Rejuvenation after the fires: Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail

SHOOT: Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail, Kangaroo Island

CLIENT: National Parks and Wildlife, Department for Environment and Water

BRIEF: Post-fire experience. Capture the different vegetation, views and feels of the trail: the experience, the landscape, the feeling. Day hikers experience only.

Two day shoot with two talent in December 2020. Images to show different seasons.

Talent organised through 'heidi who street casting' Facebook page.

Images used by the client, and a variety of media, to promote the trail. Images used in editorials of different publications, magazines and web.

CLIENT: Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail, Dept for Environment and Water

This is the second time I've done the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail in July - the middle of frosty winter! But instead of camping out on the trail, this time we stayed in the nearby Cape du Couedic Lighthouse Keepers Cottages, giving us the chance to warm up each night.

When my client asked if I would like to do this shoot - I jumped at the chance. I love KIWT and love working outdoors in a natural environment. A perfect shoot. Except that it was in the middle of winter in one of the most southerly and exposed parts of South Australia. Hmm.

We got very lucky. The first day was overcast with grey clouds and a sprinkle of rain but the following two days were sunny and blue skies. Considering part of the brief was to get multi-season hiking vibes, it worked perfectly.

This year I started a group for street casting - and I was very fortunate to take a group of four amazing people with me (and met some more crazy people over there to join our troupe). Two Clients, someone I had photographed for another client, and his friend met me early Monday morning and caught the Sealink ferry over. Nobody knew each other, which is a gamble when going away for two nights and three days of shooting. But I needn't worry - the group made 'best friends' with each other near instantly.

We photographed everyone in different styles and situations - solo, combos of couples, friends and mother and daughter.

We all had a great time. Many laughs, jokes and new friendships. Plus got lots of great photos.

Here are some of my fave pics.

3 adventure places to visit on Kangaroo Island...

Giant boulders that make up Remarkable Rocks.

1. Flinders Chase National Park - Admirals Arch, Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail, Remarkable Rocks. Get about on day hikes, multi day hikes, guided tours or cruise in your car. The coastal views, rough cliffs, and natural scrub combine beautifully (of course, it's Mother Nature). And animals? There are kangaroos, Cape Barren geese, a smelly seal colony (which is totally worth persisting with), and various bird life.

Pups at Admirals Arch... playful and inquisitive. 

Where the southern ocean hits Kangaroo Island - dramatic and beautiful at once. The road to Remarkable Rocks.

The road that leads into the park. 

Just wandering about... the entrance to the the last campsite of Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail. 

Remarkable Rocks. They truly are. 

2. Seal Bay - there aren't too many places I know of where you can get so close to these cute animals. Stand on the beach with them, watch the males fight, smell their unremarkable stench, hear the pups cry for their mums to return from fishing. A guide is always with you ensuring we don't get too close - although the seals sometimes don't know the rules, coming right up to groups to say hello. While I was there, a little pup came sliding down the dunes right up to a group. He checked them out then waddled on.

Meeting cute critters at Seal Bay. Tourists can't approach the seals but nothing stops them coming up to tourists. 

Where's mum? The young seals let out mournful cries while searching for mum and the food she brings back for them. 

3. Little Sahara dunes  - clamber up the top then whizz back down on a toboggan or sand board. Repeat. Grab some beautiful views while there too - it's worth risking the camera (or keep it in a sealed plastic bag to improve your chances of a sand free camera when you slide back down. This place is just fun. Prepare to get sandy. 

Wind patterns atop the dunes at Little Sahara.

Don't let the legs get away from you... running down Little Sahara dunes.

Monkey fun at Little Sahara.

Where the dunes meet the bush. Little Sahara.

Thoughts and conversations while hiking Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail...

What goes through my head while I'm hiking alone for five days? 

Well, after talking to animals and plants, meditating on the beach, begging whales to come closer and walking in a trance, I have plenty of time to have conversations with myself. 

These may or may not have all been said aloud, multiple times - to myself, the birds and the bees, the plants... 

#1
OMG, what am I doing? I'm so cold. What if it rains the whole time? I hate winter, the cold and being in the rain. I can't escape the rain. What am I doing? What if it rains the whole time? How many more days do I have? (All said within the first 24 hours.)

#2
Wow. Look at the water droplets on the leaves. They are so beautiful. Wow, look at the leaves. Look at the shapes. There are some beautifully shaped leaves. How wonderful is Mother Nature? And look, wow, a redback spider I nearly stepped on. Lucky I missed it. I should get a photo...

