Kangaroo Island exposed
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Words and photos: Kerry Heaney
Rugged, isolated coastline pounded by a relentless sea, Kangaroo Island exposed.
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t’s dark, very dark. I’m sitting at Adelaide’s Keswick Railway Station with The Ghan in sight but I’m not catching a train. Instead I’m waiting for a pick up to begin a walking tour of Australia’s third largest island, Kangaroo Island, just a 45 minute ferry trip from Cape Jervis on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula. It’s my first big walking adventure so I’m a little nervous about what’s ahead. Along with my partner, I’ve browsed many outdoor stores looking for the right gear only to finish confused and exhausted. Inside my too many bags is what I hope will be suitable for five days of walking in the cool climate I expect to find on Kangaroo Island. The bus arrives and our small group piles in. Marcus Kauffman and Bjorn Svensson from Park Trek are our hosts and guides for the next five days. It’s easy to make new friends in the cold and dark, we all have that in common. Neither Bjorn or Marcus are Australianborn and their lilting Swedish and Swiss accents add to their enthusiasm for their adopted country. It’s an added pleasure to see this world through their eyes as well. Driving takes about an hour to reach Cape Jervis and then we are on the ferry heading through what’s known as the Backstairs Passage to Penneshaw. First sight of the island and I’m impressed by the intense blue
atmosphere and clear air. It’s refreshingly cool but not the freeze I expected. Things start to hot up even more when we hit the Iron Hill Cove Walk (4km return) which follows an original bullock track in Baudin Conservation Park. It’s only a short walk along the coastline to the ruin of a deserted farmhouse. It’s obviously a windswept coastline every day except this breathless day and I begin to wonder if I have packed the right gear. We cross a small creek and see dolphins playing near the rocks as the hill home comes into sight. I’m feeling hot, sweaty and a little pooped, as is another of our group when the oldest group member, 74-year-old Anne, strides past both of us, powering up the hill. I wish I had a bullock team to pull me but, shame-faced, I find more puff and eventually make it to the top. Sea Bay, a long white stretch of beach where about 600 Australian sea lions like to flop about, is our next stop. A guide from the Seal Bay Visitors Centre takes the group down to the shoreline via a wooden board walk. Around us are groups of sea lions basking in the sun. They look fat and lazy but our guide tells us they are anything but. After three days hunting at sea without sleep you’d be tired too, he says. We see a seal come in from hunting, riding the waves like a pro surfer to collapse on the
Main Photo: A remarkable group at the Remarkable Rocks. 1: New Zealand fur seal.
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