dazjet 'n family: The East End

Our goal for today was to visit the eastern part of KI – meaning back towards Penneshaw and exploring the coastal areas to the east of American River. Everything else so far has been to the west of American River.

Our first stop was along a short dirt track from the main road, on the southern coastline – Pennington Bay. And what a beautiful beach it was. Possibly my favourite so far on the island. Dramatic cliffs, limestone rock formations, sweeping, sandy beach, unhindered by washed up seaweed.

After dragging ourselves away from Pennington Bay we ventured around to a small community called Sapphiretown, the other side of Pelican Lagoon. Sapphiretown is directly across the water from American River and we could see our house clearly on the opposite hillside.

From there we drove a short distance further on the main sealed road towards Penneshaw before turning off on to a well kept dirt road that led us to Cape Willoughby. This is on the eastern tip of KI. As we approached the cape its vibrant white lighthouse revealed itself between the trees. It was a lovely inviting welcome!

Once we arrived at the cape, we had some morning tea and read a few signs, including of the dramatic story of the ship Kona which was wrecked off the coast here, en route from the USA full of red wood timber – it had sailed for over 70 days and was close to its destination of Port Adelaide when it ran aground and was ripped apart.

We paid to have a look around the light house grounds, but did not take a guided tour.

We then took a loop walk down to a rocky beach. This area used to be where the light house keeper’s cottages were and the landing spot where supplies were delivered. The current light house keeper's cottages, alongside the light house are 'replicas' and can be hired out to stay in. The rocky beach looked fabulous, with the orange lichen covering the rounded rocks contrasting with the ocean and sky colours. This truly is an island of contrasting colours!

We saw a lone kangaroo on the return to the light house. So far we’ve been told that there are lots of roos on Kangaroo Island – which would make sense given its name. But we’d seen more sheep than roos so far. I wondered about suggesting to the powers that be, that they rename the island, Sheep Island. Doesn't sound so inviting though does it? KI roos are reputedly bigger and darker in colour compared to their mainland cousins.

Climbing a stile into a paddock we walked around to the other side of the light house where we enjoyed a fabulous view across the cliffs towards the white beacon of light, with the ocean churning below us. Even where it crashes against cliffs it's still a rich blue colour, with pure white foamy bits.

We continued in a clock wise direction around the coast towards Penneshaw, but our next stop was at another lovely beach and campground at Antechamber Bay. Other than the camp ground, the only other sign of life… no pun intended here was a small pioneer’s cemetery.

Next we found ourselves in Penneshaw where we had more of a look around.

We then parked the car and embarked on a 3.5 km walk in the Baudin Conservation Park – named after the French captain Baudin who explored this area on his ship Le Geographe at the same time as Matthew Flinders. The walk was called the Ironstone Hill Hike.

This walk gave us lovely views across the Backstairs Passage back towards Cape Jervis. We saw the ferry come and go. Ethan spotted some dolphins playing in a small bay. We found our 1300^th geocache which was memorable by its scramble up a very steep wooded and rocky hill!

The walk then took us to the ruins of Bates Cottage. Harry Bates’ family moved to KI in about 1860 and this cottage was their home until he died in 1936. Much of it has crumbled, the iron roof now pretty much sitting on the ground as the walls have collapsed. Interesting piece of history though.

We saw a couple of wallabies and a very muscly kangaroo towards the end of the walk. I’m sure this guy works out at a gym! Not wanting to be challenged to an arm wrestle, we moved on!

Our final destination, further around the coast and heading back towards American River was Baudin Beach. We enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine as it shimmered across the water. Pelicans waited with anticipation at the boat ramp hoping for some generous returning fishermen.