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Roadkill count: 38 dead animals - the South Coast road should be renamed Death Alley!
Our 9:00am ferry ride meant we arrived on Kangaroo Island with plenty of time to explore. We took a detour on a dirt road to the Eucalyptus Ridge distillery. From there we drove to Seal Bay where we were able to go on a "self-guided tour" of the seal colony for a mere $12!
I have discovered that Australians, or at least those who are entrepreneurial, are very fond of euphemisms. The self-guided tour is often used as a euphemism for "entry fee". In this case, we guided ourselves on the path down to the seal colony on the beach where we could view the seals from platforms resting below. If we had paid a mere $30, we could have had a fully guided tour. There were at least 25 seals and we even saw some males fighting! As we walked back to our car we spotted our first live wallaby - it hopped gingerly past us and into the dense shrubs. Still, the unfortunate reality was that we saw far more dead animals than alive today.
We headed along the road to Vivonne Bay - allegedly one of the best beaches in Australia. It was nice and long with very fine sand but that day was windy and there was too much seaweed on the shore. We sat and ate whiting (a type of Aussie fish) burgers and chilled for a while listening to the waves crashing.
We took the middle road towards our accommodation in Kingscote where we were greeted by the hostel owner Bob and just in time for the pelican feeding at the marina. Someone has taken on the role of feeding the wild pelicans and then charging a "suggested donation" of $5 for watching the "performance"! I understand that this man likes pelicans and wants to feed them but don't bill it as a free "event" if you're going to stand at the exit and force people to pay a set fee and yet call it a donation!
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