After the Adelaide Marathon: Kangaroo Island
The Route: Adelaide → Cape Jervis → Penneshaw → Kingscote and the south coast → Flinders Chase → Kingscote → Adelaide Airport Logistics: Hire car from Adelaide, drive to Cape Jervis and take the SeaLink vehicle ferry, or fly to Kingscote and hire a car on the island. Either way, the island needs a car. Marathon Month: May Duration: 3 nights
Adelaide ──(approx. 2 hrs by car)──> Cape Jervis ──(45 mins SeaLink ferry)──> Penneshaw
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Kingscote & Seal Bay ◄──(approx. 1 hr)───┘
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Flinders Chase ◄─┘ (approx. 1.5 hrs)
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Adelaide Airport (ADL) ◄──(30 mins flight from Kingscote, KGC)── or return by ferry
The Adelaide Marathon finishes at Pinky Flat in early May. Kangaroo Island, 15 km off the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula, is the trip to take if there are three or four days to spare afterwards and the legs can manage a car seat. It is Australia's third-largest island, 150 km from end to end, and almost everything worth seeing involves a drive followed by a short walk.
May on Kangaroo Island is late autumn. Days are mild, usually in the mid to high teens, with the first winter fronts bringing showers and wind off the Southern Ocean. The summer visitors have gone, the roads are close to empty, and the wildlife is unaffected by the season: the Australian sea lions at Seal Bay and the New Zealand fur seals at Admirals Arch are there all year. Pack a waterproof and a warm layer. Swimming is for the hardy.
There are two ways across. The SeaLink ferry sails from Cape Jervis, about two hours' drive south of Adelaide, to Penneshaw on the island's eastern tip, a crossing of 45 minutes, carrying cars and foot passengers several times a day. Book the car space in advance, and arrive 30 minutes before sailing. The faster option is QantasLink's 30-minute flight from Adelaide to Kingscote Airport, with a hire car collected on the island. Check the SeaLink timetable at sealink.com.au and flight times before building the plan.
Night One: Penneshaw or Kingscote
Penneshaw is a small township above the ferry landing, and on the first evening that is enough. Its foreshore path along Hog Bay is short and flat, and little penguins come ashore around the bay after dark, though numbers have fallen and sightings are not guaranteed. Kingscote, an hour's drive west, is the island's main town and the easier base for the south coast the next day.
Kingscote was the first official European settlement in South Australia, founded in 1836, a few months before the colony was proclaimed at Glenelg. The island was also, from 1885, home to a sanctuary for Ligurian honey bees brought from Italy, and it still claims the purest strain of the breed in the world. The foreshore walk along Nepean Bay is flat and sealed.
Night Two: Seal Bay and the South Coast
Seal Bay Conservation Park, about 45 minutes south of Kingscote, holds a breeding colony of Australian sea lions, one of the rarest seal species. A boardwalk runs down through the dunes to a viewing platform above the beach, with steps in places; the guided beach tour goes onto the sand itself, among animals sprawled asleep a few metres away. Rangers set the pace, which is slow. Book ahead and check the current price with the park.
Nearby, Little Sahara is a field of white sand dunes rising well above the scrub, a strange sight after the green of the coast. Climbing them is for a different week.
Where to stay: Aurora Ozone Hotel, on the Kingscote foreshore, puts the town's restaurants and the flat seafront path within a few minutes' walk. For a quieter night, farm stays and self-contained cottages are spread across the island's centre; check location against the next day's drive before booking.
Where to eat: The Oyster Farm Shop at American River, between Penneshaw and Kingscote, sells local oysters and marron from the water they were grown in. Kangaroo Island Spirits, at Cygnet River near Kingscote, is a small distillery with a tasting room, a good excuse to stop on a grey afternoon. Check opening days: several island businesses close early in the week in the off-season.
Night Three: Flinders Chase
Flinders Chase National Park covers the western end of the island, about 90 minutes' drive from Kingscote. Bushfires in the summer of 2019 to 2020 burned most of it. The regrowth, bright green epicormic shoots bursting from black trunks, is now one of the reasons to go.
The two headline sights are short walks from the car. The Remarkable Rocks are a cluster of granite boulders on a dome above the sea, weathered over 500 million years into hollowed, curling shapes and coated in orange lichen. A boardwalk leads most of the way; the last part crosses the bare granite, which is uneven and slippery when wet. Admirals Arch, a few kilometres away, is a natural rock arch reached by a boardwalk with steps down the cliff, beneath which New Zealand fur seals haul out on the rocks. Park entry fees apply; check the current price with National Parks South Australia.
Where to stay: Kangaroo Island Wilderness Retreat, at the edge of Flinders Chase, puts the park's two main sights 15 minutes away and has its own restaurant, which matters on an island where evening options at the western end are few. At the other end of the budget scale, Southern Ocean Lodge, rebuilt on the south-west coast after the fires, is one of Australia's most expensive places to stay.
Where to eat: Dinner at the western end is mostly where you sleep. Stock up in Kingscote before driving west.
Getting to Adelaide Airport
From Kingscote, QantasLink flies to Adelaide Airport (ADL) in about 30 minutes, which makes the island the easiest possible end to the trip: return the hire car at Kingscote Airport (KGC) and fly straight to the connecting flight. By sea, drive back to Penneshaw, about two hours from Flinders Chase, take the ferry to Cape Jervis and drive two hours to Adelaide Airport. Allow a full day for the ferry route, and do not book an evening international departure from Adelaide on the same day without a buffer.