Kangaroo Island.

We didn't really know what to expect at Kangaroo Island (KI). The hype has been letting us down a bit lately!! According to all those celebrity chefs, it is an an island full of bounty. Fresh produce a plenty! Seafood, lamb, chicken, wine, honey, mushrooms and so much more. Fabulous restaurants, and gourmet shops all over the place. It sounds right up our alley, so let's start exploring!!

Sea Link ferry to Kangaroo Island.

Arriving at Penneshaw.

To get there, you have to book passage on the Sea Link Ferry Service, which departs Point Jervis on the mainland, for Penneshaw on KI, every couple of hours. The ferries bring everything to the island. It is a bloody big island!! 155 kilometres long and 55 kilometres wide at the widest point. There are 4500 hardy souls who call the place home. There are 4 major towns, Penneshaw where the ferry arrives. American River along the north coast. Kingscote, the island capital and largest town, further along the north coast, and Parndana, smack bang in the middle of the island. Accommodation bookings are real hit and miss. Tour groups are common, and can book out all the bigger venues, or hold bookings until the last minute. Booking the six of us proved a challenge to say the least!! so, in the end, Carol & I were in a B&B in Parndana, and Moira & Geoff, Di & Graeme, were at a hotel in Kingscote, 35kms away. It wasn't ideal, but we made it work, despite the car hire company imposing a dusk to dawn "no driving" curfew on their rental car, because of wildlife!!

Typical KI landscape.

Flinders & Baudin explored KI
at the same time

Our B&B was called Open House, and had four double rooms and a large communal area. Joan the host is a 4th generation Islander, and was a fountain of knowledge. Each morning she would cook us a lovely breakfast from her recipe book that seemed to contain just the one very tasty recipe, then answer our questions of what to see and do. She seemed to know all the Island gossip, and which places were currently good or bad depending on the status of ownership, or staff!! We enjoyed our morning breakfasts, each morning wondering who had arrived and for how long. Every day was different. A Psychiatrist, who comes most weeks as part of a SA Govt program. A couple from Baltimore USA, on a two week holiday to NZ plus Australia!!! They need a new travel agent!! A not too happy refrigeration mechanic, banished to the island for two days work! And Connie & Hans from the Yorke Peninsula, who are spending 4 weeks holidaying on KI!! They will know all 4500 by the time they leave!! Our accommodation was clean and comfortable, but quite 1960's in design and construction! And so it seems is much of the Island!! Whilst Parndana was central as regards location, there was nothing there except the B&B, the pub and a bakery. Evening meals meant a drive somewhere!!

Flinders original landing point on KI

Pacific Eden at Penneshaw.

KI first came to prominence as a whaling and sealing port in the early 1800's, and has been inhabited ever since. Land was granted free to early settlers who farmed grain and sheep. There are many of these old homes, scattered all over the island. The coastline is rugged and the weather can be quite changeable. You have to remember that the next land mass to the south is Antarctica!!  We arrived in Penneshaw the same day that the cruise ship Pacific Eden was in port. Cruise ship visits are only a recent introduction, but it meant that the islands tourist operations were run off their feet!! It seemed easier to arrange brain surgery than get a coffee!! God knows how they will handle a large cruise ship!! We headed to the Tourist Information Centre, where the first priority was to get the up to date listings of which tourist venues were still open, plus their current opening hours, and the same listing for the island's dining venues! 

It is a big island!

Penneshaw Hotel.

Our first impressions were mixed. You know how some people can take a pile of old tables and chairs and make a place all cosy and nice, whilst others can take the same old furniture and make the place seem abandoned. Or how someone can take an old shed, give it a coat of blue paint, add a few nic nacs and turn it into a quaint little place, whilst others just finish up with a blue shed. Well, KI is a lot like that, though I fear abandonment and blue sheds are winning!!! Customer service was either great or deplorable. Often, even the new looks old!! After the Tourist Office, we stopped in at a cafe in Penneshaw for coffee & light lunch. The table looked like it had been ravaged by Vikings! After a couple of waitresses just walked past, we finally stopped one and asked if she could clean the table and bring us some menus. She told us they had been very busy and walked away. We got busy and walked out!! 

