July 25, 2015
Raymond Island: A fantastic place!!!
There are lots of different days on the road. There are good days and bad days, boring days and difficult days. And every once in a while you get a day which is just so super amazingly awesome that you know you’ll remember it forever. This was one of those days.
It was a nice morning, a really nice morning actually. Sunny and not too cold, and the road was quiet as it was the weekend so the only real threat to our lovely and peaceful bike ride came from the unlikely source of a few vicious magpies. We had been warned that in the spring nesting season these birds had a habit of swooping upon cyclists. Some riders in Australia even attach spikes to their helmets to ward them off. It wasn’t spring yet, but perhaps these magpies were confused by the mild weather, because swoop down upon us they most certainly did. WHOOOSH!!! “What was that?!” WHOOOSH!!! “It’s a magpie! Look out!” WHOOOSH!!! They were mostly going for Dea and they did make contact with her helmet a couple of times, not that it seemed to bother her. Curiously it was quite an exhilarating rush to be attacked by birds, and she had a big smile on her face. So much so that once we were clear of the danger area she wanted to go back for another go.
Around midday we arrived in Paynesville, which was fortunately the literal name of the town we were cycling to, rather than a figurative expression resulting from a magpie attack. We both loved Paynesville very much because it had a public toilet with a free hot shower, which is the kind of thing that only happens on super awesome days like this one. But more than the free hot shower it was also a lovely little waterside town and there was a variety of interesting aquatic birds, most notable of which were the pelicans and the black swans. None of us had ever seen black swans before. Not even Mr Plopples.
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But the real reason that we had come to Paynesville was to take the two minute ferry over to Raymond Island. Our hosts in Sale had advised us to visit this island because of its resident koala population and of course both Dea and myself were very keen to see koalas in the wild and so here we were. The ferry was free for pedestrians and bicycles and after taking it we stopped to eat lunch in a park and read the information board about the island and the koalas. As we were doing so a man on a bicycle named Steve spoke to us and told us that we could leave our bikes at his house whilst we walked around if we wanted to. This we did, following him to his home amongst a few leafy streets situated on one corner of what was otherwise a forested island.
From there the two of us departed on foot for a patch of gum trees just beyond the houses where Steve’s wife had advised us to look for koalas. Almost as soon as we arrived amongst these trees Dea spotted our first koala. It was a little ball of grey fur, curled up and balanced precariously on a tree branch. It looked down at us through sleepy eyes as we jumped up and down with excitement. It was such a cool moment. A real life koala. It was amazing.
But it wasn’t the only one. We walked on a little further and spotted another, an old-looking one. And then another, this one more sprightly than the others. Then a little further on another one. It was incredible. They were such wonderful animals and it was just amazing to see them in their natural habitat. They were so casual, so relaxed, chilling in their trees. Each time that we saw one we got so excited and happy and stopped and stared at it with big smiles on our faces for a minute until it was time to look for the next one.
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We soon developed a score count - a little game to see who could spot the most koalas -and it was a much more even contest than the horse-spotting game. Dea was ahead nine and a half to seven and a half after she spotted an adorably cute little guy in a tree that was grabbing eucalyptus leaves from a neighbouring branch and munching on them lazily. As we were staring up at this one a man came down the street sitting on a motorised scooter. He was looking very happy himself and manoeuvred his chair over to us to say hello. He had a grey beard and was fat and jolly and he had a colourful striped hat on and after Dea had said she was from Denmark he spoke to us in a very slow and clear manner quite unnecessarily: “People think koala stupid… Koala not stupid… Koala smart. I speak koala. Look. I… speak… koala. Look.” The jolly stranger then opened up his mouth and made a very loud grunting noise that was somewhat reminiscent of the noise that we had heard koalas making on a documentary that we’d watched. It seemed like a good effort, although our koala simply turned his head and looked down at the man with a ‘not you again’ expression before turning back to his supper.
The man, who we would come to know as Coop, then invited us to come to his house as he had something that he wanted to show us in his yard. His house, which we’d already noted as being a little out of the ordinary, was just across the street and of course we accepted his offer. He parked up the motor scooter and showed us around to the back of his property where he had lots of plants that he grew from seeds. He had all kinds of things growing there and he was so happy and enthusiastic about nature. It was really wonderful. Then he wanted to show us the birds, so he grabbed a bowlful of seeds from a huge barrel of them and scattered them on the ground. He insisted that soon there would be 50 birds and although only about five came, they were still interesting. “Look! Crimson. The red one is crimson. The coloured one eastern. LOOK! LOOK! That one! Cross. Half-half. It crimson-eastern cross! Very rare. Half-half! Very rare. Very lucky!”
Then Coop went and got his guitar and played some songs. He was a bit of a hippy. He mentioned that he used to work full time in an office but that he was very much happier out here now with the nature. Dea and I understood entirely, and both very much agreed that this island must be a fantastic place to live.
We said goodbye to Coop and went and collected our bikes from Steve's house. No one was home now, but Steve’s wife had left us an orange in each of our helmets as a gift. People are so nice! Then we cycled for a few kilometres across the island to get away from the houses, spotting a few more koalas and a couple of kangaroos along the way, before finally setting up camp on a beach right next to the water in a peaceful, idyllic, private camping place. It was just the perfect way to end what had been one of those really very special days.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 45,239 km (28,093 miles)
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