Kangaroo Island Day 1

(I have to warn you that it is serious photo spam in today's post, so if you don't like the pics close the page now 😂😂😂😂)

We set the alarm for 5am this morning as it was a 60k trip to meet the Kangaroo Island Ferry.  We weren't sure of the road, so wanted to give ourselves plenty of time.  The ferry was due to leave at 9am and we had to be at the ferry 45mins prior to departure.  By the time we finished breakfast and checked our bags were packed, were in the car by 7am.

The drive is quite lovely, as is most of the Fleurieu Peninsula.  It is quite unspoilt and even the townships feel like big country towns. Jervis Bay, where the ferry departs, is a very small town and we notice that there is a school bus picking up kids to take them to school. We are guessing that the nearest school would be Victor Harbour.  We are early for the ferry so we take a short drive around the town and Kangaroo Island looks lovely in the foreground.  It is exciting!

The ferry journey takes just under an hour and it is an easy walk to pick up our hire car and start our journey.  We study our map and break it down into areas.  Today we will stay in the Penneshaw/Dudley Peninsular area. The furtherest point in this area is the Cape Willoughby Lighthouse - the first lighthouse build on mainland Australia.  I have read that there are conducted tours and we can climb the stairs to reach the top of the lighthouse.

It takes us around an hour to reach the lighthouse across very good gravel road.  We stop briefly when we have the lighthouse in view.

The lighthouse is quite spectacular sitting proudly on the headland and there are houses surrounding the lighthouse that you can stay in if that grabs your fancy.  We head to the information centre and lucky for us we are just in time for the 11am lighthouse tour.  As we are the only two on tour with our guide Amy, we feel comfortable to ask questions that Amy answers willingly.  We are first shown around the garden area and Amy is trying to spot the blue banded bees for us. Eventually we spot them but they are so hard to photograph!  The garden though is full of purple flowers that the bees apparently love. I was a little worried about the "snakes live here" sign, but none today thank goodness.

Amy then leads the way to the lighthouse with a stop along the way to show us the magnificent lead light that once light up the water from the lighthouse tower.  I'm not good at judging height but it is around three metres tall. It is not used now, but it is extremely valuable.

The path now leads us to the lighthouse and as Amy opens the door she warns that there are 102 steps to reach the top of lighthouse, but it is an easy climb.  Once at the top of the lighthouse it is worth every step as the views are absolutely breathtaking and I'm so glad that we were able to do this tour.

Once we have finished the lighthouse tour we visit the museum attached to the information centre and it is sobering to see the map showing how many ships have been wrecked around Kangaroo Island.  It is a very treacherous stretch of water.

It is now close to lunchtime as we leave Cape Willoughby and Amy has given us a "heads up" on a great lunch stop at False Cape Winery.  Apparently they serve delicious home made meat pies.  Amy also tells us to stop at the lake, that we will pass, to see the black swans.  It was a great piece of advice.  We have never seen so many black swans in one place at one time.  They are grazing alongside sheep in the paddocks and there are dozens of them.  There are also lots of baby cygnets with their light grey colouring.  As I am taking photos the swans start heading back to the lake.  They apparently do not like having their photo taken!

Lunch at False Cape Winery lived up to the recommendation and I wish I had remembered to take photos of the meal.  Philip ordered the Beef and Red Wine Pie and on top of the pie was a beautiful selection of finely chopped vegetables (beetroot, beans, peas, potatoes, carrots).  It looked and tasted fantastic.  I ordered the beef brisket burger that was pretty good also, but not as good as the pie.  The restaurant looks out over the vineyard and it is a beautiful venue.  It is a little cloudy today but on a hot summers day it would be perfection.

It is still too early to check into our accomodation at Penneshaw, so we decided to head to American River where Philip has read that the locals are building are rebuilding the schooner "Independence".  This was the first ship that was ever built in South Australia in 1803, and a team of volunteers are doing a fantastic job on rebuilding but it is going to take many years to complete.  We had a guided tour by one of the volunteers who is 86 years old and still very sprightly.  On returning to the car we came across three seals basking in the sun....

We have one last stop when we leave American River and that is Prospect Hill.  Matthew Flinders climbed this massive sand hill on his journey around Australia so we are determined to follow in his footsteps hundreds of years later.  It is now a much easier climb with a staircase leading all the way to the top but it is still 400 steps to climb.  However it is worth the climb to see the views from the top.  They are truly breathtaking.  There is another couple at the top and they insist on taking our photo.

It is almost 4pm by the time we make our way back to Penneshaw and our accomodation.  It takes a phone call to find out where we can collect our keys and once we have that sorted we are so pleased with our choice of accommodation.  These are advertised as "glamping tents" and they are indeed tents but nothing like the tents I remember.  These are fully equiped with everything (including reverse a/c) that the heart desires and the views from our outside balcony are truly spectacular.  I think we are going to enjoy our two night stay here....