Cape Cassini Wilderness Retreat: Ron puts up his feet at this Kangaroo Island reion retreat
It's what many of us dream of - a remote seachange on a stretch of magnificent coastline. For guests on the isolated North Coast of Kangaroo Island, the name literally says it all - Cape Cassini Wilderness Retreat.
Located about 40 kilometres west of the island's main town, Kingscote - it's a hosted eco retreat where even the breakfast jam comes from Pat and David Welford's organic orchard and garden. And it's all hidden away amongst a thousand hectares of heritage-listed scrubland - gorgeous enough to revitalise and sustain even the most world-weary traveller.
From the buildings made from local stone and rammed earth to the wind powered turbine and solar panels, Cape Cassini Wilderness Retreat is all about stepping lightly on the earth. David is living his boyhood dream - years after retiring from fulltime work as a Physics and Science teacher. It's a background, which has come in handy, as he and wife Pat slowly weaned themselves off the fundamentals of 21st century living - including the electricity grid.
It's the sort of scientific nouse and self-sufficiency that most likely would have impressed the French Navigator who first charted this coastline more than two centuries ago - and the scientist he drew inspiration from when naming this particular spot. And the name? Count Cassini was a famous French astronomer who was a key backer of Nicholas Baudin.
Truth be known much of this coastline has changed little since the French first sailed past and it's that untouched aspect that captivates the visitor - perhaps while watching an echidna slowly waddle it's way up a distant hill or listening to the rare glossy black cockatoos as they crunch their way through a meal of drooping sheoak seed pods.
The sheoaks are a feature of the North Coast and a quick lesson from amateur botanist David sets me straight on the lifecycle of this amazing tree.
Follow David's homemade pathway and you'll come to one of his favourite hideaways - Pebble Beach - where a colony of penguins hunker down in the burrows after feeding out here in the waters of Investigator Strait. Blink and you'll miss a feature of these amazing creatures - the translucent protective membrane that covers the eye - as each bird feeds deep below the surface on one of its night forays.
You can have Pebble Beach all to yourself at Cape Cassini Wilderness Retreat in a spot where the imagination can run wild. Cape Cassini Wilderness Retreat has room for up to six guests at $275 dollars per night per room with breakfast. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
Cape Cassini Wilderness Retreat
40 kilometres west of Kingscote
Bookings 8559 2215Published 29th March 2009
