As this is a private tour, there are alternate activities which can be substituted, and we recommend setting up the priority activities in advance to ensure availability.
Day 1
Today, we’ll get a feel for Island Life – where things take time, drivers wave as they go by – or even stop for a chat.
Have a cuppa with some home-made treats before taking a walk down a country track through tall Eucalyptus trees where koalas snooze overhead or wake briefly for a feed. Listen for the sounds of the bush – brightly coloured honeyeaters and brilliant parrots, cicadas or perhaps just the sound of silence.
Travel through the Island’s most productive country to the north coast. Walk through the bush with your guide – through strangely shaped trees learning what makes that noise, whose tracks are those, and who left THAT little pile there? Look for small wallabies almost extinct on the mainland, a kangaroo found only on Kangaroo Island and a variety of other birds, plants and animals.
Down at the coast, squeeze through a secret path in the rocks – narrow enough that you’ll wonder where your guide is taking you – and come out onto a sheltered white sand beach voted Australia’s best in 2023.
Break for lunch at a private camp in the bush – our Bush BBQ, featuring King George whiting (local sea fish), fresh salads and fine South Australian wines.
After lunch, unwind at Island Alive, a nature-based wellness retreat set in a quiet stand of native pine. Their Forest Renewal contrast therapy moves you between a wood-fired hot tub, steam sauna and ice bath – heat, cold and water in sequence. It is less a treatment than a reset: for the nervous system, for your breathing, and for the way you notice the bush around you.
Day 2
Begin your day travelling along Kangaroo Island’s south coast, watching the landscape shift from productive farmland into wild, pristine wilderness as you venture west. Your guide will introduce you to the Island’s ecology along the way – the resilient native flora and the natural cycles that keep this system turning.
If time permits, stop into Vivonne Bay, a spectacular bay and home to the Island’s southern fishing fleet.
Enter the expansive wilderness of Flinders Chase National Park and break for a cuppa and some home-made treats at Weirs Cove, where an historic jetty and tramway on the cliff face tell you everything about how supplies once reached the Cape du Couedic lighthouse keepers.
The power of the Southern Ocean swell is on full display at Admirals Arch. This dramatic coastal grotto provides a sheltered haul-out for a large colony of Australian Fur Seals and Long-nosed Fur Seals, whom you can watch swimming effortlessly through the crashing waves.
Continue to Remarkable Rocks – a collection of natural granite sculptures perched impossibly atop a dome plunging into the Southern Ocean.
Break for our Wilderness Picnic, set in the shelter of the bush or, if the weather is kind, on a clifftop above the ocean. Lunch features marinated poached chicken, fresh salads and local cheeses, accompanied by premium local wine, beer, soft drinks and spring water.
On the way home there is time for one more stop, and the choice is yours: a pioneer heritage walk at Grassdale, where the remains of a working property tell the story of how families held on out here, or a stroll along the wild beach at Hanson Bay. Your guide will help you pick on the day.
Day 3
Begin back at Island Alive for an hour of yoga shaped around you. Whether you’re after mobility, release or simply a bit of stillness, your instructor will guide you through gentle postures, breath work and meditation. Then, with your muscles warm and your mind unwound, settle in for a one-hour relaxation massage – the perfect way to begin your last day discovering the magic of Kangaroo Island.
Carry on to the nearby Pennington Bay for morning tea above a wide surf beach of clear water and soft white sand. Watch for dolphins working the break, schools of Australian salmon shifting through the deeper channels, or hooded plovers – one of our most vulnerable shorebirds – running the tideline.
Next, into the Eucalyptus forest of Cygnet Valley for a short guided walk. This was farming pasture within living memory; a long-running restoration program has turned it back into diverse bushland, and the wildlife has returned with it. Lunch here is our Producers’ Table, laid out in the bush: a selection of smoked meats and a fresh quinoa salad, with home-made condiments and a choice of local beers and wines.
Continuing on, you’ll arrive at Seal Bay Conservation Park for a private tour among Australian sea-lions on a beautiful sandy beach – an experience similar to that of the Galapagos. Watch pups nursing or playing in the surf, see old bulls bearing the scars of territorial disputes and learn about their unique breeding biology.
Finish with a stroll along the windswept white sands of Bales Beach, where three energetic bays linked by rocky headlands make up an extensive wilderness home to hooded plovers, oystercatchers and ospreys.
Our Food
Three lunches, three different tables, all set outdoors and all built from what our neighbours grow, catch and make. Not fussy – just fresh food, well presented, and better for being eaten in the open air.
Bush BBQ – Day 1, at our private camp. King George whiting (local sea fish), fresh salads and fine South Australian wines.
Wilderness Picnic – Day 2, in the shelter of the bush or on a clifftop if the weather allows. Marinated poached chicken, fresh salads and local cheeses, accompanied by premium local wine, beer, soft drinks and spring water.
Producers’ Table – Day 3, laid out in the restored forest at Cygnet Valley. A selection of gourmet smoked meats and a fresh quinoa salad, with home-made condiments and a choice of local beers and wines.
If you have special food requirements – allergies, cultural code or other preferences – please give us exact details when booking. If we know what you can and cannot eat, we can look after you properly.
