Kangaroo Island

I first visited Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, six years ago. Despite a name even Disney wouldn’t risk as sounding too touristy, I left sure it was my favorite place on earth. It was absolutely unspoiled, had native Australian wildlife everywhere, great hikes through native bush, and a spectacular coastline. And it seemed as though I was the only one in the world who knew about it. I could drive for miles or hike for hours and not see another soul. I even looked into the cost and legalities of buying property there (pretty prohibitive for a non-Australian).

Well, Thoreau was right about coming home again, but only to a point. There are definitely signs that the secret is starting to get out – you’ll find it now only a little less often than Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef in most American tour operators’ brochures, there are a few more gift shops and B&B’s, and some new tour buses on the roads (it’s a fairly easy daytrip from Adelaide).

Perhaps the most unfortunate change is the landscape, though. About 6 weeks ago, K.I. was hit by devastating bushfires - 20% of the island burned, including the most scenic bush on the west end of the island in Flinders Chase National Park, rendering it a charred moonscape. Though there are already signs of regeneration with green sprouting through the dead vegetation, it will take years to recover fully.

Despite the change, after being back a couple of days, it still tops my list of “best places on earth.”

Wildlife abounds. Everyone from America who visits Australia wants to see a kangaroo and a koala (and not solely during a visit to the zoo in Sydney). On Kangaroo Island, you’re tripping over native Australian animals. The island is an ideal spot for seeing wildlife for two primary reasons:

1. It’s virtually undeveloped. The fair amount of farmland you will see on the island actually gives the animals more area for grazing and habitat.
2. It’s an island. The British who colonized Australia, in their infinite wisdom, introduced invasive species such as foxes and rabbits, that multiplied rapidly and acted as predators and competitors to the native animals (and almost always came out on the winning end – tamar wallabies, common on K.I., are extinct in mainland South Australia thanks to the foxes). There are no foxes, and few other invasive species on Kangaroo Island. It’s always been sparsely populated by humans, too, allowing the animals to thrive.

The locals call it a “zoo without fences.” Even the recent fires haven’t rained on the parade. We’ve seen kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, echidnas, seals(more on that in a minute), possums and a tiger snake – super venomous and probably the one that I’d choose to leave off the list – in the last 24 hours. If you’re quiet and out around dusk, you’ll see everything.

Additionally, Kangaroo Island has one of the great unspoiled coastlines in the world. K.I. has imposing sea cliffs, beautiful white sand beaches, water in seemingly every shade of blue, waves crashing on rocky offshore islands, and one of the greatest “Stonehenge on steroids” natural rock formations anywhere (with the Southern Ocean as it’s backdrop) called – fittingly – the Remarkable Rocks. The island also has one of the largest concentrations of seals and sea lions anywhere. At Seal Bay, park rangers will even escort you to the beach and let you get within 10 meters of a sea lion colony – yesterday we walked past a sea lion pup nursing with its mother and loads of huge bulls and frolicking young ones. Here’s the real kicker – most of the time that you’re here you will feel like there’s no one else around to enjoy it. Development is almost nonexistent, and absent the occasional tour bus of daytrippers or the few summer cottages near beaches on the more populated end of the island, you’ll be the only one by the sea. It’s unbelievable. Imagine some of the more beautiful parts of the California coastline but far more spectacular, and with no development or tourists.

Despite the recent fires, there is still plenty of bush around for a good hike outside Flinders Chase (even at midday, you’ll likely see some kangaroos or wallabies in the shady parts). And if you’ve ever experienced the “nature with a rush hour” experience of Yosemite or Yellowstone, leaving you a big fan of zero population growth, Kangaroo Island is the elixir. We counted one stretch of 44 km where we didn’t see another car on the road. Even our small lodge – billed as a “Wilderness Retreat” (James and Helen, who run the K.I. Wilderness Retreat, have a wonderful small lodge and will give you a warm welcome) – has wallabies and possums that visit their courtyard each night. The place is magic. Though the secret is getting out – it’s clearly not the perfectly hidden Shangri-la it was just six years ago – it still represents the best of Australia. I’ll keep making the trip.