Kangaroo Island is the third largest island off the Australian mainland and it's a wildlife haven. It's illegal to take rabbits, foxes, honey or raw potatoes there and cats and dogs have to be registered with the council. This protects both the native wildlife and the local agriculture. A lot of people seem to do Kangaroo Island as a day trip from Adelaide. It's a very long day, as it takes 1.5-2 hours each way to Cape Jervis where the ferry leaves and 45 minutes on the ferry. It would involve probably getting up around 5am and getting back around 11pm. I decided I'd like to spend more time there than a day as the guide book recommended spending at least a week there. I found a package that involved catching an evening ferry over there, spending a full day doing a coach tour, having a free day and then getting the evening ferry back. The journey there was very quiet - I was the only tourist on the coach, the others were locals going home. On arrival at the island, I was confused because the hostel had changed its name since I'd booked. I stayed in the small town of Penneshaw, by the ferry terminal. It has a small supermarket and a few cafes. I took a walk on the beach and encountered some surprised looking Tamar wallabies. The hostel was quiet and there was nobody else in the dorm.

The following morning I got picked up by the coach, which had two other passengers. We then headed to the port and the coach filled up with the rest of the passengers who had just arrived on that morning's ferry. Most of the people were older couples, but wildlife seems to be more popular among older people than young backpackers. There were backpacker tours that included activities like sand boarding and quad biking, but I just wanted to see the wildlife. The first stop was Seal Bay, which has a large population of sea lions lazing around on the white sand. Some of them had pups. It was really good to see them in their natural environment but unconcerned by the presence of humans. We had a guide who made sure everyone kept to a respectful distance. When we walked back up over the boardwalk, somebody noticed a young sea lion lying on the sand underneath the decking. A man asked the guide if he could use his selfie stick to get a close up photo of the pup and received a scathing response - "selfie sticks are banned in some national parks and should be banned in all of them."

We also visited a wildlife reserve where we saw koalas in the trees and an echidna hoovering up ants on the ground. Koalas were introduced to Kangaroo Island as a conservation effort in 1923 and have been very successful. We spotted some kangaroos as we were leaving on the coach. Despite its name, Kangaroo Island doesn't have kangaroos everywhere. We went to the Remarkable Rocks, some huge weathered granite boulders perched on the edge of the ocean. Somebody spotted a goanna nearby (giant lizard). We then visited Admiral's Arch, which is a rock arch by the sea. It is impressive in its own right, but I was distracted by the colony of New Zealand fur seals living around it. On the way back across the island, we stopped at the Flinders Chase National Park visitor centre, where there were more wild koalas hanging about in the trees. In the evening, I went for a walk and watched a beautiful sunset over a bay called Christmas Cove.

It's very difficult to get around on Kangaroo Island unless you hire a car or are on an organised bus tour. On my free day there, I went for a walk around the bay and saw some wallabies and lots of butterflies on a path up a hill, but as it got more overgrown I was put off continuing by the fear of snakes and the flies that kept landing on my face. Australia has loads of flies that are similar to the house flies we get back home, except that they aim to get in your eyes, nose or mouth, as apparently the females require protein from human body fluids in order to lay eggs. They don't bite, but they are really annoying and distracting and it was particularly bad on Kangaroo Island. It's hard trying to take steady photos with flies landing on your hands and face and buzzing in front of your eyes. On my return to Adelaide I bought a mosquito net and I've been wearing it at times since. From the road above the bay, I could see dolphins frolicking in the water, although they were too far away to get a decent photo. The hostel owners offered me a lift to Kingscote, the main town on the island, so while they did their shopping and met friends there, I took a walk down to the beach and watched pelicans and black swans. I observed some pelican behaviour I'd only seen in a video before, where they appear to turn their throats inside out in a kind of yawn. The group of about 20 pelicans were in the process of getting up so there was a lot of yawning and stretching going on.

That evening I got the ferry back to the mainland. The sea was less calm than it had been on the way over but it still felt quite rough so I dread to think what it's like in a storm. On the coach back to Adelaide, the driver stopped in three remote communities to empty the post boxes and brought the mail with us to Adelaide.

I took loads of photos but I've only had mobile internet available so I haven't been able to upload many. I have a huge backlog of photos.