306-Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail Revisited
Show notes
In late 2017 our friend Kellie, Gill, and I undertook a five day walk on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail in South Australia and to this day, this walk still ranks as one of our favourite hikes of all time, it was that good. In 2020 major bushfires decimated Kangaroo Island including this trail and much of the Flinders Chase National Park in which it resides. It wasn’t until around 2023 that hikers could again do unsupported trips.
In this podcast episode we catch up with hiker Julia Patten, who with a friend recently walked the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail. We’re looking forward to seeing how the trail has recovered since the fires and what sort of experience you can expect if you do this walk.
Podcast overview
Podcast Overview
- Podcast introduction
- Episode introduction (time index 0:01:27)
- Introduction to Julia (time index 0:02:13)
- What this you first time doing this walk and why did you choose it? (time index 0:03:45)
- How was the distance for you
- What time of the year did you do this walk and why? (time index 0:06:54)
- Was this an unsupported walk? (time index 0:07:54)
- What was the train tread and infrastructure like? (time index 0:10:09)
- The toilets
- What are the key pieces of gear that you used? (time index 0:14:35)
- Where there any no stove days due to fire bans?
- Day 2 Beach walking! (time index 0:18:01)
- Describe a typical day on trail (time index 0:20:25)
- From Start to finish?
- How busy was the trail? (time index 0:26:59)
- What was the weather like? (time index 0:28:57)
- How was the wildlife? (time index 0:30:24)
- What were the key highlights of the trip? (time index 0:33:20)
- What were the negatives, if any? (time index 0:35:44)
- Would you recommend this hike to others? (time index 0:37:49)
- One final question
- What you next great hiking adventure? (time index 0:40:18)
- Gill and Tim final thoughts (time index 00:41:51)
- Close (time index 0:51:46)
Julia on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail (Image from Julia Patten)
Zana and Julia on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail (Image from Julia Patten)
Trail example on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail (Image from Julia Patten)
Clifftop view to the ocean on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail (Image from Julia Patten)
At camp on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail (Image from Julia Patten)
Inside a Shelter on the KIWT. You can just see the fireplace on the left of this image (Image from Julia Patten)
Fireplaces at the shelters KIWT (Image from Julia Patten)
Firewood at the shelter KIWT (Image from Julia Patten)
Resources
Transfers
- Transfers appear to be an issue (February 2024) so the best option may be to take your car to the island to make the 110km trip from the ferry to the trail head and back again
- Pack transfer from campsite to campsite (just carry a day pack)
- Hiker transfer from the caravan park to the trail head each day if you want to stay in the Caravan park (walk the trail with a daypack but stay in the comfort of a caravan park)
Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail website from National Parks SA
Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail Booking System
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