Kangaroo Island Introduction

I’ve heard rave reviews about Kangaroo Island.  Absolutely amazing – just wonderful reviews!  Infact, here’s the ad campaign for it.

Pretty schmick, isn’t it!  Tell ya what.  It was nothing like it – no that’s a bit harsh, but I didn’t see any little kids wearing kangaroo costumes or thin young women staring out of windows or even one bicycle doing sand spinouts on the beach!  The whole campaign is a bit misleading.

The first impression we had of the island would have to be when we went to purchase our tickets to cross the ‘channel’ over to Kangaroo Island.

Being backpackers who hadn’t seen a shower for a few days, the elderly ticket agent learned across the desk (quite bravely might I add  – should she caught a whiff of us, she’d probably no longer be with us – but i digress)… She whispered in close proximity… ‘Are you aware of the cost of the ship?’  Well, luckily, I had done all my  research online.  I was well aware of the price – Car gets first passenger free!

Wrong. Here’s the price breakdown:

Car – return:  $184

Adult – return: $96

Total kangaroo island price – $376 (car plus two adults)

We hadn’t even arrived and we were walloped.  Wow, okay… well, if’ it’s that expensive, guess it’s gotta be damn impressive over on the island.   We paid the lady and drove onto the boat.  Happy days.

It’s a pretty tight fit.  Interestingly they had all different kinds of cars, trucks, livestock and just ‘stuff’ on the boat. Not to mention the gigantic age difference between us and the other passengers by about 30 years – yikes!

This is the view leaving Australia – the first time in a long time I’ve seen Australia from a distance.

The next day, we headed out to catch the magesticness of the island – We’re expecting like Lord of the Rings because the ferry cost pretty close to what Peter Jackson pays the daily rate of an elven extra. (not that much, but you wouldn’t be able to feed yourself if that’s your day job)

We wanted to see some local wildlife so tried our luck with a little water safari guaranteed to see seals, dolphins, albatross and a whole bunch of other stuff.  We ended up seeing incredibly blue water and some rocks. (Honestly, the next day we had a better chance at seeing wildlife because we swam with a wild dolphin!)

Apparently it was such a stunning day that all the seals, albatross and dolphins decided to go fishing!  And, the problem with being on a boat is that you can never get off.. so we were stuck on the boat for an hour and a half while all I wanted to do was jump in and go for a swim!

Exhausted from squinting from trying to look at the non-existent wildlife… food was necessary and why not try some of the culinary delights of the island!  Apparently medium rare on the island means blue… so be careful when you order your Kangaroo Island steak.  It was still incredibly tasty!

We spent about two days on the island and did enjoy a lot of the local touristy and non-touristy things.  Fishing was a big winner – well, spear fishing that is!  And, here is the result – a beautiful double hand boarfish!

Umm… tasty! (and free!)

We also had a view to go with our tasty fish – what a sunset!And, a local decided to ‘drop in’ to see if there were any leftovers.  There weren’t any.