Happee Monkee

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a fabulous Christmas and New Year.

Welcome to the first post of twenty ten! And, there’s no better way to start the year than with a travel post.  Over the Christmas holidays, G. and his dad invited me to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. This awesome island owns some of the  most pure and breathtaking natural views. Admittedly, it is rugged and harsh so a 4WD is essential.

Lazy piña colada beach combers be warned.

Kangaroo Island is Australia’s third largest island, measuring up to 4,405 km². The island is accessible via ferry or plane. See how it says Kangaroo Island: Too Good To Spoil? The island prohibits items like honey, bees, potatoes, foxes, rabbits and weeds. From what I’ve gather, KI (Kangaroo Island) is famous for its honey, in fact, it is the oldest bee sanctuary in the world. A special breed of bees called the Lingurian bees were brought over from Linguria, Italy in 1881. KI is now the only place in the world that has this species as the original Linguria bees have either cross breed with other species of bees or died off.

We had a lot to see on KI. Good for us that G.’s aunt Helen is a licensed tour guide (and that she drives like a Tasmanian devil) in KI which means we had the insights to the best parts. Woot!

I’d strongly recommend to spend at least five days on KI as there is plenty to take in. There are days I’d rather sit on a beach than be speed off somewhere. (Yes, yes, I know that makes me a lazy beach comber)

KI has some of the most fantastic beaches. Somewhere in something, Vivonne Bay apparently won the award as best beach in Australia.

What I did not expect to see in the middle of the island was a desert. Equipped with sand dunes and a name like ‘Little Sahara’, it was supremely awesomely cool.

You can opt to hire sand boards for (i think) $A45 per day and have the time of your life tobogganing down the dunes. However, the problem is not spitting out a mouthful of sand later, but, hiking up those damn giant sand dunes. Let me just say this: is bloody exhausting. It’s definitely easier down than up.

The busiest seasons on KI is after Christmas till February, drawing 140,000 visitors each year. We were lucky. In some places, it was just us three magpies cackling away.

What you will encounter on KI is the lack of originality in names. If you want to see pelicans on KI, you go to Pelican Bay. You go to Seal Bay for the seals.  And if you’re an explorer and you’ve found some amazing looking rocks, you call it ‘The Remarkable Rocks’.

“The “Remarkable Rocks,” as they are called, are a collection of enormous eroded granite boulders sitting atop a giant dome of lava coughed up about 200 million years ago. Wind and sea spray have since carved the chunks into what look like monumental Henry Moore sculptures perched 200 feet above a crashing sea.” The Washington Post

Because KI is so isolated from the rest of Australia it contains its own unique animals like the small marsupial carnivore called the Kangaroo Island Dunnart. The numbers of its natives are sadly declining due to climate change and other conditions. KI is also the last South Australian refuge of the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo. This reflects why it is so important that non-native animals like foxes and rabbits are not introduced into KI in order to maintain its fine ecological balance.

As rugged as it is on KI, the landscape is incredibly beautiful. There is a bush in Helen’s ‘garden’ (she has no garden. It consists of a salt lake with sandy shores you sink in like quicksand, sharp hostile rocks, and even sharper thorny weeds. There are snakes and spiders you do not want to meet. And even so, the sunsets are breathtaking and the silence is so peaceful it quietens your soul) that sounds like a popcorn machine when the seeds pop out of its pods. It’s a funny little place KI.It’s funny wild place.