2026 Kangaroo Island

We left Sydney on a 6:35am Qantas flight to Adelaide which connected to the morning flight to Kangaroo Island. We are currently sitting in the Qantas Club lounge courtesy of 2 lounge passes from someone at AFF.

All went smoothly and we arrived at Kangaroo Island (KI) a bit early - 10:15am South Australia time (half hour earlier than Sydney). The weather was fine - 23C. Southern Ocean Lodge (SOL) met us and drove us in a shared van (with other guests) to the lodge - about an hour away - we had a short stop to check out some koalas to ensure the 2 pickup vans did not arrive at the same time.

We were all checked in by mid-day so we unpacked before heading to lunch around 1pm. The lunch was excellent - a la carte with lots of choice. Then it was back to our room for a rest before our afternoon excursion at 3pm.

The afternoon excursion was a guided visit to the Kelly Hill Caves (with 5 other guests) - it was very interesting.

We were back around 5pm with plenty of time of showers before dinner which was a digeustation menu with no choice but taking into consideration your pre-stated dietary issues. If this does not suit you they also offer the lunch menu.

The day started off pretty grim - strong winds and intermittent rain squalls. Nevertheless less we headed out for our first excursion of the day, "the wonders of Kangaroo Island". This included Flinders Chase National Park - Admiral's Arch with many seals and the Remarkable Rocks. Fortunately we dodged the rain squalls but not the wind. At the Remarkable Rocks Dieter lost his new 2XU cap and risked life and limb trying to fetch it - the guide called him back with a stern warning.

We were back in time for lunch followed by a rest and then headed off on the afternoon tour - Kangas and Koalas which only started at 4:30 - essentially this was a waste of time. It did finish off with a drink around a campfire which was a nice touch but we would have preferred to just return to the lodge.

It was a similar day weather-wise as Saturday. Today's tour started at 8am so we were off to a very early start. The tour was "Seal Bay Safari" - a tour of Seal Bay with its colony of Sea Lions. It was quite interesting with lots of cute seal pups. Again the rain squalls held off while we were out and about.

Since we were early we stopped to check out some koalas - the same place we stopped on our way from the airport, spotting a few.

We arrived back at the lodge just after 11am - so there was plenty of time for a rest before lunch. Our afternoon was free (of lodge provided tours) so we had a bit of a rest then watch the video in the video/meeting room of "Sunshine Rising" - the documentary or the rebuilding of the lodge after the fires of 2019. Sunshine is the name of the kangaroo sculpture which survived the fires to be reinstated in his place of honour.

We could have done a walk but it was very windy and freezing.

Last full day - weather-wise it was the best day - still windy and partly cloudy - still cool - high of about 18C. Our scheduled 'tour' was an afternoon guided cliff walk which we opted out of. Instead we did a self-guided cliff top walk - it was quite lovely inspite of 5 minutes of light rain.
Back at the lodge we had another lovely lunch then pretty much dagged about for the rest of the day until dinner. As we had an early check-out the next day I packed up most of our stuff.
Dinner time started, as had become our habit, with a glass or 2 of Champagne before heading to dinner. Again like every other night it was a degustation menu but you could change any time for something on the lunch menu (e.g. the amazing giant prawns).

Off home today - we had to check-out by 7:50am - way too early in our opinion for an 8:25am transfer to the airport which is about a one hour drive away. Given the flight was scheduled for 10:40am this seemed a bit too early - but why complain about 15 minutes.

We arrived in Adelaide on time and went to the Qantas lounge to wait for our flight to Sydney. We were able to use the lounge again thanks to some lounge passes gifted to me by a fellow AFF (Australian Frequent Flyer) member.

We arrived home at about 3:30pm - and did some unpacking and shopping then had sandwiches for dinner.