What time is it there?!

Pelicans
In the main town of Kingscote the local population of Pelicans know that feeding time is 5pm. They start gathering from 4pm to ensure they get the best position on the rocks when John the local marine wildlife expert arrives. What is said about Germans and towels on sunbeds is not a patch on this spectacle! And not a minute too early, John appears complete with a box of raw fish. We were assured that this quantity was only 25% of their daily intake requirement so that they do not become dependent on it and still fish for themselves although judging by the way they were swarming around him and trying to steal the food out of the box, you would think that they hadn’t eaten since the same time yesterday!

Penguins
Also run from the Kingscote Marine Centre were nightly penguin viewings. The Little ‘fairy’ Penguin comes ashore when the sun goes down to feed its young after it has been fishing all day. We donned additional clothing layers as the wind blew really cold on the island and without the sun to counteract it, we knew we would be in for a cold night and we were not wrong.

During the tour we established that we were not really visiting at the right time of the year as the chicks have already been hatched and have finished feeding from the parents, the adults are currently moulting and therefore don’t leave their nests for 2-3 weeks and those that are not moulting yet are at sea collecting enough food to last them for the weeks when they will moult and therefore don’t come back to land during this period.

So we were prepared to see very few birds ..... but not prepared enough! Not one made its’ way up the beach after spending the day at sea. A few were tucked so far in their burrows that even if you stuck your head in the end you would barely see them, and a couple of others braved a little walk in a hole under some rocks and under the stairs we had just descended. Pictures were virtually impossible and our guide needed his head read. He was wearing a t-shirt and proclaiming that he loved the hot weather ..... it must have been 3 degrees with the wind chill. You will not be surprised to hear that he came from the UK (furthermore, he was a Yorkshireman) ...... Mark and I kept our mouths shut!!!!!

Seals & Sea Lions
Kangaroo Island is home to 2 types of Seals and Sea Lions. The New Zealand Fur Seal finds it’s home down near the Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch which is another rock formation located nearby. They were basking in the sun and often dropped into the ocean to cool down. As their fur is very dense they get hot quite quickly and need to be near the water to cool off whenever they like. There were a few young males who were showing off / practicing their battle skills for the day when they want to try to command a colony ...... must be a male thing!!!

Further up the coast is a colony of Australian Seal Lions who have a much less dense coat and can therefore bask in the sun for hours at a time after spending 3 days at sea hunting for food. It’s a kind of 3 days on, 3 days off rota .... what a life! We decided to pay the extra couple of dollars and join the seals on the beach. Some of them come up quite close to you although there were a few boisterous males who were generally being a nuiscance to many of the others who were happily sleeping. It seems to be that a male will pick on any other male that is smaller than them. When a larger male comes along and puts them in their place they run off, tail between their legs so to speak. All of this seems just to be practice for adulthood and was quite fun to watch. It was also amazing how fast they could ‘run’ despite looking like they struggle with every movement when on land, in fact we’re told they can run faster than most humans (although this may be a slight exaggeration). We also learnt that the whole neck stretching thing that you can see in the photos is believed to be theraputic and quite a comfortable position for them, this was described as ‘Seal Yoga’!

TIP: Don't scrimp on the entrance fee and just go to the boardwalk, the seals are quite a way away from you and you don’t get the full experience. It was well worth the extra few dollars to go down to the beach and the guide is really informative. As the guide says, “Where else in the world can you sit in a seals bedroom?”

Koalas:
According to a chap on the boat on the way over, Koalas are a real problem on Kangaroo Island and they are considering a number of options to control the population .... what Koalas? Mark and I began to wonder if the Aussie world was playing a little joke on the poms .... an island named after an animal who doesn’t seem to live there anymore and a problem with too many invisible koala’s wrecking the environment ..... well, eventually we found a few - sleeping, this is what they do for 19 hours a day ..... I know what I am coming back as!! Anyway, they looked pretty cute and it was good to see them in the wild, rather than locked in an enclosure and paraded out for a cuddle with tourists for a small fee.