Three days on Kangaroo Island: sea lions on the beach, and nobody watching them

Two nights an hour out from the mainland: a beach where a guide walks you onto the sand among wild sea lions, granite boulders balanced on a cliff, a rock arch full of fur seals, and a dune field you slide down on a board.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Kangaroo Island
Places
8 across 3 days
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Kangaroo Island is 155 kilometres long, 4,400 square kilometres in area, and home to around four and a half thousand people. It was cut off from the mainland about ten thousand years ago when the sea rose, and because it has never had foxes or rabbits and the western third has been national park since 1919, the wildlife is dense and unbothered in a way that is hard to find anywhere else in Australia.

That is the point of coming. Australian sea lions haul out on a beach you can walk down onto with a guide. Fur seals fill a sea cave under a lighthouse. There are koalas in the manna gums, echidnas on the verges and penguins coming ashore at the ferry town after dark. None of it is fenced.

In the summer of 2019 and 2020 fires burnt close to half the island, including most of the national park at the western end. The vegetation is coming back and the animal populations with it, and the drive west now runs through a long stretch of regenerating scrub. It is worth knowing before you arrive rather than being surprised by it.

Highlights

  • Standing on a beach with wild Australian sea lions asleep twenty metres away
  • Granite boulders the size of houses, weathered into shapes, balanced on a dome above the sea
  • A cave under a lighthouse with a fur seal colony living in it
  • White dunes rising out of the scrub, with boards for hire at the gate
  • Roads with kangaroos on them and no other cars at all

Where to stay

Kangaroo Island, two nights

Where you sleep depends on how you arrive. Penneshaw, at the ferry, is convenient and has the penguin colony. Kingscote is the largest town and the most central for supplies. There is a third settlement on a sheltered inlet between them, and it is the quietest of the lot.

For a two night trip, base yourself at Kingscote or on the inlet. Both put you within about an hour of Seal Bay and the dunes and within two of the far west, which is the geography this trip is built around.

Almost everything closes early. Buy dinner supplies before six unless you have booked a table.

Day by day

Day 1 in Kangaroo Island

Across the water, and down onto the sea lion beach

The ferry crosses Backstairs Passage in forty five minutes and the water can be rough enough to matter, so take something for it if you are prone. Dolphins are common on the crossing and seals occasionally.

Drive west and go straight to Seal Bay, about forty minutes from Penneshaw. This is a breeding colony of Australian sea lions, one of the rarest sea lion species in the world, and there are only a few thousand of them left. About a tenth of the entire population lives on this beach.

There are two ways to see them. A raised walkway and a lookout are open through the day and get you within a hundred metres or so of the animals. The guided beach walk takes you down onto the sand among them, at a set distance, and it is a completely different experience and worth every dollar. Book it.

In the late afternoon head back east and stop at the eucalyptus distillery on the way, which has been pressing the local narrow leaf mallee since the 1990s, and where a wallaby and a kangaroo wander around the shop.

After dark at Penneshaw, a guided walk goes along the foreshore to a colony of little penguins nesting beneath the town. Tours run from about half past six through the colder months, and later once the clocks change.

  1. 12:30

    Seal Bay Conservation Park

    Leisure

    A breeding colony holding a large share of all the Australian sea lions left. The boardwalk and lookout are open all day; the guided walk down onto the beach among them needs booking and is the reason to come.

  2. 15:30

    Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Oil Distillery

    Visit

    A working distillery producing oil from the local narrow leaf mallee, with a shop and a couple of tame marsupials in it. Twenty minutes back east from the sea lions and a good half hour stop.

  3. 18:30

    Penneshaw Penguin Centre

    Visit

    A guided walk along the Penneshaw foreshore to a little penguin colony under the town. Tours start around 6:30pm in winter and an hour later on daylight saving. Book at the visitor centre.

With more time: If the ferry gets in late, do the sea lions tomorrow morning instead and use the afternoon for the honey farm on the South Coast Road, which keeps Ligurian bees brought here in 1884 and protected by law ever since. It is claimed to be the last pure strain of the breed anywhere.

Day 2 in Kangaroo Island

West to the rocks, the arch and the lighthouse

The long day. It is about ninety minutes to the far south western corner of the island and the road runs through the country that burnt in the 2019 and 2020 fires, which is now dense green regrowth with dead trunks standing through it.

Two things sit at the end of it, twenty minutes apart. The first is a dome of granite on the cliff top, scattered with boulders that have been weathered into hollows, arches and overhangs over about half a billion years, some of them the size of a small house and balanced in ways that look temporary. It is a short boardwalk from the car park and it is wheelchair accessible. Watch children: the dome falls away steeply into the sea and it is much slipperier than it looks.

The second is a sea cave under the lighthouse at the point, where the roof has collapsed into a rock arch hung with what look like stalactites. A boardwalk descends the cliff to a platform inside it, and hundreds of New Zealand fur seals live on the rocks underneath, all year round. The swell comes straight in from the Southern Ocean underneath you.

The lighthouse itself is a short walk away, with the ruined outbuildings and the aerial cable that hauled supplies up from the boat landing every three months.

Leave the point by four so that you are off the western roads before dusk.

  1. 10:30

    Remarkable Rocks

    Visit

    Weathered granite boulders on a dome above the sea, five hundred metres from the car park on a boardwalk and wheelchair accessible. The dome is steeper and more slippery than it looks. Ninety minutes from Kingscote.

  2. 12:00

    Take lunch with you

    Eat

    There is a cafe at the park visitor centre and effectively nothing else out here. Fill the tank at Vivonne Bay or Kingscote before you head west.