A really nice spot.

View from Dudley Wines deck.

We drove out to Dudley Wines instead. Now this was a well run place!! Recently renovated, very modern and an amazing view out over the water, and far enough away to be out of reach of the wandering cruise ship passengers. We tasted some wines which were good, and shared some wood fired pizzas, which were also good. First time we have ever had a King George Whiting Pizza!!!! To top it off, a young guy arrived and entertained us with some excellent country style music!! He was from Canada!! How did he get to be working on KI??? A bit of fun at Dudley Wines involves an old dinghy in a paddock with a flag in it, a golf teeing ground, and the offer of free food and wine if you can lob a golf ball into the dinghy!! It was one tough shot!! I reckon you could sit Jason Day there all afternoon with a bucket of balls and he'd finish up hungry & thirsty!!

Bay & Beach at Penneshaw.

Marina at American River.

We headed for our accommodation, taking a slow drive along the north coast. It was Sunday afternoon, and we drove past Galleries that sounded great but were closed, as were most of the cafes. American River was deserted, not that there is much there anyway. There is a Mercure Hotel, hidden among the trees. The Oyster Farm Shop is also here and gets great reviews, but it is closed on Sundays. This is a good example of the rustic charm of the island. The place is just a collection of sheds, pergolas and shipping containers, surrounded by a dusty carpark!!! Definitely Blue Shed decor!! God knows what you do if you are staying here!! We made it into Kingscote and found the Ozone Hotel and got Moira & Geoff, Di & Graeme settled in, whilst we went in search of the Open House at Parndana. Joan welcomed us and showed us to our room, and we sought her knowledge as to where we should eat, and what we should see. Her local knowledge was invaluable!! We had planned to eat at the Ozone Hotel, but given that Trip Advisor rated it 36 out of 42 places to eat on KI, and Joan just said "don't", we decided to do the seafood option. 

Pier at Vivonne Bay.

Around Vivonne Bay.

Kangaroo Island Seafoods rated well and read well on Trip Advisor. We had a little trouble finding it, but a phone call solved the mystery. It was in the Caltex Servo!! The old servo cafe was now the Fish 'n Chip Shop!! No BYO, Not Licensed, just the Fish 'n Chip Shop!! We found a lovely window table overlooking the Diesel Bowser, and perused the menu. Actually it turned out great!! The seafood was fresh cooked and well cooked, and there was a fantastic variety, all at reasonable prices. We decided to have Pineapple fritters for dessert. Geoff optimistically asked if we could have ice cream with them, but the downtrodden frown said it all!! Not to be deterred he went next door into the servo shop and came back with two tubs of soft serve ice cream!! Well done Geoff!! We left the others and headed back to Parndana, right on dusk, so were very wary of what wildlife to expect given all the warnings. We saw one white duck!!! You can usually judge wildlife by the amount of road kill, and there was not much, not even a dead duck!!

Vivonne Bay.

Koala at Hanson Bay Sanctuary.

Next morning we decided to meet at Vivonne Bay on the South Coast, and do a day of natural exploring. There was not much at Vivonne Bay. Joan had warned us that the General Store had recently changed hands and that reports weren't good. We decided to wait until the Rustic Blue Gallery & Cafe opened, but despite our paperwork listing it as open, it was closed!! We decided against going back to Seal Bay, as Joan had warned us the place would be busy with tour buses, and they charged $35 per person to get down onto the beach.She told us we would see all the seals we wanted at Admiral's Arch for free!! We finally found morning tea at the Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary & Cafe. It was excellent, and we even found a Koala or two sitting in the trees out front!!

Entry to the National Park.

View to Remarkable Rocks.

Flinders Chase National Park is most of the western end of the island. It is where most of the photography depicting the natural wonders of KI are taken. We called into the Visitor Centre & Cafe, and paid our park entry fees and got all the information we would need. It is an excellent centre with lots of information on display about the local flora and fauna, as well as a good gift shop and cafe. The staff were all very helpful. We jumped back in the cars and headed for our first stop, the  Remarkable Rocks. They really are remarkable, and visible from quite a distance. We parked and walked among the huge boulders, carved by wind and the sea over countless years. Very spectacular indeed. We ran into Connie & Hans from our B&B. Probably their third visit here!!

