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Published: February 28th 2015
Who's who in the zoo
or is it Putin and Obama discussing the weather?One of the common questions we have been asked in our journeys is 'Have you been to Kangaroo Island?' We can say we have seen it from the main land, but never visited. There is quite a price to take the motorhome across, but the lady in the office in the Beach Front Caravan Park at Victor Harbor told us that there are tours starting from Victor Harbor to Kangaroo Island. So we walked down to the visitor information centre and got all the details. There was some resistance from one to part with more than a few coffees and a lunch for a day tour, but the holder of the credit card decided that it was unlikely we would be back here, and the season was perfect to visit the island.
We had an early start with a pick up here at the caravan park just after 7:15 am, and driven the 60 odd ks to Cape Jervis where we would board the Sealink Ferry to Kangaroo Island. We had dreams of a clear sunny day, but that was the only part of the dream that fell apart. As the day progressed cloud covered the island and in fact
dropped a little drizzle in the late afternoon.
The 45 minute crossing was really calm, although initially trying to walk in a straight line was a challenge, but soon mastered.
The ferry berths at Penneshaw, close to the north east corner of Kangaroo Island. Our tour would take us to the most southern point of the island with a number of stops along the way.
The first stop was at Seal Bay. This is a sanctuary with around 1200 Australian Sea Lions residing and breeding here. Timing is important with nature photography, and ours was just right. This is the breeding season and was the first day that the mothers had brought any of their cubs down on the beach. We saw two or three running around. Initially the mothers keep their babies up the hillside hidden in the scrub until they can move easily.
Daddy Sea Lions are aggressive, dangerous, and sadly eat their young. They are extremely territorial, not so much in a spatial sense, but breeding dominance. Anything that moves and comes inside their territory will be attacked viciously. In fact, some of our photos show blood oozing from the wounds of combatants
jostling for dominance in the community.
The Seal Beach colony is predominantly Sea Lions, but NZ fur seals are seen here from time to time. It is thought that there are about 14 to 15,000 sea lions surviving after their near extinction 60 years ago. This species is not found elsewhere in the world. It is unique as it's propulsion is from the front flippers, not the tail flippers as all other seals. In the water they are exceptionally agile and can out manoeuvre most predators and then bite the aggressor by spinning back. It is hoped the colonies here in SA and WA can with some assistance grow. They breed about every 18 months to two years. On the land, they seem cumbersome but make no mistake, can move quite quickly on the beach as well.
The adult seals go to sea for around three days at a time to feed, and then return to the beach to rest for a few days before another feeding trip. I think we witnessed what happens during that three days. A new adult male had settled into the dominant role until king pin arrived back. There was a noisy push
and shove and the interloper was pushed back out to sea.
Two adolescent males were having a noisy discussion about who was who in the zoo about 10 meters from where I was standing. Those teeth look rather nasty! You cannot access this beach without a guide. They have discovered that if a group of people stay in a close line, the sea lions don't take too much notice. But if a single person walked along the beach in their direction, they will be noticed and challenged.
Next stop was a good lunch followed by a visit to a Koala reserve. At one time there was a huge introduced population of koalas here, but they started to out eat the supply of food. At great expense, the female koalas were neutered and they now at great expense manage the number of breeding females in line with the available food supply. We saw what happens last year in Victoria where there was no intervention and a whole forest was dead, as were the koalas.
The southern coast of Australia has a wide variety of rock formations. There is an interesting outcrop of ultra hard granite at Remarkable Rocks.
These weird rocks have been shaped by nature. Look through the photos to find snoopy dog and a wicked witch.
Further south west we came to Admirals Arch at Cape Du Couedic and the second and more important seal colony on the island. Here there are 12,000 seals along this corner of the island. This is a mix of Sea Lions and NZ Fur Seals. This is a regular breeding spot for our kiwi visitors. Even though the seals were smaller, they seemed to survive along side their much larger neighbours. The NZ Fur Seal has a beautiful pelt, and it is not surprising they were a prized pelt. By comparison, the Australian Sea Lion is a shorter and a little more course pelt. We were able to see, feel and touch the various pelts at the Seal Bay Visitor Centre.
Adrmirals Arch is an interesting structure, and we had no idea that we had walked over the top on our way down to the seal colony. The pictures show the ragged outer edge of the arch as the bay with rocks and seals appear on the far side of the arch.
We did plenty of walking
and climbing, a little eating and drinking (coffee and or water), and then back on the bus for our ferry departure at 7:30 pm, and finally back to the caravan park at Victor Harbor at 9:15pm.
We enjoyed our day. I guess if one wanted the ultimate photo experience, one would need several days to get the best opportunities, but the long one day tour suited us well.
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Jakii
non-member comment
Seals etc
Loving the photos ,makes me feel I'm there too --thank you --Jakii