Adelaide & Kangaroo Island

BossArky

I'm setting off early tomorrow morning (Friday), driving from Melbourne to Adelaide. Will spend Friday night in Adelaide before leaving for Kangaroo Island on Saturday morning. Returning to Melbourne on Monday evening, so will have about 2 full days on Kangaroo Island.

Anyone care to share their experiences of these places?

• Top tips for Adelaide? Places to stay Friday night? Things to see on this short stop?
• Top tips for Kangaroo Island? Where to stay? Things to see?

Cheers.

woolymammoth

probably a bit late now, but you driving the great ocean road? there's some cool spots to stop off along the way. Never been to kangaroo island myself, but everyone i ever talked to about it had only great things to say about it.

gobby09

I'm sooo jealous- Kangaroo Island was by far the nicest place I visited in Oz. We did a similar trip from melbourne,by camper van, on down d ocean road, through all the vineyards and onto adelaide! To be honest wasnt mad on Adelaide n cant give u much info. But on KI we stayed in a cool place called 'western KI caravan park' . I spotted every sort of aussie animal roaming wild round d place, wallabies, koalas, kangaroo even an echidna. Theres seals and ab fab scenery! Not thronged with tourists (like ourselves). If i come accross any more info i'l send it on! Enjoy

woolymammoth

BossArky, how was it then!? see any of this?

BossArky

To update this:

We drove from Melbourne to Adelaide along the inland highways. I have been along the Great Ocean Road before - so this time the aim was speed not scenery.

Adelaide is a bit of a kip based upon 1 night spent there. No comparison to Melbourne. It kinda reminded me of William street in Limerick! There is not much between Melbourne and Adelaide on the highway, except for a few small ish towns. I enjoyed the drive all the same.

Spent 2 nights on Kangaroo Island. The ferry from Cape Jervis (90 mins south of Adelaide) to Penneshaw (Kangaroo Island) takes about 45-60 mins depending on weather conditions. The island itself is pretty big. It can take up to 90 minutes driving from one side to another. The main roads are good - but a lot of interesting stuff is hidden down the kind of tracks you wouldn't send your worst enemy down. Many mainland car rental places will not rent you a car if you are going to Kangaroo Island. Now I know why! - really high risk of messing something up on the dirt tracks.

Spent 2 nights in Kingscote which is the "capital" of KI. Absolutely nothing going on there. Hard to find food after 8pm, unless in your hotel.

The natural side of things was excellent:

Cape Willoughby - really wild deep sea & waves hammering the coast so close to the shore. It gets deep very quickly.

Seal Bay - boardwalk where you get up close to seals lolling about on the sand/scrub

Vivonne Beach (spelling?)- voted #1 beach in Oz. It's not. Still nice though

Flinders Chase National Park - wander about spotting wallabees, platupus, etc in the wild. Very nice.

Remarkable Rocks - from a distance it looks like Stonehenge perched on the edge of a cliff. Up close it is a collection of pretty big rocks where you can get awesome views of the coast/wild seas. Formed from lava popping up years ago. Interesting to compare the present day rocks with pictures of people there 100 years ago. You can see erosion at work.

Admirals Arch - really cool. Erosion is about to create a third island. Until then the sea lions are frolicking about under the arch stinking the place out. Spectacular scenery. Probably the highlight of the trip for me.

Saw many kangaroos hopping about in the fields, and across roads in front of the car. I got out and almost got up close with one before he legged it into the ditch.

Still haven't seen a snake or spider in almost 10 months in Oz Maybe I should be happy

Overall, Kangaroo Island was a good getaway. However, I'd probably recommend Tasmania as a better option if you want to get wilderness and are based in Melbourne. The 2240km round trip drive to KI was just a bit loooonnnnnggg. Happy to have seen it though.

Any questions let me know.

woolymammoth

BossArky wrote: »

Still haven't seen a snake or spider in almost 10 months in Oz Maybe I should be happy

in 15 months there i saw 1 redback. Feckin hate spiders. Be happy if i never saw one again.

You're right about adelaide, it's the quiet one of Oz. It does have spots, like any town if you know where, but by and large, it's dryer than dublin on a recession monday night. thank god i'm going back there for a good reason