Hi, friends, I know asking about wildlife affair in this forum may be a little unsuitable, but I can't find other forums regarding mammal watching (since the mammal watching forum is blocked in China......). 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,
Your friends would need to drive, or take tours. I'd encourage them to attempt to drive, as one who has met the challenges of driving on the opposite side of the road in France and the USA, I can say it is not as difficult as it seems. Also the roads are not at all busy, often they will be the only car on the road.
One option, if they didn't want to drive, would be to organise private tours through some of the companies which operate on the island. Here are a couple of operators that offer private tours (I don't know if they are any good or not): Discover Kangaroo Island with these great tour packages. Hire a Guide - Tours - Kangaroo Island Tour Options
It sucks that I can't get the mammalwatching blog in China! However the main site (not the blog) isn't blocked so you should be able to access it, and most of the links you can open. Here's the page with Kangaroo Island although there's not a ton of info on it: mammal watching in South Australia
I have seen this. In fact all other regions on the main site have more info than Australian region, maybe because the website is run by an Australian......
I took a wildlife tour with this company: Personalised Luxury Kangaroo Island Tours & Packages I highly recommend them since it was all about the wildlife - seals, sea lions, black cockatoos, roos, koalas, and echidnas. We also did a dolphin tour with these folks: kimarineadventures.com.au/ We could almost touch them since we were riding low on the water. The other folks swam with them but we can't swim so that was a bummer.
Thank you! It seems that watching wildlife in Australia is a little difficult than in Asia for a person who cannot drive......
I am not sure why you say that - we didn't drive for either of these tours. We stayed in the main town and walked to the jetty to get the boat for the dolphin tour. For the daytime tour, the 4WD picked us up at our hotel, as did the nocturnal tour vehicle. I didn't need to drive to see the wildlife there.
Er......My mean is in Australia it is a bit harder to find a cheaper wildlife tour if you don't drive by yourself...... But your advice is really interesting, and I will suggest my friend to have a check at it.
Australia is expensive full stop. Even the cost of renting a car and filling petrol is expensive. I recommend driving in Kangaroo Island though (we rented a car and drove to do some non-wildlife sightseeing). Driving there is easy, since there aren't many roads, there aren't many cars, and there isn't a single traffic light on the 5,000 sq km island.
The biggest hazard is actually the wildlife! What your friend will find is that the rental car will not be insured for damage if they drive after dark or on unsealed roads. Oh and do warn them not to stop around blind corners if there is wildlife on the road or in the bush: a car could easily ram them at 100kmph.
Oh, it seems dangerous! I will tell my friend this I don't want them to hit kangaroo, emu or something else......
Sometimes you simply have to hit wildlife to be safe though. Otherwise you might swerve and end up in a ditch, over a cliff, or in the path of oncoming traffic.