Day one walking the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail, a 66km 4-5 day hike at the western end of Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third largest island, relatively close to Adelaide. It is a beautiful and varied trail that appears to be less walked than it perhaps should be. I walked it in mid February 2025 and I didn’t see another hiker on the trail, having excellent camping facilities and a well maintained track to myself.

The trail cost $199 (at the time) for independent walkers, and must be walked over 4-5 days in an anti-clockwise direction from Flinders Chase Vis­i­tor Cen­tre to Kelly Hill Caves. The Flinders Chase Vis­i­tor Cen­tre is rather flash, and like almost all of the track infrastructure, was rebuilt after the devastating 2019-20 bushfires which wiped out about half of the island.

There was plenty of evidence of the fires along the track, but the landscape has recovered well with so much new growth.

The track is easy to follow but constantly winding, there are almost no straight stretches, which adds to the interest walking it.

Every kilometre, at junctions, and points of interest there is signage. This first day was 18km, so the markers were a welcome sight.

The unnamed lagoon is a seasonal body of water which was completely dry in late summer. The previous week there had been a heatwave on the island with temperatures up to 40C. Thankfully I caught the cooler period after this before another heatwave. It was around 23C in the day and 12C at night, perfect hiking conditions.

There were a few spider webs along the first few kilometres, making me glad I had poles (though the terrain is mostly flat), and that I spotted this spider in time to avoid it.

I loved these spiky plants.

The track got significantly wider and more formal around the Platypus Waterholes. These are home to these mysterious and elusive animals but during the summer months they enter a form of hibernation so there was almost no chance of seeing any.

There was a small statue of one though, and a nearby small lookout tower.

The Rocky River trails were varied, and home to attractive white flowers.

The biggest view of the day was from the Pardalote Lookout over the near dry Rocky River.

The landscape after here was incredibly lush and colourful, a pleasure to wander through.

Though this goanna on the path gave me quite a fright, but stayed still as I carefully went around it.

It was interesting to see a river with no water in it, home to the Rocky River Cascades which are apparently impressive during the winter months.

The track became sandy and home to more colourful plants, though little shade.

It was good to escape the mid afternoon sun upon reaching Cup Gum Campground, my destination for the day. It is a sizeable place with gravel and raised campsites for both independent and guided walkers, a toilet complex, and pleasant kitchen area, all well spaced out from each other to give people privacy and quiet when the campground is busy. It was well designed, for each with an alcove in the kitchen to cook when windy. I had the entire place to myself!

Other than a kangaroo that appeared around 7pm foraging around in the dry ground close to the kitchen.