Some remarkable rocks!

The girls among the rocks.

From here we headed back to Cape de Couedic, where the lighthouse and Admiral's Arch await. There is a real mix of English and French names around the island. Matthew Flinders met up with the French Explorer Nicolas Baudin, in these waters, and they compared notes!! This continues all along the southern and western coasts of Australia. But I digress!! The infrastructure that has been built around the lighthouse and to gain access to the Admiral's Arch, is very impressive. Wooden walkways and staircases, all the way to the arch. The further down you go, the more weather beaten the wooden structures become. The fury of the southern ocean is very evident!! As soon as you open the car door, you know there is a seal colony here!! The

Local seal family.

At Admirals Arch.

budget obviously doesn't stretch to breath mints!! There are lots of the playful seals in the water and many more just lazing in the sun on the rocks. Hard to imagine that these creatures were almost hunted to extinction. Now they are talking about not enough habitat to support the numbers!! We headed back to the Visitor Centre for lunch, and did one of the short walks around the centre. Finally saw a couple of lazy kangaroos!! We then headed north,

Stairs to Admiral's Arch.

Carol at Remarkable Rocks.

deciding against the 60 km round trip on a dirt road to visit the Cape Borda Lighthouse. Taking this route took us past huge hard wood forest plantations, planted back in the 1960's and 70's, by a now bankrupt company. No one knows what will become of the plantations as there is no timber industry on the island!  Our planned stop at the Roo Lagoon Gallery didn't eventuate. Another venue that was supposed to be open, but not!! We couldn't find a roo or a lagoon either!! We had already been disappointed to find that the well known Marron Farm and Cafe was closed indefinitely, as the Chinese buyer had gone broke!! 

The secret entrance to Stokes Bay Beach!

Pretty Stokes Bay Beach.

Stokes Bay is one of the best beaches on the island. It was very windy now, but coming from the south east, so when we arrived the beach was very sheltered. The water all around the island is crystal clear, but even in summer is chilly, rarely getting above 17 to 18 degrees celcius. The car park is right at a beach, but not THE beach. We found the sign we had been told to look for, and walked our way over and through the rocks, almost like a tunnel, before reaching THE Beach. In the nearby paddocks we saw a lot of kangaroos laying around. Joan had told us that if we didn't find kangaroos at Stokes Bay, they will have left the island!! One of KI's better eating places is at Stokes Bay. The Rockpool Cafe supposedly serves great seafood. Does Neil Perry know about this??? It is definitely Blue Shed decor, but we didn't get to try the food as it is closed on Monday!!

Dinner at Table 88.

The view from Table 88.

Early dinner this night was at Stokes Bay. A Joan recommendation but already on our list! Table 88, is a converted farm house perched on the hill, looking down over Stokes Bay. It has a large indoor eating area, surrounded by a large covered veranda, affording fantastic views out over the rolling hills and Stokes Bay. Table 88 is a Tapas style restaurant. We were greeted by the owner and chef, resplendent in her Master Chef apron!! Apparently the TV show had visited KI a few series back!! We started with cocktails and drinks and moved on to local KI wines.

Show me the way!!

The restaurant Table 88.

The menu was surprisingly long, and after much oohing and aahing we all decided to do the $55 per person "Feed Me" option. Fresh KI Oysters, Mushroom Arancini, local Chorizo, Haloumi, Lamb, Chicken and finally the Marron, Blue Cheese and Pear Salad, all done with amazing sauces. This was the kind of food we had expected!! The smell of a fresh Orange & Poppy seed cake was wafting in from the kitchen, and that was how we finished. There was only our group of six and a couple of gay guys here to enjoy the spectacular setting and food. After dinner Geoff ran the gauntlet of wildlife back to Kingscote. He didn't even see the white duck!!.

Minimalist signage!!

