Day two 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 got spectacular on this coastal section.

It wasn’t far from Cup Gum Campground to Rocky River, which in mid February only lived up to the first part of its name.

It was interesting to see the bed of what is a flowing river for much of the year.

The track climbed up to good views of the valley and mouth of the river.

The coastal views were pretty epic, with huge waves crashing on the shore.

Thankfully I reached Maupertuis Bay at low tide for relatively easier walking along this remote and beautiful beach, rather than having to tackle the dunes on the high tide route.

I loved these colourful plants at the start of the dunes.

I followed the coast for the rest of the day, which was scenic if windswept.

There was plenty of variety along the trail.

These colourful plants caught my eye.

There were some lovely plants.

The trail was relatively flat but the alternating sand and rock surfaces made for slow and tiring walking.

There was plenty of plant life of interest though and the ever present coastal views.

As I got closer to Cape du Couedic Lighthouse the track left the coast to head through bush which provided a welcome respite from the wind.

I was the only person to start the hike on a Tuesday, and walkers have to do it in the same direction and over 4-5 days so I was expecting to have all the campgrounds to myself, which was the case at Hakea Campground. I hadn’t seen a single person for two days, since leaving the Flinders Chase Vis­i­tor Cen­tre, though I could hear the occasional car from the campground heading to / from Admirals Arch. This is an optional side trip which I didn’t take due to average weather, reading blogs what to expect, and as my body needed a bit of rest. I’d done plenty of hiking over the previous year in Timor-Leste, in far more challenging conditions (heat, humidity and hills), but this was the first time I’d done a multi day hike carrying all my gear in over a year, and the pack weight was a bit of a shock to the body…

In evening I took a wander around the campsites, which are too hard to peg properly. I was able to get a little phone reception from the top campsite holding up my phone, and saw this wallaby.