Kangaroo Island is much bigger than we thought.  It takes 2 hours and 20 minutes to drive from east to west according to our guide book.   The main roads are sealed and well looked after but all the rest are unsealed, and, as we are about to find out, bone shaking in places.  We discover this attempting our first shortcut on a gravel road!!!  Most of the roads are dead straight they remind me very much of the Roman roads in the northern part of England.

Today we are heading to Cape Willoughby lighthouse on the Dudley peninsular, the most easterly part of the island.  On the way we stop in Penneshaw,  the town where the ferries from the mainland dock.   We buy a delicious salad sandwich each to eat out at the lighthouse.  

It is incredibly dry on the island but the locals tell me that is normal in summer.  It is 39 degrees celsius today and many of the sheep are huddled around the waterhole.  There is very little shade for them.  I also expected to see more wildlife than we did, especially kangaroos,  but our only sighting was half a dozen sheltering under trees close to the lighthouse.

  Cape Willoughby Lighthouse

   Our guide is Megan and with two tourists from Switzerland we make a group of four.  We start in the museum in the Keeper's cottage.  Cape Willoughby was the first lighthouse built in  South  Australia in 1852 and it lights Backstairs Passage, the 11 km  wide channel between Kangaroo Island and the mainland of  South  Australia.   Kangaroo Island was particularly treacherous with over 80 shipwrecks having been recorded to date.  A map on the wall has them all plotted.  Another map shows every lighthouse in Australia, more than 350!  We walk across to the lighthouse itself.  Megan tells us the original timber staircase rotted and was replaced  by a metal staircase.   It has  102 steps to the top but it's an easy climb.  It's very hazy today so we can't see the islands which are normally visible but the view is still spectacular.  The sea is a most beautiful azure blue.  

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Inside the Old Lantern

The old lantern is on display in the museum.  Megan wanted a volunteer to crawl into the lantern through a gap on the floor.  This is the result! 

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From the viewing platform we see a dry and barren landscape.  It would have been very forbidding for those early lighthouse keepers and their families.

 

 

 

Dudley Winery

From the lighthouse, it is a 20km trip back along the gravel road to Dudley Winery.   What better  place for our sandwich and a nice glass of wine than looking across towards the South Australian mainland from the  winery on our way back.  Wine tasting with a view!     www.dudleywines.com.au

 

 

 

 

Mercure Kangaroo Island Lodge: Room 35

The Mercure is located at American River, a 20 minute drive from Kingscote airport.  We were upgraded to a waterview room which has a balcony.  It was well situated as the room was sunny of a morning but shaded from the hot afternoon sun.  The room was enormous with a comfy king sized bed, table and chairs for two as well as a couple of lounge chairs.  Tea/coffee, frig and kettle.  The bathroom has a walk in shower with good water pressure and  plenty of towels.   Toiletries are supplied although they were not replenished unless requested.  There are fly screens on all windows but because there were mosquitos around, a can of insect killer was supplied in the wardrobe.  We didn't need to use it.

Reflections Restaurant is excellent and the food, which is locally sourced where possible, was one of the highlights.  The portions were large and the chef very obliging in substituting vegetables for salad.  The meals were reasonably priced too.   Of course I always look at the dessert menu first and the dark chocolate ice cream with ginger crumb and caramel was fantastic!  I had it two nights in a row!!!  Just delicious.  The breakfast was also good with plenty of choice.  Being a tea drinker, I was impressed that tea pots were supplied with real loose tea for those who didn't want a tea bag.

Yes, the rooms are a bit  dated but that didn't matter to us.  My only complaint was that the rooms are only vacuumed every three days and tea bag replacement is a bit hit and miss.  However we really enjoyed our stay and would definitely return.        www.kilodge.com.au