Kangaroo Island - Australia
/After about a week in Sydney, Sam and I headed south to Kangaroo Island by way of Adelaide, in Southern Australia. We both knew we really wanted to spend some time in the outback but hadn't really counted on exactly how hot the Australian outback gets in the summer time. Kangaroo Island was the perfect solution because it is home to all of the wildlife that we wanted to see and was a pleasant 70-80 degrees each day.
The island is relatively small, about 150Km long, but a majority of the land is government owned and being preserved. Because of this, it boasts an abundance of wildlife that is really easy to spot, either on foot or just driving around. We had read that we should definitely be able to see kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, and goannas (large lizards). We didn't want to get our hopes up too high, but after just a couple days there we saw all of those and more. On our first day there, driving from the airport to our hotel we saw an Echinda crossing the road which we learned is quite rare for this time of year.
We spent a full day at Flinder's Chase which is a large national park on the eastern end of the island. It is home to a couple really massive fur seal colonies, as well as all kinds of kangaroos and koalas. We saw 12 different koalas here while hiking around which was really fun. They don't really do much, sleeping 18-20 hours a day, but we still loved hunting for them and spotting them above in the trees. On our last full day here, we visited a wildlife reserve and were able to get right up close and personal with kangaroos, wallabies and koalas.
After a very relaxing week here, we flew north to Cairns. It was really fun seeing so many of the land-based animals Australia is known for, but we were ready to head north and see the Great Barrier Reef and all the marine life there.
