Kangaroo Island Day Trip: Penneshaw Farmers' Market

On this particular Sunday morning, we headed off to Kangaroo Island for its monthly Farmer’s Market at Penneshaw. Kangaroo is the third largest island in Australia and is 112 kilometer south-west of Adelaide. The island is only 13 kilometer away from the mainland. It is one of the most expensive ferry in the world in relation to its distance and cost. SeaLink is the only company that carries passengers across commercially and charges AUD$98 return per person and AUD$188 return per vehicle. Even the locals don’t get much discounts.

SeaLink- The ferry connecting people between Cape Jervis and Penneshaw

Penneshaw is located at Dudley Peninsula. It is the gateway into the Kangaroo Island as it is where SeaLink ferry docks. On the first Sunday of the month, there is Penneshaw Farmer’s Market with local stalls and produces. The return ferry is discounted to AUD$40 per person providing if you leave Cape Jervis on the 10am ferry and return before 5.30pm, or else you have to pay the full rate. The rate of the vehicle is not discounted either. It means that once you get there, you either have to join the local tours or you are limited to walking around the town and its natural sceneries.

It is important to protect the species on Kangaroo Island

There are many other exceptional scenic places on Kangaroo Island. My favourite would be the Remarkable Rocks at Flinders Chase National Park. There are also day tours departing Adelaide costing AUD$258 per person. Kangaroo Island is around 90km long and 57km wide. It is not too far to drive from township to township. However I enjoy admiring natural beauties at a slower pace. That is why last year when I came with my parents we spent 3 days and 2 nights around KI. I will put the information and blogs together once I have time.

My parents and I at Remarkable Rocks inside Flinders Chase National Park

Lets get back to the Market. The market opens from 9am to 1pm. We arrived at Penneshaw around 11am. Originally we thought that’s quite late, however the market was a lot smaller than we thought and it only took us half an hour to finish everything.

We grow it. We make it. We sell it.

There were many organic honey makers, chutneys, seasonal vegetables and herbs. Many of them were in a jaw, we bought a 1kg tub of honey and only realized after we paid you can actually purchase the majority of the products in Adelaide’s Central Markets. With out a car and storage area, we ended up carrying the honey for the whole day. I am sure it was cheaper to get it at Kangaroo Island, however we didn’t think it was worth the hassle.

A lot of tastings to do~

We loved the cheeses we tried, however it was impossible to carry the cheese around without a freezer bag. The lady told us we can buy it in Adelaide and various IGA/ Foodland. We tried some of the biscuits made by “Biscuits by Braeside”. It was delicious when we tried it at the stalls. We bought 3 packs to take home, however we were quite disappointed how the biscuits tasted wet, it wasn’t what we were expecting.

We bought the 1 kg large tub at the bottom left hand corner from this honey stall.

They also sell a lot of second-hand items, this one was particularly interesting to me. Tigers?

We came to Kangaroo Island with an empty stomach and was expecting a Farmer’s Market like the one on The Market Shed on Holland @ Adelaide, South Australia. However there were only 2 stalls that sells hot food. One of them was K.I True Thai which uses Thai-style cooking for Kangaroo Island produced lambs and chicken. The other one was called “Island Grill”. We ordered 2 snapper wraps from them and it was delicious. The only complaint we have about this place was it took too long to make the order! Think we waited for almost 15 minutes for our wraps!

Island Grill and the wrapped we waited for ages.

By the time we finished everything it was only 12.30pm. No wonder when we booked the return ferry the lady said we should take the 3.30pm ferry instead of 4.30pm ferry. There are actually other activities you can do while you are here for Penneshaw Farmer’s Market.

You can do a local guided tour followed by a cooking class.
You can do a 75 minute KI Ocean Safari to see dolphins, seals, sea eagles and whales depending on the season. The tour costs AUD$77 per person.
You can also do a 3.5 hour scenic and wild life bus tour around Dudley Peninsula which costs AUD$65 per person. You will be able to visit Cape Willoughby Lighthouse, Antechamber Bay, Chapman River & Winery Cellar Doors.

Penneshaw Maritime & Folk Museum

Alternatively you can also explore the local history by requesting a map from Information Centre and visit all the historic sites in Penneshaw during a 3km walk. There’s also an 1 hour return walk up to the Penneshaw Cemetary to learn about how the locals lived and died here at Dudley Peninsula.

Our signature carrying me away pose.

All of the walks have interpretive signage, which is great for people to walk around at their own pace. They are the perfect sizes for vinyl banners, thus informing everyone about the place without disturbing the view in its entirety. The historical buildings all have one thing in common- that is they all have beautiful seaviews. We walked passed Maritime & Folk museum which is the old Penneshaw School. The entry is AUD$4 per person. However the opening time didn’t quite suit us, so we decided to take some photos outside and continue our aimless walk along the coast.

“Strong Hard Men”

We found this coastline with amazing rocks. We sat there and chatted quite a bit. It was nice to enjoy the view and we saw some dolphins swimming around and jumped out of the water. Rather than spending AUD$77 we actually saw it for free! I thought that was very exciting! I totally forgot how intense the sun can be. We got totally baked even with sunblock. I went home as a lobster, all red and sore. I remember my patient told me back in the 1970s, you used to only get tanned, never sunburnt as the ozone wasn’t was damaged.

Love the colours on the rock and the coastline. Couldn’t stop snapping with my camera!

Soon it was time to go home, we were surprised that we actually wondered around for that long. Before we left the place we went to the only IGA in Penneshaw which actually opens 7 days a week to grab some water. Everything here is more expensive than mainland as it requires more transportations to get here. At the Ferry check-in area, there was a small section with all the Kangaroo Island produces. Including our honey and the biscuits that we bought. Really didn’t have to carry them around for several hours. I saw some of my favourite ice cream from Island Beehive near Kingscote (another town on KI). They were locally made and the honey they use was delicious. Was roughly AUD$5.60 for a small tub but it was all worth it.

Don’t forget to do some last-minute souvenir shopping!

This concludes our day at the Kangaroo Island. I do believe that it is not possible to get around the island without a car. I hope to come back to Kangaroo Island in the future and spend more time at this beautiful place.

Ps. We had Sushi Bar Genki @ Adelaide, SA for dinner, even though it is a sushi bar but it has the best ramen in town

Chinese Version 中文版: Kangaroo Island Day Trip 袋鼠島一日遊: Penneshaw Market Day

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Kangaroo Island Day Trip: Penneshaw Farmers’ Market

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