By Leaps and Bounds

BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS . . .

A Taste of Kangaroo Island

By Marcie J. Bushnell

A narrow-leaf mallee (Eucalyptus cneorifolia) oil distillery, a speciality cheese dairy, a Ligurian honey bee establishment, a marron (fresh water crayfish) farm, and a liqueur called Island Sting serve up a unique sensory experience to visitors touring Kangaroo Island. Two hours south of Adelaide, South Australia, Kangaroo Island is the third largest island off the Australian mainland, (93 miles long by 33 miles wide). K.I. is one of the best places in the southern hemisphere to enjoy some highly specialized culinary delights. Opportunities to bond with all manner of fur, fin and feathers add to the adventure.

Sealink Kangaroo Island offers comprehensive day and half-day tours of the island with daily departures from Cape Jervis, S.A. In order to fully appreciate what the island has to offer, an overnight stay is recommended. The Penneshaw, K.I. resident Sealink bus driver, Michael, keeps up a personable banter of interesting facts and figures as we tool the “sealed” roads of the island. When a passenger asks about the abundance of yellow dark-centered flowers blanketing the pastures, Michael quips, “We call those dandelions, or capeweed, on K.I. They’re a good tonic to clean the carbon off the sheep’s exhaust pipes, but I wouldn’t recommend walking behind them at this time of year.” I make a mental note not to mingle with the ewes.

The K.I. population of 700,000 sheep, 10,000 cattle and bees too numerous to count, co-exist with all manner of down-under wild critters. From the smallish K.I. kangaroo to the sleepy-eyed koala (a 1920s immigrant from Victoria); from spiky echidnas to web-footed platypi (introduced in the 1940s); from Cape Barren geese (imported in the 1930s from Tasmania) to Australian sea lions and New Zealand fur seals, this place is teeming with life.

I ask about snakes, but never see the two species inhabiting the island – the copperhead and the black tiger varieties. A black and silver goanna manages to swagger across the bitumen as our bus swings into the parking lot at Admirals Arch, but amphibian/reptilian sightings figure a “the fewer, the better” response in my book.

Island residents make a living by fishing, agriculture and tourism that bodes well for the eco-sensitive environment. K.I. is 30% National Park and 40% native vegetation with periodic vegetation purges handled by Mother Nature in the form of brush fires.

Introduced species have run amok with their clear-cut eating habits, thus prompting the government to sterilize about 3/5 of the koala population on the island. Michael adds, “The red and yellow ear tags identify the ‘safe’ ones … we call ‘em tree rabbits ’cause they multiply so fast.” The manna gums, as well as sugar, pink, blue and stringy bark eucalyptus trees have begun to recover since the koala snip-snip operation. Life goes on.

Alternative industries have proven to be unique tourism draws for the area. The Kangaroo Island Eucalyptus Oil Distillery, Emu Ridge, is a totally self-sufficient operation that generates all its distillery equipment by steam.

Larry and Bev Turner own and operate the facility and we are lucky enough to get a personal tour by Bev the day we visit. She gives each of us a little container of eucalyptus oil and informs us of its disinfectant properties as well as its use as a decongestant, stain remover, and flea shampoo. A whiff from the souvenir bottle clears my sinuses in a jiffy and reminds me of my mother’s home remedy for colds. She would rub my chest with Vicks, cover the area with a warm cloth and let me read in my cozy bed. Hmmmm, but I digress.

The Island Pure Sheep Dairy provides some very tasty samples of natural sheep milk “island honey” yogurt, followed by grilled haloumi and briny feta cheeses. Our bus driver reflects, “It’s not all beer and skittles here,” as we line up to watch the afternoon sheep milking procession.

Sheep aren’t the brightest creatures under the sun, but they do like to eat, so upon entering the milking arena, they rush to their food troughs while a machine backs them into the milking machine. Two suction cups are attached, and voila … milk for cheese. Purchase of $20(A) of dairy products includes a free esky (Styrofoam cooler). As tempting as it is, we have to forego any purchases due to space limitations in our luggage.

At Clifford’s Honey Farm, Jenny Clifford holds up a queen bee “special delivery” postal container used to export the gentle Ligurian bee stocks overseas. Bees may leave the island, but none are imported, thus maintaining the integrity of the bee gene pool. Honey samples are de rigueur as the good-natured, gentle bees buzz nearby.

As our tour draws to a close, we briefly view the holding tanks of fresh water crayfish, aka marron, while visualizing platters brimming with the succulent crustaceans.

Before boarding the Sealion 2000 for the 45-minute trip back to Cape Jervis, we toast the beauty and bounty of K.I. with a sip of the local honey/anisette flavored liqueur, Island Sting. Smooth and warm describe the elixir … there is no unpleasant “bite.”

As for Kangaroo Island, the tour has been a sensory-charged odyssey with a perfectly awesome cast of characters. Cheers!