  3. 12:30

    Admirals Arch

    Visit

    A collapsed sea cave twenty minutes west, with a boardwalk down the cliff into it and a permanent New Zealand fur seal colony on the rocks below. The best hour on the island.

  4. 14:00

    Cape du Couedic Lighthouse

    Historic

    A short walk from the arch, with the ruins of the storerooms and the flying fox used to haul supplies up the cliff when they came four times a year. Tours run into the tower.

With more time: The limestone caves on the south coast are on the way back and worth an hour if you have not seen caves before: guided tours through decorated chambers, plus a walking track down to the coast. If you have, the beaches along the same road are a better use of the time.

Day 3 in Kangaroo Island

Sandboarding, then the ferry

Keep the last morning near the middle of the island so you can make the boat.

Little Sahara is a two square kilometre field of white dunes sitting in the middle of the bush, well inland, with nothing to explain it except old shifting sand. There is a hire outfit at the entrance renting sandboards and toboggans, which is the way to do it. People do try cardboard, and they watch everybody else go faster.

If the wildlife has not obliged so far, there is a park inland at Parndana as a fallback: a walk-through operation where the kangaroos come to you and there are koalas, cassowaries and reptiles. It is a conservation park rather than a zoo and it fills the gap for anybody leaving without having seen a koala.

Then back to Penneshaw for the ferry. Allow more time than the map suggests, and remember you have to be at the terminal well before departure with a vehicle.

  1. 09:30

    Little Sahara

    Visit

    Two square kilometres of white sand off the South Coast Road, with sandboards and toboggans for hire at the entrance. An hour and a half, and take water: there is no shade at all.

  2. 11:45

    Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park

    Visit

    A walk-through park inland where the kangaroos crowd around you to be fed, plus koalas and reptiles. The fallback if the wild animals have not cooperated. Ninety minutes.

  3. 13:30

    Oysters on the inlet before the boat

    Eat

    There is a shop on the sheltered water halfway to the ferry selling oysters grown a few hundred metres offshore, plus other local seafood. Twenty minutes off the road and the best last hour on the island.

With more time: If your ferry is late in the day, the site of South Australia's first European settlement is signposted near Kingscote: a lookout, a small cemetery, and a mulberry tree planted in 1836 that is still fruiting. It takes twenty minutes and almost nobody stops.

Before you go

Getting there, and getting around

The ferry runs from Cape Jervis, about two hours south of Adelaide by road, to Penneshaw at the eastern end of the island. The crossing takes forty five minutes and runs several times a day. Taking a car across is expensive but almost always the right call.

The alternative is to fly from Adelaide to Kingscote in about thirty minutes and hire a car on the island, which costs roughly the same by the time you have paid for the vehicle ferry and saves four hours of driving.

You cannot do this island without a car or a tour. Seal Bay is forty minutes from the ferry, the western end is another hour and a half beyond that, and there is no public transport at all. Fuel is available at the main towns and nowhere in between, so fill up before heading west.

Driving, and the animals on the road

This is the one genuinely serious warning. Kangaroo Island has an enormous amount of wildlife and a great deal of it is nocturnal and on the road: kangaroos, wallabies, possums, echidnas and geese. Collisions are the most common problem visitors have here.

Do not drive between dusk and dawn. If you must, do it at well under the speed limit and expect something to move. Many of the roads are unsealed, and the gravel is loose enough that the local advice is to keep to sixty on it whatever the sign says.

Distances look small and take longer than they should. The eastern end to the western end is about a hundred and forty kilometres and most of two hours.

When to go

October to April is the season. Summer is hot and dry, the water is swimmable and everything is open. The shoulders, October and April, give you mild weather and far fewer people.

Winter is cool, wet and quiet, with some operators closed, and it is when the island is at its greenest. The sea lions are there all year; the penguins are more reliable in winter, because they come ashore earlier.

Whenever you come, book a bed before you get on the ferry. There are not many of them and the island fills at Easter and Christmas.

Kangaroo Island is the rare Australian wildlife destination where the animals are not behind anything. A guide walks you down onto a beach where sea lions are sleeping, a boardwalk drops you into a cave the seals have taken over, and the drive between the two has kangaroos standing in the road at dusk.

It is not a polished place and it does not need to be. Two nights, a hire car and a slow speed after dark is the whole formula.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

Is two nights enough?
It is the minimum that works. One night means the far western end is a five hour round trip on your only full day. Three nights lets you add the north coast beaches and the caves without rushing, and four is comfortable.
Should I take a car on the ferry or hire one there?
Take yours if you are already driving in South Australia; the vehicle fare is steep but you keep your own car. Fly from Adelaide and hire on the island if you are coming from further away. Either way, you need a vehicle.
How badly was the island burnt?
The 2019 to 2020 fires burnt close to half of it, concentrated in the western national park. The landscape there is regenerating scrub with standing dead timber through it, the visitor facilities have been rebuilt, and the wildlife has recovered better in some places than others. The main sights at the western end are all open.
Will I definitely see wildlife?
Sea lions and fur seals, yes, because both colonies are permanent and resident. Koalas and echidnas are likely but not guaranteed. Penguins depend on the season and the tour. The wildlife park in the middle of the island exists for people whose luck ran out.
Can I do it as a day trip from Adelaide?
Coach day tours exist and they are a long, hard day: two hours to the ferry, forty five minutes across, a rushed loop, and the same back in the dark. The island deserves two nights and you will regret the day trip.