Kangaroo Island

Lying approximately 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Adelaide is Australia’s third largest island, Kangaroo Island. I have never been one for history, nor did I think much of how the island came to be named after the Australia icon – the kangaroo. Surely of all the various islands surrounding the US, there is one named after the American icon – the bald eagle. (A quick search on Google confirmed that there indeed is a Bald Eagle Island located on the James River in Virginia, although it is much less impressive in size.)

The island’s name came about in quite an interesting way, to say the least. Matthew Flinders, a navigator who circumnavigated Australia and has many a streets named after him, discovered the island in 1802, and recorded the following in his journal: “'the whole ship's company was employed this afternoon in the skinning and cleaning of kangaroos. After four months' privation they stewed half a hundredweight of heads, forequarters and tails down into soup for dinner, on this and the succeeding days, and as much steak given, moreover to both officers and men as they could consume by day and night. In gratitude for so seasonable a supply, I named this south land KANGAROO ISLAND.”

Now rest assured that that is not the reason why we wanted to visit the island. It was whilst driving around on the island that for the first time I truly felt as if I were in the outback. Most of the roads were unsealed, covered in thick orangey-red dirt. The weekend trip brought as amazingly close to seals, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, bull ants, and sights that were unbelievable!