Today we were heading the Flinder’s Chase National Park so we started with a good breakfast—poached eggs on sour dough with bacon, tomatoes and hash browns. While we were waiting for everyone to meet back up at the lounge the head of activities came out to chat with us and give us our supplies for the day. G and I had elected to hike back from The Remarkables and she wanted to make sure we were prepared as it was a fairly warm day and the limestone cliffs get very hot. We assured her we were good to go and she walked us through safety and handed over the backpack with our lunch, drinks, the satellite phone (there’s no mobile coverage out there) and a snakebite kit. We also had our own day pack with extra water and sunscreen.

Our first stop was Admiralty Arch to admire the rock formations and the colony of long-nose fur seals. There was a decent number of fur seals, lounging on the rocks as well as swimming in the water. There were also some pups, but there were a lot of shadows so they were hard to photograph.

After enjoying the seals for a while we climbed back up the stairs and into the van to drive to our next stop—the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse. This was one of a number of lighthouses built on Kangaroo Island to try to stop so many ships being wrecked in these waters. There are a number of offshore rocks that are a hazard to ships in the area.

After a short walk around we hopped back in the van and drove to The Remarkables. A major highlight in the area where I took many, many photos.

After walking around and taking my many photos we grabbed our backpacks from the van and started on our hike back to the Lodge. It was just G and I, everyone else was heading back in the van and would arrive back in time for lunch. The hike is 14.5 km and is mostly along part days 3 and 4 of the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail.

About an hour in we started to think about lunch, but there was literally no where to really sit down along the trail, until we came upon this bench. What a place for lunch! While we ate we watched and listened to the seals playing in the rock pools on the beach down below.

I want to talk about goannas and how they scared the crap out of me whenever we came upon them. Since I was leading our walk I was trying to keep a close eye out for snakes while also taking in the various landscapes. The goannas seem to have this terrible habit of waiting until you are almost level with them before scurrying loudly away in the scrub at the side of the trail. Of course, the minute I hear a rustle, my mind goes to snakes, and my heart pounds until I manage to spot the culprit which on this holiday were always goannas. Lets just say there was some squealing and some jumping back in each of these encounters. After that initial scuttle they generally freeze and pretend that there’s nothing to see here which gives great photo ops.

We were extremely hot and sweaty by the end of the hike and decided to go for a swim in the pool but our legs were so dirty we had to hop in the shower first and rinse them off. Luckily the shower had a handheld attachment which allowed us to wash the river of muddy water away. The pool was amazing by the way, and I even got G to come in with me which is a minor miracle of its own. After the pool we had showers and got dressed for dinner. Then it was time for pre-dinner drinks while watching the waves roll in and out down the coastline. I could do that for hours and we did!