A penguin sighting

---

I have just returned from a two night one day tour of Kangaroo Island, not too far from Adelaide. We were driven there the night before, then a full day of touring, and returned the morning after. The tour is claimed to be three days, but that's a stretch. It takes about 3 hours to get to Kangaroo Island including the 45 minute ferry crossing, so a day tour is extremely rushed.

The night I got there, a very friendy couple I met in the pub having dinner sitting next to me showed me around the town of Penneshaw. It's a small town of a few hundred residents and almost as many penguins. The fairy penguins come back to the mainland at night after a full day of swimming and having fun in the ocean. They're absolutely brilliant to watch, as they waddle up the slope, and attempt to cross the road to their nests. I saw one group stand and wait to cross the road, they waited and waited and waited. No traffic ever passed them, this is a very small town, yet they still waited and waited. You can hear them calling out to their young chicks hidden somewhere in the shrubs near the shore. Photographing them is nearly impossible because it is dark, and you are advised not to use a flash. These penguins are small, less than 30 cm tall and very timid. Definitely a Kangaroo Island highlight.

Kangaroo Island is called as such (KI to the locals) because the first explorer Capt Flinders in 1802 saw figures he thought were Aborigines, they turned out to be curious kangaroos watching those first explorers. (The 'roos probably thinking to themselves "There goes the neighbourhood.") We saw many 'roos and wallabies hopping away from the traffic, and sadly, many dead wallabies beside the road. During the day time, they usually sleep, it's at twilight they hop around looking for food and invariably they hop in front of traffic. I am so glad I didn't see one hop in front of our bus. Just seeing them already dead was enough for me, seeing one die would have been very upsetting.

The guide I met in Adelaide on my first day said that KI is three times as big as Vancouver Island. No way, he got that wrong, it's more likely the other way around. Nevertheless, KI is too big to explore in one day; we saw the main attractions. Remarkable Rocks was the first stop, a stack of granite rocks perched and seemingly placed there. Actually they were part of a sea stack and arch from 100 million years ago, and have been weathering and eroding ever since. Then we drove a short distance to see Admiral's Arch and the New Zealand fur seals basking in the sunshine.

By this time it was already lunch time and we were served a nice BBQ meal. Then a short walk to see wild koalas. Koalas are actually not native to KI, they were introduced back in the 1920's when they thought koalas on the mainland were going extinct. That was the time they were hunted to make hats and slippers. Koalas are now of course fully protected, and on KI they are doing a little too well as they are over grazing the eucaltypts, their only source of food). We saw four wild koalas.

Then we drove to Seal Bay. The Australian seals, a cousin of the NZ fur seals, are an endangered species. We walked down to the beach to see them resting from their swim. They swim and feed for three days straight, then come back to land for three days to rest. We were told that while they tolerate groups of people, they do not like individuals walking along the beach, we all had to stay with our guide. Indeed, you cannot see the seals without a guide. We saw some seals coming out of the water, some sleeping and some play fighting. We even saw a few mum seals cuddling their pups. Everybody say "ahhh".

This was a good tour, but not the best I've ever done. There was a little too much waiting. We did have the advantage of staying on the island so the tour was unrushed, but we also had a 1/2 hour wait for an airplane to pick up some tourists, and we waited to unload as well. Without all that waiting we probably could have seen more on the island, for just a group staying on the island. We saw everything scheduled, but like I said we might have seen more if we didn't have to wait for off shore guests.

But I did get to see penguins, two nights in a row. This was the best. Our hostel was right near the shore, these penguins were literally a few meters away from our front door. My short stay on KI allowed me to see more wildlife than any other location so far. (Not counting zoos of course) Kangaroo Island never had rabbits or foxes introduced, and there are no dingoes. The only introduced predator is the domestic cat, many are now wild and feral. And there are pigs lose on the island. You would think that catching these feral animals would not be too difficult on such a small island, but KI can be very wild and remote in places. It's Australia's third largest island, one third is designated as park, and one half is native bush. Unusual for Australia, and unique in the world.

My advice, if you're going to South Australia, hop on over to Kangaroo Island, you'll be guaranteed to spot some great wildlife, and some remarkable rocks.

---