Kangaroo Island over Easter

[amc4012]

Hi,
My partner and I are heading to Kangaroo Island over Easter for a total of 11 days. We are planning to rent a car to get around the Island while we are there. I wrote to the Gateway visitor center for some information and got the response below which I wanted to share. But also wanted to post to the forum to see if there are any "must do" hikes on the Island that people would recommend or any other fun stuff people did they would recommend? Any nice accomodation options in the even that we get a lot of rain and don't want to camp one or 2 nights.

I managed to contact Jody Gates directly and she was very helpful and sent me a copy of her book after I direct debited the $ to her. It was the only way I was able to get a copy as the Brisbane libraries didn't have one and you can't loan from the National Libray. It's a great book and worth the $9.95 ex postage if you are keen to see the great hikes on Kangaroo Island.

Title : Kangaroo Island on foot : a guide to the walking trails in Kangaroo Island's parks / by Jody Gates ; illustrations: Rebecca Brown.
> Author : Gates, Jody.

Thanks in advance.


Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your enquiry about hiking on KI over Easter. I don’t have access to the Lonely Planet ‘Walking in Australia’ guide, however I assume that the hike you are talking about is from Cape Borda around to West Bay and then on to Cape Du Couedic?

I’ve called the Flinders Chase Visitor Centre to find out whether any sections of this hike are closed and although they’re not, if you are interested in doing this hike then you will need to have a chat to one of the Rangers at Flinders Chase to fill out some paperwork for safety reasons.
As far as walking trail closures goes, the closures still in place after the bushfires we had a couple of years ago are The Oval hike, the Breakneck River hike and the Ravine Des Casoars hike. These hikes are all in the north-western section of Flinders Chase.
Other hikes you may be interested in include:

· The full-day hike that goes between Hanson Bay and Kelly Hill Caves. It’s 18 km long and it runs through a number of different vegetation habitats, from coastal to grassland to bushland.

· A multi-day coastal hike that runs around the coast at D’Estrees Bay. As per the Flinders Chase coastal hike, it is necessary to speak with the Ranger in charge first to discuss safety and fill out paperwork.

Specific details on the multi-day hikes can be obtained from the Flinders Chase Visitor Centre (08 8553 4450) or from the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office in Kingscote (08 8553 4444).

If you would like, then I am more than happy to post you a copy of the Parks walking guide so that you can have some more information and make more plans? Please let me know if you are interested in this. Also, if you need any more information or have any questions then please call or email us.

Kind Regards and Happy Bushwalking!

Rachel
Information Officer,
Kangaroo Island Gateway Visitor Information Centre-Penneshaw

[jez_au]

Hi Andrew, the Flinders Chase Coastal Trek is quite good, but yes the northern section from West Bay to Ravine de Casoars remains closed. We discussed it in another forum a bit: http://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=5326 (posts 6 to 10).

I don't want to self promote, but there are some photos here of the three of hikes mentioned: http://jez-hiking.blogspot.com/2010/04/flinders-chase-coastal-trek-kangaroo.html (Flinders Chase Coastal Trek, Hanson Bay hike and the Cape Gantheaume Coastal Trek - which I did not complete).

The Flinders Chase Coastal Trek has no trail, so you will need to navigate along the coast. This involves some bush-bashing, I did it over Easter last year, but it was mostly pretty low stuff, higher stuff was still charred so you can can get pretty grubby from brushing that vegeation. The official parks publication can be found here: http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/files/a4c6a316-5356-41a0-8067-9e4f00b40061/FLCH_PDFS_TREKKING.pdf. The official Cape Gantheaume publication can be found here: http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/files/1ca7a332-8ba6-4eb5-a0bf-9e4f00b47ff3/PARKS_PDFS_KI_TREKKING.pdf

For both the Flinders Chase and Cape Gantheaume treks you will need to fill in a Trekking Information Sheet and discuss with a park ranger. You will need a booking for Snake Lagoon campsite as sites are quite limited (Flinders Chase Coastal Trek).

Those are the three walks often found in publications, I'm not aware of any other outstanding walks, perhaps others here will contribute some.

[Maelgwn]

I would recommend contacting the Flinders Chase Visitor Centre about the hiking. They are one of the better and more down to earth national parks offices I have delt with. Also, don't miss out on the touristing on Kangaroo Island, (Seal Bay, Remarkable Rocks, Little Sahara, nice remote north coast beaches, etc ...).

Flinders Chase Coastal trek is recommended, though you do need to be happy to walking in some fairly rough terrain for two days, (and relatively remote and exposed to the weather).

[amc4012]

Thanks for the information, very useful, the blog is nice too. I looked on Flickr at photos tagged kangarooisland, and am getting pretty excited now!

[jez_au]

Like maelgwn says, lots of cool places to see. The secret beach at Stokes Bay (follow the track & tunnel through the rocks on the eastern end to a gorgeous beach), the lighthouse at Cape Borda, it's rubbish chute into the sea and the nearby cemetery, Vivonne Bay jetty, the list goes on. There's a nice fish and chip shop at Penneshaw, local fish catches.

[amc4012]

Cheers guys, the excitement is definately building. One other question if you don't mind. How are facilities on the Island for buying groceries outside Penneshaw and Kingscote? We are coming down to Adelaide thursday night late and head straight to the island Friday morning super early so will likely have to stock up with food on the island. Going to spend most of our time on the west end of the Island so just wondering if we need to buy all our food when we get off the Ferry or not. cheers, Andy.

[jez_au]

Hi Andy, Kingscote is the largest town on the island, with supermarket and petrol stations. Penneshaw has a small but still good supermarket. There is a general store and petrol at Vivonne Bay. I'm not aware of any other food or petrol places. There are very few facilities on the island's west, stock up before you head out west.

Have you decided which hikes you might do? Another short one is Snake Lagoon to the coast, it's in the
free 40 Great South Australian Walks if you can find the book somewhere.

[the jackal]

BTW Andrew, Jody is a he.

Have fun over on KI, you can't go wrong where ever you go in the island.

[jez_au]

Title : Kangaroo Island on foot : a guide to the walking trails in Kangaroo Island's parks / by Jody Gates ; illustrations: Rebecca Brown.
> Author : Gates, Jody.

Andrew, how did you contact him to purchase? I think I can find his facebook page.