#3
Thank you. I am so grateful. I am so lucky to be out here. How special is this? Thank you Weather Gods, you have listened. Look at the sky this side, look at the sky that side - I'll take this side thanks. Please. Wow, winter and summer in one sky. Eek. I hope that's not the 20mm of rain coming.

#4
Damn. I love beaches. I can't get this stupid smile off my face. I want to stay here. Wow. It's a shipwreck beach. Look at all the rubbish? Look there's a shoe - it's a nice shoe. Wonder what happened? Ahh, I don't want to leave. 

#5
Yuck. Sweaty Betty. I'm going to stink from day one. I really should stop and take some layers off, but the rain is too hard. I'll just keep walking. Yuck. Sweating. Argh, my feet feel so wet too. And I've missed stepping in all the puddles. Why? Damn, look, I have a hole in my shoe. Should have looked at them before packing them. Damn it. Hope it doesn't rain every day. My feet are going to be horrible. Wet feet for five days - yuck.

#6
The birds are singing songs. Sounds so pretty. It's natural music. How many different bird sounds can I hear?

#7
The wind is singing songs. I can see the colours and tones of the wind blowing through like waves over the treetops. It's a bit spooky. Is this a place of cultural significance? I feel different here. Something in my soul. 

#8
Am I going to get bored? I'm going to get so bored. What am I going to do? I forgot my book and only have one magazine with me. Shit. Oh well, guess I should practice meditating. Be good for me. How many pages a day can I read?

#9
So thankful it has stopped raining. I am grateful. I am blessed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

#10
Live a life that makes me happy. Life is a process, a journey of coming out of my shell. 

#11
I need more holidays alone.

#12
Nature is true, amazing beauty. Nature makes me calm. This is amazing. I'm so happy and lucky to be here. 

#13
The bonus of hiking through winter. I don't need to keep an eye out for snakes. I can look around a bit more while walking. There are so many twigs laying around, if it were summer, I'd be jumping every minute or two. (On day 3 I realise that snakes don't hibernate on Kangaroo Island. The guys hiking the trail at the same time spotted 2.)

#14
Shit. Up to 50km winds and up to 20mm of rain. Oh no. What if I get totally wet and can't dry out. I'll be freezing. I don't like it. Perhaps I can just keep walking today and do it all? Argh. Rain. Lots of it. Oh no. 

#15
F**K, so fricken cold. I'm freezing. Oh my god. What can I do? How long til morning (of course I don't know because I forgot to bring anything, except my flat phone, that tells the time). Really? I have three more nights of this? Oh shit. I'm not going to cope. I'm going to go crazy, not sleeping. This is horrible. 
*Thankfully I find a way of keeping warm the following nights.

#16                                                                                                                                                (When my knee starts 'talking' to me, I speak straight back to it - out loud.) Be quiet and stay quiet. I don't want to hear from you on this hike. 

#17
Um, why on earth did I choose to be here and not lazing on a warm beach somewhere? I guess the only answer is 'I love adventure'. Although, I remember now that I said one to two-night hikes are best for me. Oops. 

#18
I feel you girl; I know you are there, now steady. (Yep, I actually start talking to the wind as it tries to blow me sideways while hiking the clifftop. It is that intense I can feel all the muscles in my legs and core battling to keep me upright.)

#19
Thoughts are like the surrounds on the trail... always changing and never permanent or solely one thing. 

#20
Not a spoken word but written in my diary...
Cold afternoon, cold night, cold sleep, cold morning... only when I'm moving, am I not cold. Thankfully, I have the sun til 4-4.30pm to keep me warmish. But when that sun starts to drop, brr. It's cold. Which is about now and I start to think... 
"Sitting by myself at camp as it gets colder and the dark creeps in. I wish the night to go quick. I want the hours to zoom by so I can crawl into my sleeping bag and be warm. Now that I know I can be warm."

I also sang songs. In English and Portuguese. I made songs up of strength and courage, of living a life you love but perhaps the most intense thought, however, was a realisation that brought tears to my eyes. 

Most of my thinking time is while walking through the bush as I'm not as 'wowed' by the vistas, but this aha comes on a clifftop. 

"I feel like I've been living in a box. I am finally pushing the top off and living the life I am meant to. A life of adventure, fun, love and discovery. I can have this life. And by doing that, I can show my kids how to live a life that makes them happy. Not a prescribed life that they think they have to live." 

I wipe my eyes so I can see and walk on.