About Kangaroo Island wildlife watching (1 Viewer)

Hi, friends,
I have some questions regarding the Kangaroo Island
A friend of mine decided to go to Kangaroo Island to watch sea-lions and other marsupials with her parents, but they don't want to take part in a tourism group, as there is little freedom when you travel with many other people who don't like watching animals for long time; and we also think self-driving there is not a good idea, as the steering system of Chinese cars and Australian cars are in opposite direction ~~ Therefore, can someone here kindly provide some advice? If they book a hotel on the island, can they then watch the sea-lions, kangaroo, koala, echidna and other native species without the need of driving or without the accompany of no-animal-lovers? Or if there are some travel programs that focus on wildlife watching but not too hard for old people?
Thanks a lot! Best wishes,

I went to Kangaroo Island quite a few years ago, but did it self-drive. I was able to take a tour to see the little penguin colonies, but everything else I did on my own. I was able to find koalas, some wallabies (they were pretty tame in one of the parks), sea lions (or seals), and even an echidna by the side of the road. It would not surprise me if there were other tours, but someone more familiar with those options would have to reply.

If you do go the self-drive route, make sure you get a car with an automatic transmission, not a manual one. It gives you two fewer things to worry about - no clutch and no learning how to shift with your left hand except to put it in gear and reverse. And one additional warning: once you get outside town, most of the roads were gravel and can be fairly slippery at high speed although they were in very good condition.

baboon said:

Hi, friends,
A friend of mine decided to go to Kangaroo Island to watch sea-lions and other marsupials with her parents, but they don't want to take part in a tourism group, as there is little freedom when you travel with many other people who don't like watching animals for long time; and we also think self-driving there is not a good idea, as the steering system of Chinese cars and Australian cars are in opposite direction ~~ Therefore, can someone here kindly provide some advice? If they book a hotel on the island, can they then watch the sea-lions, kangaroo, koala, echidna and other native species without the need of driving or without the accompany of no-animal-lovers? Or if there are some travel programs that focus on wildlife watching but not too hard for old people?
Thanks a lot! Best wishes,

Click to expand...

Hi Baboon:

I cannot help with specifics about getting around (since we did use a rented car while we were there) but would like to put in that Kangaroo island is indeed a great place to go, to see Australian wildlife. It is relatively easy, for example, to find Koalas (we had great difficulty finding them anywhere else) and sea lions, and there are lots of approachable birds.*

However, I don't know of any hotel in which your friend (and parents) could stay that will give you easy access to these animals - although no doubt there may be some place that I do not know about! Once thing to consider is that the island is not as small as it looks, and (as far as I know) most of the animals are in the National Parks. On our trip, we had very good sightings by virtue of the fact that we had a tent, and camped right in one of these (Flinders Chase).

However, it may well be that your friend could stay somewhere like Kingscoate, or American River, and hire a driver on an occasional basis to take you to the good wildlife viewing spots. An actual native Australian (i.e. not I, who has only been once) may be able to help with that! All I can say is, it would be well worth the trip.

Peter

*Some of them, perhaps, a bit too approachable - steer clear of the emus!

Thank you for your advice, Jeff and Peter! Now I am eager to go there in person......