This island was named in 1802 by Matthew Flinders who was desperately in need of fresh food for his sailors.
He thought he saw men on the shore and decided to stop to ask for help. When they got ashore they realised they weren’t men, they were kangaroos.
So they killed and ate 31 of them and the voyage was saved.
Aboriginals had lived here before the island was separated from the mainland but there were none here when Europeans arrived.
We visited Seal Bay to see the sea lions- these are quite endangered so they are monitoring the still declining numbers. There’s a marine park up to 10km our at sea to protect them.
In the afternoon we enjoyed a magical 13 km walk, firstly through the bush
Then crossing a river
We met kangaroos
And echidnas – very exciting
We also saw a striated pardalote and a flame robin. And black swans and musk ducks on the lagoon.(no photo)
And then walked back along the southern ocean with the huge rollers crashing ashore
The following day we went to see Koalas – they aren’t native to the island but were brought here in the 1920s as they weren’t doing well on the mainland. Can you spot it?
So 18 were brought over & now there are 50,000! Fortunately they weren’t as active as the others we saw.
Apparently they are eating themselves out of a home but we saw lots of koala trees with no koalas in them.
We drove on to Flinders National Park to spot the seals
And admired Admirals Arch with a friendly raven
We visited the Remarkable Rocks which are….
Then we walked back to the hotel via the 14km rugged coastal path where spring flowers were out on the heath
This strange grassy tree is a yakka – it’s very flammable and the early settlers cut them down to make gunpowder not realising it takes about 300 years to grow this big! Not a very sustainable industry.
And we saw quite big goannas
David was a fly carrier – they were rather annoying and we all practiced the Aussie salute.
In the evening we were taken to an old farm where the kangaroos have taken over – there were several joeys.
Kangaroo island is in someways very like Devon – rolling countryside, impressive coast but with kangaroos…and eucalyptus.