-day trip to Kangaroo Island. This is reached from Cape Jervis, about 100km SW of Adelaide. The strait is called "Backstairs Passage" and is about 12km at its narrowest. This is twice the distance a bee can fly and KI is now a recognised mite-free reservoir of Ligurian bees that were introduced in the 19th century. Beekeeping is a big business on the island.
The ferry service is a pretty regular one.
It gets in at Penneshaw, one of two substantial towns. The other is Kingscote, the "capital" of the island (i.e. it has the school, the police station, the local authority offices and a cottage hospital.)
Kangaroo Island is about 100 miles long by 40 miles wide. Its population is 4000+, mostly living in the two major towns. It is composed of a limestone plateau with a central "cap" of laterite, a ferrous material. A lot of the roads are sealed, the rest are graded and made of laterite. This gives the scene a rather African look, though of course the bush is eucalypts and not acacias, etc as in Africa. Most of the island is given over to farming- sheep, beekeeping, grain and canola, but there are extensive nature reserves, particularly in the remote west.
On the first day we visited a "birds of prey" centre. Most of them weren't raptors- a toad headed bee-eater (no, I'm not making his up) , a pair of kookaburras etc., but we also saw a barn owl, a peregrine falcon and a wedge-tailed eagle, which was spectacular. This is a kookaburra.
This is the wedge-tailed eagle "hooding" after catching its lure.
And this is a better view of it.
We next visited a Eucalyptus Oil Distillery. The visit started off well with a glimpse of their tame emu,
And got better with some Chemical Engineering. This man extracts eucalyptus oil using a two-stage steam distillation. This is the second stage (all home-made, NB). The steam engine is to pump separated water back to the still for the next batch. The primary distillation is outside and consists of an oil drum heated by a wood fire. The leaves and water are added directly to the drum and a makeshift stillhead and condenser is fitted.
The biggest attraction was an orphaned wallaby joey that was being hand reared. They keep it in a sock inside a leather bag to simulate the maternal pouch. There shoudl be some kind of law against being as cute as this!
Next stop, an animal sanctuary- kind of petting zoo. The kangaroos are mainly the Kangaroo Island Brown type, but there is one albino.
This is an echidna (spiny anteater). It's an egg-laying mammal, I'm told. I hadn't known that the front legs point forward and the back legs point backwards, uniquely in nature. Very difficult to tell which end is which, as a result.
This is a cassowary
And they have a lot of koalas. They had been extinct on the island and were re-introduced. There are now > 10,000 and they're killing the native trees off. A cull was proposed but was opposed by the animal rights people, so now they're catching them one by one, dragging them down the tree scratching and biting and sterilising them. Total cost $Au 8million- it would becheaper and a lot more humane to shoot them.
The 'roos are tame enough to hand feed. These were pretty near satiated by the time we'd finished, but they kept gamely eating.
Next stop a beach where sealions breed. We were allowed down among them but with a lot of rstrcitions to stop them being stressed. They seemed quite unfazed, but the guide was rather tense.
They just lie and sleep most of the time.
Being limestone, KI has caves. The Kelly cave was discovered when a stockman and his horse (Kelly) fell through a sink-hole into the acves. The stockman managed to climb out- the horse has never been discovered.
I couldn't get the flash on the borrowed camera to work, so this is all I can show. They're very much dryer than European limestone caves and the stalactites are very slow-growing with few stalagmites. There is one formation called a helictite that I haven't seen before- a bent stalactite. This results from the drops not getting down to the tip but evaporating at a mid-pint and forming a spur.
Where we had lunch there were a lot of wild koalas in the trees. (To be honest, this was at the sanctuary. In the wild, they sleep a lot further up and one can't photograph them too well.)
The "Remarkable Rocks" are just that. They're a granite intrusion, presumably from deep in the earth. There are a lot of hollowed-out "scoops" that seem to be _underneath_ the rocks. Gas bubbles? Erosion? No one really knows.
You get to them along a boardwalk. We're told there are a lot of snakes in the bush. But this could just be a ploy to make people walk on the boardwalk and save the plants. You don't take risks- only 2 varieties of Australian snakes aren't venomous.
They really are weird.
Yes, fans, I was there.........
The coast around is pretty impressive.
We also went to a formation called Admiral's Arch to see the New Zealand Fur Seal colony. The scenery there, too is pretty impressive
But the seals are not easy to approach. (This is from a gantry underneath the arch.) I've been closer to these beasts in New Zealand itself.
Finally back to Kingscote and a guy who feeds the pelicans every evening. Messy job- there is a reason he's wearing that hat.
Messy eaters, at the best of times.
The 'roos are tame enough to hand feed. These were pretty near satiated by the time we'd finished, but they kept gamely eating.
Next stop a beach where sealions breed. We were allowed down among them but with a lot of rstrcitions to stop them being stressed. They seemed quite unfazed, but the guide was rather tense.
They just lie and sleep most of the time.
Being limestone, KI has caves. The Kelly cave was discovered when a stockman and his horse (Kelly) fell through a sink-hole into the acves. The stockman managed to climb out- the horse has never been discovered.
I couldn't get the flash on the borrowed camera to work, so this is all I can show. They're very much dryer than European limestone caves and the stalactites are very slow-growing with few stalagmites. There is one formation called a helictite that I haven't seen before- a bent stalactite. This results from the drops not getting down to the tip but evaporating at a mid-pint and forming a spur.
Where we had lunch there were a lot of wild koalas in the trees. (To be honest, this was at the sanctuary. In the wild, they sleep a lot further up and one can't photograph them too well.)
The "Remarkable Rocks" are just that. They're a granite intrusion, presumably from deep in the earth. There are a lot of hollowed-out "scoops" that seem to be _underneath_ the rocks. Gas bubbles? Erosion? No one really knows.
You get to them along a boardwalk. We're told there are a lot of snakes in the bush. But this could just be a ploy to make people walk on the boardwalk and save the plants. You don't take risks- only 2 varieties of Australian snakes aren't venomous.
They really are weird.
Yes, fans, I was there.........
The coast around is pretty impressive.
We also went to a formation called Admiral's Arch to see the New Zealand Fur Seal colony. The scenery there, too is pretty impressive
But the seals are not easy to approach. (This is from a gantry underneath the arch.) I've been closer to these beasts in New Zealand itself.
Finally back to Kingscote and a guy who feeds the pelicans every evening. Messy job- there is a reason he's wearing that hat.
Messy eaters, at the best of times. It was a good tour- not cheap, but worth the cash. The arrangements went like clockwork and the overnight accommodation was of a good standard. To be recommended.
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