View from Sunset Food & Wine.

Tuesday, we did both the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery, which incorporates the KI Cider Brewery, as well as Clifford's Honey Farm which incorporates the Drunken Drone Brewery.As we approached the Eucalyptus Distillery we spotted two tourist buses approaching, so changed course and headed for the Honey Factory. This place really summed up KI for me. It is obviously a thriving business, but it was like visiting my Grandma's house back in the 1960's!! The place is a time warp!! Still, I enjoyed the experience, but declined to buy one of grandma's hand knitted beanies and scarves!! The Honey Ice Cream though was some of grandma's best work!! The Drunken Drone Honey Wheat Beer was also pretty good. We got back to the

Snook Pate.

Lunch at Sunset Food & Wine.

Eucalyptus Farm, where the plume of white dust announced that the tourist buses were leaving. We walked inside into the same time warp!! We were asked if we would like to start with a video presentation, and I instantly knew where our old VCR and 26 inch TV had found a home!! The lights flickered, probably the mice taking over from the hamster, and we moved out into the shop to see all the products. The packaging and pricing is definitely 21st century, but the production process is still old world!! I tasted the ciders but declined to ask how they were made!! Cider isn't my world!!

The Gnocchi.

Lemon Tart with Lime Meringue.

Tuesday lunch was another of our culinary highlights. Our research had shown that Sunset Food & Wine, and Hannaford & Sachs Fig Tree, as the best two fine dining options on the island. The Fig Tree had a fire and was closed, so that made our choice easier. Joan said we had picked a winner!! Not impressed with Hannaford or Sachs!! Sunset Food & Wine has one chef's hat, and is situated on a ridge that looks down over Baudin Beach (also known as American Beach). The location is fantastic. There is inside or outside dining, and we chose a long table on the outside veranda. It was not flash or fancy, just long benches on a deck, but the view was spectacular. The menu was first class fine dining. Entree, Smoked Snook (local fish) Pate, sourdough, shallot, chive, creme fraiche. Main, King George Whiting Milanese, cabbage slaw, herb mayo, lemon. Dessert, Baked lemon tart, whipped creme fraiche, lime meringue. Just a sample of this fresh and fantastic menu. It really was a highlight of our trip to KI. Local wines, which have proven surprisingly good, topped it all off. No dinner tonight!!!

Ocean Safari.

Dolphins came for a look.

On the morning of our last day, we bid farewell to Joan and thanked her for her hospitality, and headed off to the marina at Penneshaw to meet up with the rest of the group. We have booked a 1.5 hour tour with Kangaroo Island Ocean Safari, exploring the wildlife along the coast of KI, on an inflatable boat. Turns out there are just 8 of us on the tour. It was already blowing a gale, but Barry assured us we would stick to the protected north shore of the island! It was terrific, and we saw some dolphins up real close, seals, lots of bird life, and Barry was a wealth of knowledge on the local history, the geology and the wildlife. It was the perfect end to our time on KI, and gave us the feeling that we had done most that the island offered. We found our way up to the Penneshaw Pub for lunch while we waited for our 2.30 Sea Link Ferry back to the mainland. The lunch was a pretty good pub lunch!!

Lazy old seal sunning himself.

Back on the mainland.

We all started to load the ferry. Cars, caravans, campervans and trailers, fuel tankers and livestock transports, big trucks and small trucks. Please don't park me next to the Livestock carrier!! Geoff was actually booked on a later ferry, so was on standby, but they fitted him on, the gate closing inches from the mirror on the drivers door! They parked him sideways to fit on!! He was first off but couldn't get in until the gate came down!! We had enjoyed a very busy schedule, but felt we had seen enough to satisfy our curiosity regarding Kangaroo Island. We were so pleased that Moira & Geoff, Di & Graeme, had made time to fly over and catch up with us. It is a new friendship, but a much treasured one, and we are sure there will be more adventures to be had together!! Will we come back to Kangaroo Island?? I would say most unlikely, but we did enjoy the experience, even if we had to scratch a long way beneath the surface and the blue paint, to find what we had expected was everywhere!!